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What is a Cookie Gun?
A cookie gun is a kitchen utensil designed and intended for use with raw cookie dough to make cookies of identical shape and size, and to allow easy shaping of cookies before baking. While a cookie gun may not be required to make cookies of the same shape and size, it is intended to make the process easier and less time consuming. It is a handheld device that may be manually or battery operated and extrudes the raw cookie dough through a tip that can be designed merely to keep all the cookies about the same size or to form the cookies into creative shapes.
Most models of cookie gun look similar to a caulking gun, with a long tube-shaped barrel and a handle with a long trigger designed for the entire hand to pull it. The raw cookie dough is loaded into the tube and secured into place. A plunger in the back of the tube then pushes the dough forward through an extruder as the user squeezes the handle and trigger device. This allows a cookie gun user to quickly and easily squeeze a certain amount of dough out of the gun and onto a baking sheet.
Some cookie guns are made entirely from plastic, while others can feature an aluminum body and even clear plastic for the tube to allow a user to see how much dough is left. Many models also come with a number of different discs that can fit at the end of the gun, across the extruder, to allow the user to squeeze out cookies in a particular shape. These shapes are often common cookie cutter designs, such as stars, holiday trees, circles, and hearts.
Decorating tips can also be included with some cookie guns, and this allows a user to place frosting or icing in a cookie gun and use it to frost or decorate cakes and cookies. While this is not an essential aspect of the device, it does allow it to be used as a multitasking tool and can reduce the need for separate decorating bags and tips. Some cookie guns are even battery powered and allow extrusion of the dough through the push of a button, rather than manually squeezing a trigger. This typically allows a user to ensure identical amounts of dough are released for each cookie, making it even easier to produce cookies of uniform weight and size.
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![A cookie gun is filled with raw cookie dough.]()
By: Alex TihonovA cookie gun is filled with raw cookie dough. -
![Cookie dough can be spread with a cookie gun onto baking sheets.]()
By: Mat HaywardCookie dough can be spread with a cookie gun onto baking sheets.
Discussion Comments
Cookies made with a cookie gun can be more appealing to children. I used a cookie gun to make star shaped cookies last month, and my kids ate them up quickly.
I made soft oatmeal cookies with raisins. They seemed to melt in my mouth, and because they are healthy, normally my kids would not be drawn to them.
I got sneaky and attached a star shape to the end of the gun. It squirted out perfectly even star cookies of the same thickness.
Now that I know how easy it is to make my kids eat healthy cookies, I wish I could use the cookie gun to squirt out vegetables! I don't suppose that cooked spinach would hold this shape, though.
If you have a manual cookie gun, the more solid ingredients that are in your dough, the harder it will be to squeeze them out. I figured this out when making my chocolate cranberry walnut cookies.
I knew the dough would be thick, because it had chunks of chocolate, dried cranberries, and lumpy walnuts in it. There was just enough liquid in the dough to glue them all together, but they still were more difficult to force out of the gun.
The easiest cookie to push through the gun is a simple sugar cookie. All the ingredients blend together, and no lumps are present at all. This dough squirts out like frosting from the gun.
I think that lumpy cookies full of chunky ingredients are best made by plopping spoonfuls of dough onto parchment paper. The lumps are part of the charm, so it seems fitting that these cookies should turn out uneven and bumpy.
@OeKc05 – My cookie gun really has made me seem like a better baker, but the cookies taste the same way they always have. There is something about perfecting the appearance of a cookie that makes people think it is more awesome.
I got a cookie gun so I could make attractive cookies at Christmas. I had three parties to attend, and I had to bring food to each one. Since baking cookies is what I'm best at, I knew I needed the gun.
I got so many compliments on my cookies. People could not believe I had made them rather than bought them in a store. I got a little jealous of my own cookie gun!
My sister-in-law works at a bakery, and she uses a cookie gun for large orders. She is in charge of making all the cookies, and this gun makes her job so much easier.
She recently had an order for one-hundred chocolate chip cookies. Without that gun, it would have taken her so much longer to scoop spoonfuls out onto a baking sheet. Also, they would have been lumpy and uneven.
The cookie gun squirts out cookies worthy of the bakery's stamp. I'm sure the company took this into account when purchasing the gun. They knew that the better their products look, the better their reputation will be.
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