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Pacman Cookie Recipe!

At iD Tech Camps our students learn how to make video games.  But today, I’m going to teach you how to make cookies, based on video games.  Specifically, Pacman cookies.  This post will be a step-by-step tutorial of how to make Pacman themed cookies.

First, do not attempt to cook or use the oven without an adult present!!!!!  As I am no exception to this rule,  I asked my adult friend Charlie to come supervise me.

Before getting your hands dirty, you are going to need the proper cookie cutters to make the shapes.  Unfortunately, actual Pacman cookie cutters do not exist so you’ll need to improvise.  There are two different shapes you need to create, the “ghost” shape and the “Pacman” shape.

For the ghost shape, simply find a tulip shaped cookie cutter and rotate it 180 degrees (or just turn it upside down).  Charlie demonstrates:

For the Pacman shape you will start with a simple circle shape and then use any “V” shaped cookie cutter to subtract a portion of the dough.  For those of you learning 3D modeling, this is very similar to “subtractive modeling” when working with polygons.  I found that this “house” shape worked nicely:

Once you have the cookie cutters gathered you will need the following cooking supplies;

Sugar Cookies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Icing:
1 egg white
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
Various food paste colors
Mini chocolate chips

Tools:
Plastic bags
Baking Tray
Scissors
Spray-Oil
Butter Knife

Or you can just cheat on the sugar cookies (like I did) and buy some pre-made dough.  Once the dough is ready, lay it out and begin to make shapes;

I found that transferring the shapes from the cutting board to the baking tray was very difficult, so you are best off creating the shapes directly on the baking tray.  Make sure to spray it down with oil first.  I recommend removing the excess dough while the stencil is still applied, as demonstrated below.

And time for Pacman:

Well done!  These are all the shapes we need for representing the characters of Pacman:

Now it is time to bake the cookies.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for about 10-12 minutes, check frequently as cooking time can vary.  While you are waiting try and partake in something productive, such as playing music:

Now the cookies are baked.

Next up is making the icing.  Combine 1 egg white, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of corn syrup and powdered sugar and give a good stir.

Once the texture is consistent we are ready to add the color.  There are 5 colors you’ll need for the characters.  Between a set of “regular” and “neon” food coloring dyes, we had almost all the colors we needed, here is the breakdown:

Combine red and yellow to create orange, don’t forget to save some icing for the color white.

To mix the color in, we will spoon parts of the icing into plastic bags, about 2-3 heaping spoonfuls should do for each color, make sure to ration properly so you don’t run out.  Once in the bag, add drops of food coloring and kneed the icing within the bag until the color is even.  I found that bold colors such as red required many drops, whereas lighter ones like blue and pink required few.

Once your colors are ready, cut small (like REALLY small) holes in the corner of each bag:

Then drizzle the icing over the cookie.  Go very light on the icing and use a butter knife or spoon to spread it out.   Start off EXTREMELY light, I can’t stress this enough.

Next up we will have to make the eyes for the ghosts, but we need to let this icing dry first.  Put a few dabs of icing on the plate and test with your finger as a reference for whether or not the cookie icing is dry.  While waiting, you should probably exercise a bit as you are about to eat some cookies:

Now that the icing is dry it is time for the eyes.  The whites of the eyes will simply be some left-over uncolored icing (make sure to save some) and the pupils will be chocolate chips.   You’ll want to offset the position of the “whites of the eye” and compliment them by where you position the chocolate chips.  Remember go light on the icing, when you press down the chocolate chip, you will spread out the white icing:

All done!  Have a little fun with it!  We made a maze with the leftover icing!

BIG UPS to Helvetica from http://www.snackordie.com for the original recipe.   Tune in next week for Ms. Pac-Man Pizza!!!!!!

 

 

 

12 Responses to “Pacman Cookie Recipe!”

1. Charlie, on November 16th, 2009 at 9:56 am Said:

   Fun times were had by all. Oh, and make sure someone is around to clean up after you when you’re done.

   By the way… where do you get that Pacman font?

2. Nina, on November 16th, 2009 at 10:01 am Said:

   Great job about hilarious pictures. iD Tech mouse pads are not oven mits!

3. Tech Mom, on November 16th, 2009 at 10:01 am Said:

   I love it! You guys are so creative. My boys are going to love this and my husband will think it’s pretty cool too – he’s from the pac-man era. I look forward to seeing the pizza recipe.

   Thanks!

4. Rene, on November 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am Said:

   awesome dudes…next week can you show us how to make ‘The Tank’ character from Left For Dead?

5. Karrie Colette, on November 16th, 2009 at 11:24 am Said:

   Both hilarious and informative! It’s great to see iD sharing their knowledge with the world 365 days a year!

6. Pete, on November 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am Said:

   Awesome project guys!

   Can we get some more of these?

7. Josh, on November 19th, 2009 at 5:50 pm Said:

   Funny you should ask Rene, check out the Left 4 Dead cookies at SnackorDie:

   http://www.snackordie.com/2009/04/left4dead_survivor_cookies.html

8. Josh, on November 19th, 2009 at 5:55 pm Said:

   And yes Pete, many more on the way!

9. Connor Matthews, on November 23rd, 2009 at 5:53 pm Said:

   Have shared with many students. These are great!

10. Philip, on January 8th, 2010 at 12:54 pm Said:

    Man! You guys sure know how to set up a good summer camp! I remember my camps in Ireland…Rain, cold and lonliness… Happy days!

11. Bridget, on February 7th, 2010 at 1:19 pm Said:

    Thanks for the great tutorial! I made them for my boyfriend and they turned out great. Here’s the post on my website
    http://www.cookiesandpt.com/2010/02/07/pac-man-cookies-the-best-sugar-cookies-and-icing-ever/

    and his http://www.andreworlando.com/?p=258

    What a great way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pac Man!

12. Caleb Elieff, on May 9th, 2010 at 7:09 am Said:

    I came across this site from Google and found this article quite yummy!

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Tags: cookie, pacman, recipe

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 4:20 pm and is filed under iD Tech Bloggers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.