My sister had a party last night. I needed to bring a dish but didn't have time to do the whole sugar cookie with royal icing thing. This dish can be done in hours instead of days. Perfect.
For some reason, I never follow a recipe or the directions exactly. I've always got to make a few changes. Sometimes that's good. Sometimes not so much.
I altered the recipe a bit . . .
- Added 1 cup of powdered sugar instead of 3/4 cup (because I misread the recipe, not because I thought it was a good idea!)
- I added a touch of vanilla though the recipe didn't call for it. That I did because I thought it was a good idea!
- I used cinnamon graham crackers instead of plain. Um....because I like those?
- I covered the cheese spread with both white and semi-sweet chips though the recipe suggested just the semi-sweet. Why? Well, why not? Oh, and they weren't minis. Because I had the regular size already.
- I may have over-beat the whole thing. It was just so light, fluffy, and beautiful, I couldn't help myself. (This may have contributed to problems you'll see in a moment.)
When it came time to chill the cream cheese, I thought that it would be a brilliant idea to put it into a plastic wrap lined bowl. Instant cheese ball right?
Well that's what happened. After chilling, it was still rather ball-shaped but I had to use a spatula to scrape the cream cheese from the wrap.
As I attempted to cover it in graham crackers and chocolate chips, the ball became more of a disk.
So I had another equally brilliant idea to embrace the disk idea and put it onto a small plastic plate to keep it from spreading more during the party. It looked like a huge chocolate chip cookie.
I have one of those Pampered Chef bowls that are kept in the freezer so it keeps your dish cold during a party. I decided to nix the whole "cheese ball" idea and convert it to a "spread". I was able to lift the disk off of the plate, somewhat fold it into a ball and place it into the bowl.
Shew. The third "brilliant" idea is finally the one.
The sugar cookie crackers were pretty easy to make. No calamities there. I made a variety of shapes and a two different colors. Why? Because I can't leave well enough alone apparently.
The reaction of those at the party was fabulous and very funny.
There were mostly adults there. A few kids were running around.
It was a Cinco de Mayo party. Sort of. It happened to fall on the 5th of May so it was a loose Cinco theme. There were probably about 15 appetizer dishes - all of which were savory. Most of which were Mexican inspired chips and dips. Sitting amongst the guacamole and chips, the salsa and chips, the black bean corn dip and chips, the quinoa dip and chips, the hummus and chips, were my cracker cookies and cheesecake dip. Ha ha!
To say the least, people were confused. I kept hearing, "What is it?". One person would explain it to the next, then that person would explain it to the next. Very funny.
Once the kids got wind that there were cookies, they were all over it and man did they heap on the cheesecake spread!
Everyone LOVED it - kids and adults alike. I loved it too. The spread was like an amazing cream cheese frosting. Divine!
Even with the kids piling it on, there was still half of the spread left when the cookies were gone.
I am definitely making this again. Of course there will be changes. (There always are.)
I think that next time I won't try to disguise the cookies as crackers unless it's an April Fool's party or unless it's placed on a dessert table. Maybe a tag to let people in on what it actually is would be wise.
I'm thinking that next time I'll make cookie shapes that go along with whatever the party theme may be. They'll actually look like cookies. Cut down on some of the confusion, you know?
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