How to Make Your Own Cookie Cutter...

...the Hungry Jenny way...

Do you ever have those moments where someone asks you to do something, and even though you've not done it before, you just say 'yeh sure!'

Well, let me tell you the story behind this little dude.

(Eh, that's meant to be a person?)

Alright, give me a chance!

A few weeks ago, I made these Coracao de Coco (coconut hearts) for my Capoeira teacher Bia. They went down better than expected, as she asked if I could make some more for her to give to one of the other students as a gift :-)

Of course, I said yes, and Bia asked what shapes could be done. Now, my cookie cutter collection is pretty small, so all I could offer in gift form was hearts, stars or crinkled circles.

"Hm. Can you do little Capoeira men, kicking?" Bia asked.
Pause.
"Yeh, of course!" I replied.

Umm...ok, so I've never tried making my own cutters before, let alone try to make something as intricate as a kicking Capoeira man. Erk.

But, somehow, I managed it...

1. Rummage through your belongings to fashion a mould out of something bendy.
At first, I thought about making a flat mould that I would place on the dough and cut around - but then figured this would be quite fiddly, trying to cut around a Capoeira man shape.

Then I thought about going to a craft or DIY shop to get some kind of bendable metal - but I wasn't able to get to one in time.

So...I was left rummaging around my belongings to see what I could fashion a mould from. Sandwich ties? Unbending a paperclip? A big plastic bottle? No, no, and no.

Suddenly, I remembered a stack of aluminium tins in my cupboard - aha! That will do, I thought. So I cut off the thin rim of one and copied a photo to bend it into the shape of a kicking man. It took a few goes, because he kept turning out massive with slightly disproportionate limbs. But in the end I got there...

2. Find a way to stick it together.
Yes, that is brown parcel tape. The tricky part was joining the ends together - I had tried to staple it but it was too awkward a shape to get the stapler into place. I didn't particularly want to superglue it either, for fear of residue glue somehow making it into the dough. So, er, brown tape it was ;-)

3. Take care when stamping out your dough.
As for using it to cut the dough, it worked better than expected - yes, the aluminium is a little flimsy, and it does require extra care when using, so that you don't push the cutter out of shape as you stamp it into the dough. The important thing though, is that it works!

4. Feel smug, regardless of how your DIY efforts turn out.
The resulting cookie came out looking ok, though I'm not entirely convinced that it actually looks like a kicking man - it's probably the kind of cookie that needs icing on it to define its features, like adding on the white trousers and belt, but hey, it doesn't look too bad for a first attempt, right...?

Ok, so perhaps this is not quite the intricate step-by-step you were looking for, but good to go and try out your own version I hope ;-)

You might also be interested in learning How to Bake From Scratch the Hungry Jenny Way too!