A fortune cookie.
Although these cookie cutters don't tell your fortune, they are still pretty cool. The donkey or burro shape, helps make the adorable Pinata Cookies seen in the post right before this.
Pinata cookies unfortunately require a particular type of cookie cutter. You can buy them here: AMAZON ...or, if you are feelin' super industrious (slash you need them day of), you can make your very own, like the husband did. Requires a quick trip to Home Depot (the husband's favorite place to venture, like a kid at a playground) and some old fashioned labor.
The following as narrated by the husband:
Here's what you need:
1 14 inch piece of z-flashing
tin snips
safety goggles
The template, roughly 3.5” tall but size it to match the height of the pan you’re using for the dough.
To find out how long the metal must be, I used a map distance tool and traced the perimeter but a string or wire would also work.
The perimeter for this is about 13 inches.
$0.99 pieces of galvanized tin “Z” flashing with tin snips and safety glasses.
I marked off 14” of material to account for the overlap of the cookie cutter.
Cut to 14” and then rip the Z-flashing at the joint—careful as the cut edge will be exceptionally sharp.
Cut to width and length.
I used a wide blade putty knife to hold the Z-flashing while I hammered the edge down. The folded edge serves several purposes:
- Safety: the top edge will not be sharp
- With the folded edge on the outside of the cutter, it provides a means to grip the cutter to remove from the dough
- Stability, the extra metal will give some rigidity to the form
Hammer flat the rest of the strip.
The flattened fold.
A rolling pin can also be used to flatten the fold, roll both sides to prevent the strip from “curling”.
Depending on the tin snips, it may be necessary to clean up the cut edge, here it is clamped into the Workmate.
A double-milled file is used to de-burr and flatten the cut edge.
Flattening.
A 45° angle can be put on the edge to improve cutting.
“Finished” strip.
¼-inch is marked off to be folded over.
Clamp the strip into a vise.
Begin to hammer and fold the end.
Feel free to use the putty knife to get that nice straight edge.
The finished fold.
Time to start lining up the strip with the template.
CAREFULLY use your fingers to bend the tin to match the template, the metal edges are still sharp.
Working our way around the tail end.
Time for the ears.
Use needle-nosed pliers to grip the metal and provide a convenient pivot.
Bend.
Ears done!
Work down the front leg and up around to the tummy, notice there is enough left over for the overlapped joint.
Mark the edges of the fold.
Fold, marked.
Roughly ¼” from the fold is where we’ll cut the metal.
I didn’t take a picture of the cutting then bending.
Bent and cut.
Use pliers to push the two sides together.
Put some pressure on the joint to make it tight.
The burro is done, but the strips will want to move and come apart a bit.
Burro standing.
To “lock” the two sides together, use a punch to put “dimples” in the metal to help latch the two sides.
Lining up the punch.
Give it a solid whack.
Dimpled joint.
With the scrap you can make the square cut out for the middle.
Burro and cut out.
No comments:
Post a Comment