The Train Cookie Cutter
July 28, 2023
My train boy loves anything that's a train. A while back I found a shop that sells an impressive array of cookie cutters. I snapped up three of them - a locomotive, a boxcar, and a caboose. These things have turned out to be an amazingly versatile tool in my kit.
Baking and decorating cookies is great fun around the Mid-Winter holidays but it would be a shame to shove the cookie cutters to the back of the drawer just because the holidays are over.
I use them every time I make pancakes. Butter your griddle and your cookie cutter. Heat the griddle and put the cookie cutter on it. Pour a quarter cup of batter into the cutter and smooth it out so that it fills all the corners. Let it cook until it's ready to flip and use tongs to gently pull the cutter off the pancake. Then flip the pancake. I can fit all three cutters on my griddle at once, so he gets a pancake train for breakfast complete with whipped cream smoke coming from the smokestack and billowing across the plate. It gets smiles every time.
Fried eggs work just as well for a train breakfast. Do it the same way as for pancakes, just crack the egg into the mold and when it's set enough, use tongs to remove the cookie cutter.
Why not avoid the crust fight? Cut a train out of the bread to make sandwiches. Put the cutaway parts in the freezer to keep until you have enough to make bread pudding. Everybody wins.
Use them to cut shapes out of jello or to make the pile of mashed potatoes a bit more fun.
They make a nice mold for stained glass candy. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Double bag hard candies then crush them with a rolling pin or mallet. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, put your cookie cutter on the sheet and spray that with cooking spray as well. Sprinkle about a half inch of the crushed candy into the cutter and place in the oven and bake for about five minutes. Once the candy is melted, remove it from the oven and let it cool. When it's completely cool, you can carefully remove it from the cookie cutter and you have a lovely stained glass train.
A second set of the cookie cutters is great in the craft room. They work as well for playdough as they do for cookie dough. Use them as stencils and stamps. Always be sure you don't mix up your craft set with your cooking set.
You can find ideas for a huge number of unusual cookie cutter crafts online. I like the idea of a cookie cutter rain chain. A locomotive, a caboose, and as many boxcars as it takes to make the length you need.
Why not pull out the train cookie cutters to brighten your little train lover's day?