Best brand of "slice and bake" cookies?

[laredo]

I have to make a lot of cookies soon and am looking for a shortcut.

I may stoop to slice and bakes. Just wondering if someone can recommend the best brand/flavor.

And does anyone have a tip for dressing them up?

Thanks for your help!

[tinnywatty]

So sorry to hear about your friend, and you've already solved your cookie problem, but for anyone else in a similar situation I think Trader Joe's cookie dough is fairly decent for a premade dough. Granted, I've never baked it- we ate it raw- but there aren't any major off flavors although I do certainly prefer homemade dough/cookies. As an added bonus, it's pre-portioned into balls, so all you have to do is stick them on the pan and toss into the oven.

[stefstef]

The world s easiest cookies to make and they actually taste great are the 3 ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies.....1 c Peanut Butter(Creamy) 1 c Sugar 1 Egg Blend all together Roll each cookie into a ball then flatten with a fork that has been dipped in sugar so it doesn t stick Bake at 350 10-13 minutes......That s it.....you can double ,triple, absolutely no flour! Gluten free for added bonus

[laredo]

Thanks, stefstef. Very intriguing!

[eclecticsynergy]

Just to toss out another possibility- have you considered no-bake cookies? Can't be beat in terms of simplicity and there's no preheating or baking time... I realize it isn't what you asked about but felt it was worth bringing up as an alternative.

Ah, just noticed the post about frozen squares along kind of the same lines.

[Stelmaria]

No bake cookies and frozen squares are both great ideas.

[laredo]

Thanks very much to everyone for your good ideas. I will keep them in mind.

As it turned out, my friend died and I needed to organize and execute the bereavement meal. I barely had time to go to the store and buy the frozen squares. A friend baked them for me. I put them on a fun tray and they didn't look bad, but they didn't taste great.

[sunangelmb]

Oh no. I'm so sorry to read about your loss. It's lovely though that your heart was with taking the time to worry about baking something. You're a good friend

[laredo]

Thanks so much for your condolence, sunangel.

[cheesymama]

How about buying some trays of frozen squares? You can pull them out of the freezer when needed and cut them into bite sized pieces. It saves you the step of baking, and if you need a lot of pieces that can take a lot of time.
Sorry to year about your friend.

[laredo]

Thank you, cheesy. That's what I most likely will do (trays). EVen fast than slicing! Thanks for your help.

[Stelmaria]

I agree. Make your own! It's much less expensive, much healthier, and you can vouch that it's free of a particular allergen (for example, peanuts) if you need to.

Here's a recipe and a tutorial: http://blessusolord.blogspot.com/2007...

[wyogal]

You could also make stained glass cookies, slice the cookie, make a cut-out with a small cookie cutter, in the cut out, put some chopped up lifesaver candies. Bake.

[laredo]

Thank you for your kind help, wyogal. I appreciate your replies!

[wyogal]

If you are able, I'd also go with the home made slice-n-bake. That is, if you have time to make them ahead, have ingredients on hand. The simplest of cookies can be made this way. You can also control the ingredients, and they are much cheaper than a "good" brand in the store.
If not, they are pretty much the same, unless you go the more fancy route of the Whole Foods option.
If you do the white sugar cookie, just about anything can dress them up, maybe some chopped nuts pressed on top, sprinkles, etc. One can also use them to make sandwich cookies with a nice filling, or a linzer-type, where the top cookie has a cut-out, exposing the jam filling. You could do a variety of fillings: raspberry, apricot, date, they would look nice on a platter with the different colors. The fillings would also give them a nice flavor.
You could also dip half the cookie into melted chocolate, then chopped hazelnuts, let harden.

[blue room]

Cookie dough can be "whipped up" in 5 or 10 minutes, but that's not counting finding/deciding on a recipe, shopping for the ingredients, assembling ingredients in one's kitchen, and cleaning up more than one bowl, more than one pan, more than one counter area, more than one measuring cup/spoon, and various other spoons/knives/mixing utensils. Poor OP just wants to know which slice and bakes to get! Maybe short on time, other obligations?
I like Pillsbury Sugar Cookies, and Nestles Toll House. Toll House wouldn't need decoration. The sugar cookies are plain & vanilla, but tasty. They could have any pattern or candy pressed into them, or could be drizzled with melted chocolate/caramel, etc. Or just arrange them in a nice pattern, cover with cellophane (clear or colored) and put a ribbon on it!

