Amelie's House: Make your own cookie mold

Some time ago I wanted to make my own mold for a project. I sought advice from some fabulous cake/chocolate makers who often make their own molds, and they pointed me in the direction of CharmFlex. This is a putty (hydrophilic vinyl polysiloxane impression material, try saying that after a glass of wine) used by dentists to create molds, and so it is food safe. It is also a quarter the price of a similar product you can get from cake decorating suppliers.

Photo: Of course if it's Mayan it has to be gold #tastinghouse

The project I had in mind didn't work out, but I used the product to make some Mayan coin cookies for an event I was working on, and it was definitely much quicker, and easier than making each cookie by hand.

Anyway it is such fabulously gooey awesome stuff that I thought it would be perfect for a project to do with the kidlets. So one rainy Saturday (and we have had a lot of these recently!) I sat down with them to create cookie molds. We photographed the stages, but some of them are a bit blurry, as it is very hard to get them to stay still!

Supplier list at the bottom of the post.

Safe-d-clay is a food safe clay that you can use to make the template for your mold. It is fantastic stuff and reusable Use the spacers (these are 1/4") to roll out a small amount of the safe-d-clay.

Than cut a circle out from the clay. This will be the final size of the cookie.

You can use a non-toxic pencil to draw your design onto the clay. The kidlets are a little bit obsessed with pugs at the moment, I'm not sure why, but this is their version of a pug (yes, I thought it was a cat too!) Cut it out with a scalpel or knife, obviously a job for the grown-up as we don't want little fingers in the mix. Stick the shape onto the clay circle. You don't need any glue as you will want to re-use it, so just apply a small amount of pressure and it will stick, Then roll out a thin sausage of the clay, to create a border. You could probably use an extruder if you wanted to make it perfect, but that's too much hard work for little fingers.

Then add any details of your design, eyes, whiskers (but not for pugs, that's it's nose OK!) etc.

I made a shaped cookie, I wanted something blossomy. Don't make the features too delicate though or they will get lost in the process.

Then get ready...to rumble!..Sorry couldn't resist it. Get out your CharmFlex (or equivalent, I can't find the supplier who I purchased mine from, but I have found a substitute, the link is at the bottom of the post), obviously read the instructions, but most of them work by taking equal amounts of the two different putties and mixing them together. they all have different hardening times, but the dental product is quite quick, only a few minutes. So if you are intending to cover a large area then mix up batches as you need them. Start by forming a barrier around the template with a sausage of the putty, then cover it with small balls of the stuff, making sure they are well linked together.

Then leave it to harden for about fifteen minutes, until it is good and firm to the touch.

Gently peel out the clay template. You may find bits left in, just poke them out with a cocktail stick. Then roll up the clay ready for it's next use.

To bake cookies you need to use a nice firm dough that doesn't spread too much. Then, to make the circle cookies, cut out a circle of dough (the same size as the template) and press it in firmly.

For a shaped cookie, cut out a circle that is slightly bigger than the shape, then either press it into the mold with your fingers or you can use a small rolling pin.

Then scrape off any excess dough with a palette knife.

For both the types of cookie you then very carefully ease it out of the mold. If it starts to stick you can lightly dust the mold with some corn flour.