Take Seasonal Sugar Cookie Dough To New Heights With A Cake Pan

For the easiest road to putting together a sweet treat that also holds visual appeal, head to the store in search of pre-made cookie dough with images imprinted into the dough packages. Pillsbury has a line-up of seasonal cookie dough offerings with different characters. From wintery snowman and elf hats, turkeys and rabbits, or hearts and flags, you can look for the images that best represent your special occasion.

Once the pieces are sliced and pulled apart, instead of lining them up on a cookie tray to bake as separate cookies, you'll press the cookies into a pan to bake as a uniform piece. You may want to buy an extra roll of plain sugar cookie dough to fill in any gaps between or behind the placed cookies. Alternatively, you can set down the decorated cookies in between plain sugar cookies for a different kind of aesthetic. Depending on your palate and the preferences of your dinner guests, you can even add a sprinkle of sugar or sprinkle salt on top of the cookies before baking.

For extra layers of crunch or sweetness, you can tuck additional ingredients in between layers of the pieces of seasonal cookie dough and the supporting rows of plain cookie dough. Sneaking crushed roasted nuts, powdery pumpkin pie spice, or mashed pieces of cheesecake M&M candies into the dough can add more flavor to your easy creations, and you can customize recipes according to the color and theme of your events with chosen ingredients.

Once the cookies have been pressed uniformly down into an oven-friendly tin or American Metalcraft Pizza Pan, you can bake the tray for 15 minutes or as instructed on the package. If you're planning on embellishing your design with frosting, sprinkles, or other candy decorations prior to serving, you'll want to allow enough time for the cookie cake to cool so that you can decorate the sweet spread before passing out pieces to your friends. These round cookie cakes can be sliced into squares or wedges and served easily with scoops of ice cream — or enjoyed simply as an afternoon treat with coffee.