Easily Elevate (And Disguise) Homemade Cookies With A Pastry Shell

Sometimes even the most sincere culinary attempts go awry, and those chunky chocolate chip cookies you had your heart set on simply don't look attractive enough to serve to the guests coming over for dinner. Fear not, there's a way to make drop cookies more presentable and prevent baked cookies from being used as crumbly yogurt toppings later on. 

Nestling your cookies into pretty wrappings of thinner, paper-like dough can convert a potential kitchen disaster into a delicious masterpiece in moments. Though you may associate pastry shells and phyllo dough with other treats like baklava and morning bakery items, the easy-to-use ingredient, which can be made from scratch or bought in pre-made sheets, will help you make unique dessert and snack presentations that taste as good as they look.

Hiding cookies into neatly folded sheets of pastry shell adds an irresistible light crunch to gooey cookies, and the pairing of a crispy, flaky shell with a warm, moist cookie may end up becoming a culinary technique you frequently revert to.

Drop cookie disasters don't need to happen in your kitchen. Instead of simply dropping cookies onto a baking sheet, think of each ball of cookie dough as a small gift. Your task is to wrap each morsel carefully with an appropriately-sized piece of pastry shell dough. After the raw cookies have been folded into the pastry sheets, brush butter or ghee on the outside of the folded cookie parcels before placing your creations into the oven. Depending on the size of the cookie dough pieces you've wrapped, the overall baking time can vary from 12 to around 20 minutes at between 375 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Watch for the pastry sheets to turn gold in color, and remove the batch of cookies to let them cool before serving the treats to your guests. 

Not only will your papery cookie presents look adorable on serving platters, but when guests bite into one of these specially-prepared treats, they will be met with the delicious textural combination of a crispy exterior and a hidden chewy cookie inside. 

Feel free to top your cookie presentations with sprinkles of cinnamon or powdered sugar for added visual appeal.