Pirate’s Gold Cracker and Cookie Coins: Sammy Bakes!

Savory cheddar cheese coin crackers and gold sprinkled slice and bake cookies make admirable stand-ins for pirate treasure in a child’s imagination. This post has been sponsored by BlogHer and Disney’s The Pirate Fairy Campaign, an easy choice for us since my daughter loves pirates and Disney fairies!

When I was picked by BlogHer to participate in Disney’s The Pirate Fairy campaign I was, at first, just kind of overwhelmed. On the one hand, I am totally comfortable with being paid to use this space to spread the word about and generate excitement for the release of Disney’s newest Tinker Bell movie, The Pirate Fairy. My kids adore the Disney Fairies, especially Sammy, who has also been going through a pirate stage ever since experiencing Pirate Night on the Disney cruise we took in January. On the other hand this is my first time doing anything like this! Yikes!

The Power of a Child’s Imagination

I should have known better than to panic. I asked Sammy if she wanted to do this with me–and heck she took over. As soon as she heard my idea of turning cheddar cheese crackers into Pirate’s Gold “coins,” she was off. But oh no we were not just making savory coins. She was determined to do sweet as well, and chocolate no less. While I appreciate the power of a child’s imagination as much as the next person, for a moment or two I was stumped. She suggested coarse gold sprinkling sugar, at which point  I remembered the edible gold paint spray* I owned, as well as the edible gold leaf* and gold sanding sugar, in addition to the suggested gold coarse sprinkling sugar… and figured heck if a child can see coins in a chocolate cookie, then why can’t I with a little help? Plus, how much fun did we have with all that gold?

Sammy helped me with every stage of this project. We used a food processor for both doughs–for the chocolate wafers, just use a basic chocolate dough and then decorate the heck out of them. I definitely recommend cutting them thinner than I did too–mine got a little too big. The cheddar cheese cracker recipe is below. Sammy measured everything–even the vanilla, which always requires a big moment of patience and faith on my part! She also helped roll the dough into logs, as you can see below, but she agreed to let me help her make it a more even log (unlike her older sister who is now in that phase of insisting on doing it all herself).

If Sammy got into the baking, she got into the photography “session” even more. First we used their picnic basket case as a pirate treasure chest, lined it with a black garbage bag, and piled it high with mixed cookies and crackers. She had fun posing appropriately, but refused to do a proper “Arrrgh!” face as that was way too embarrassing! Then, we piled our “coins” onto measuring plates, and she pretended to be a pirate who was trying to snatch the coins before they were finished being divided:

If only I owned a proper scale! That would have been even better, but the beauty of being a kid is that it never occurred to her. She was having too much fun. Only we adults are such perfectionists when it comes to our imaginative play–our kids just run with it! These cheddar cheese coins are very cheesy–if you like a cracker like a Better Cheddar you will really enjoy them. As it turns out I am the only person in my family who likes those! So John’s office will benefit from some of them, but I would make them again in a heartbeat if I needed finger foods for a party. And they were super simple too!

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Pirate's Gold Cracker and Cookie Coins: Sammy Bakes! #sponsored

Adapted from America's Test Kitchen courtesy of WDSE/WRPT PBS in Minnesota

Course: Appetiser

Cuisine: crackers

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups 189 g AP flour
• 1/2 t fine sea salt
• 1/2 t ancho chile powder
• 1/2 t Hungarian paprika
• 8 T 1 stick, 4 oz unsalted butter, a little softened and sliced into squares
• 6 oz medium cheddar cheese shredded (use orange if you want the golden coin effect)
• 2 oz aged manchego shredded
• 2-4 T water as needed

Instructions

1. Place the flour, spices and salt into a large food processor. Process a few times to blend.
2. Add the shredded cheese and butter. Pulse to combine, about 12 times.
3. Get the water ready. With the food processor running, pour the water in a very slow trickle into the food processor. When the dough starts to clump around the blades, stop the processor and the water.
4. Remove the dough and knead a few times to make sure it is all one mass and does not need any more water to hold it together.
5. Roll the dough into a log and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Because this is going to chill, this much can be done ahead for a party in advance. The dough must chill for at least an hour and up to 24 hours. Longer than that and I recommend placing it in the freezer for up to 1 month.
6. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 F.
7. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
8. Slice the log into 1/8-inch thick coins and place on the cookie sheets 1 inch apart.
9. Bake to a deep golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a cooling rack.

*If you cannot find edible gold leaf glitter or paint spray where you are, I get mine at Sugarcraft (update 9/2016: Sugarcraft went out of business this past summer).

Disclosure: This post is #sponsored, which means I was paid a stipend by Blog Her to write this post as part of their Disney’s The Pirate Fairy campaign. All opinions are my own.