[laredo]

Blue room, You nailed it! I could hug your neck for intuiting my situation. Plus a dear friend not expected to survive the night....

And I would add to your list, cutting bars into neat pieces and traying them. All those things do add up regarding time.

I sincerely appreciate the previous three suggestions. Honestly, I didn't know slice and bake were quite that bad and I *will* try to do something better, but I was just trying to prepare for the worst case scenario.

Thanks, everybody!

[hotoynoodle]

i am sorry about your friend.

[laredo]

How kind of you to say that, hotoynoodle!

She is my dear friend of decades and also the mother of my dear friend of decades and my own mother's dear friend of many, many years.

[Stelmaria]

I am very sorry to hear about this as well. I'm in a similar situation. My best friend's father has been a surrogate dad to me over the years, and he is currently battling liver cancer, now in the final stage. Sending you virtual hugs and good thoughts.

Stella

[laredo]

Stella, how sweet of you to express your sympathy/empathy. My best wishes and condolences to you too.

[viperlush]

Since time might be an issue and slice and bake could get expensive, do you have a bakery nearby that you can just purchase from? Just wanted to remind you of another option that will give you have more time for other things.

[laredo]

Thanks for your reply, viperlush!

Yes, I have definitely considered the bakery route. What is available is just not that good, and the slice and bakes would be better than the bakery's!

I could get a caterer to make them, but that would too expensive for the situation.

This discussion has pushed my curiosity button so I am now on sort of a mini quest to find the easiest- in- the- world- to- make cookie. I accidentally landed on a cornflake cookie site yesterday. Four ingredients! Am thinking about going that route, if possible.

Thank you so much for your help.

[gooddog]

I can beat 4 ingredients - here's one with only 3:

I think this recipe was on the label of a can of Eagle milk, years ago. I couldn't find it on their website now, though.

1 6oz pkg chocolate bits
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle)
2 C graham cracker crumbs

Heat the milk & chocolate bits in a double boiler, and stir until melted. (You can also do this part in the microwave if you're careful). Stir in the graham cracker crumbs. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake 8-10 min at 350F
I sometimes add an optional 4th ingredient like nuts, dried cherries or peanut butter or cinnamon chips if I want to get fancy.

As for the purchased slice-and-bake, to me they all have a little bit of an artificial taste, which is more obvious with the plain sugar cookies.With more stuff added, that taste gets masked. There's an oatmeal-cranberry-walnut break and bake dough that I like, but I've only seen it in private label brands, like Target, Meijer and Spartan (private label in the midwest).

[laredo]

Thanks, gooddog. Your recipe just became a candidate! How many does it make? I would guess about two dozen?

Agree about the taste of the plain sugar.

I really can't remember when I have used a slice and bake, now that I have read the many negative comments on them and have tried to recall. Probably has been over 25 years. But I did go through a pan of bake and breaks every night phase. Also many years ago.

[gooddog]

I think I usually get between 3-4 dozen, but my spoonfuls are on the small side.

[cookie monster]

Whole Foods sells refrigerated dough from Immaculate Baking Co. The cookies are pretty good, albeit a bit too sweet for my taste, and the ingredients are all recognizable, unlike Pillsbury etc. Cost will add up quickly though if you need to make a lot.

[hotoynoodle]

brownies and blondies whip up in 5 minutes and can be cut in small cookie-sized pieces.

those pillsbury tube cookies just taste like chemicals and sweetener. they also contain hydrogenated oils.

[Jpan99]

Make your own cookie dough in advance, shape into logs and freeze, then slice and bake when you need them. Toll house cookie dough can be whipped up in 10 minutes and tastes so much better than anything slice and bake. Unless you're making them for 5-year-olds that have no idea what homemade cookies taste like. Then just buy whatever slice and bake is on sale!