Stranger Things Cookies

This holiday season I wanted to up my sugar cookie game, and thus I made cookies inspired by the Netflix show Stranger Things. If you have not seen the show, stop everything you are doing, and spend the next eight hours getting up to speed. If you have seen the show, then you probably understand why these cookies are rad. While they are not as amazing as boxes of Eggo Waffles, they are surely better than any other holiday cookie that may rip through the time-space continuum this year. So channel your inner Barb, stay at home on a Saturday night, and bake some cookies.

For the light bulb cookies you will need the following ingredients:

1 light bulb cookie cutter
4 cups flour (sifted)
2 cups sugar
2 sticks unsalted softened butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

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For the chocolate letter cookies I used the Chocolate Sugar Cookie recipe from Sweetopia. Here is what you will need to make them:

1 Set alphabet cookie cutters (not pictured)
4 cups flour (sifted)
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups cocoa powder
2 sticks unsalted softened butter
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt

The royal icing is used to frost the light bulb cookies. This is what is required to make them:

4 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
Red, yellow, green and blue food coloring
1/2 cup water

For the light bulb wire, it is recommended to use black string licorice. In my mind, this is purely for aesthetics. I find black licorice utterly inedible and gross, but some people really seem to like eating it.

We are going to start by making the light bulb sugar cookies.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Combine the eggs and vanilla into the butter and sugar mixture.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a little at a time until a nice thick dough forms.

You may need to knead it with your hands as the dough begins to grow thicker and harder to stir.

When done, combine the dough into two equally-sized balls.

Press down upon each ball of dough to flatten them.

Wrap each ball of dough with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a single bowl. This includes the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Once again, cream together the butter and the sugar.

Once again, mix together the eggs and vanilla with the butter and sugar.

Mix in the dry ingredients and wet ingredients a little at a time.

This dough gets very dry as you mix the flour and cocoa in. If it stop clumping together and starts getting crumbly, stop mixing in the dry ingredients and ball it up.

Press the ball of dough flat.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, place the flattened dough in the center, and cover over top of it with more parchment paper.

Roll the dough out to cover the entire cookie sheet.

Cover the whole thing with plastic wrap, and refrigerate this dough for at least an hour.

While the chocolate dough chills, now is the time to roll out the other cookie dough (presuming at least an hour has passed).

Roll out both balls of dough.

Now would be a good time to preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Using the cookie cutter, cut bulbs into each sheet of of dough. Don't peel them up yet.

Cut holes into the center of the base of the bulb using a drinking straw.

Peel up the unused dough and ball it up. You will be repeating this process of making light bulbs until there is no more dough left.

Place the cut light bulb cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet in neat rows.

Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes at 325 degrees, and the leave them out to cool when they are done.

Once all of the cookies are cut, baking in the oven, and/or cooling, it is time to make some royal icing.

To make the icing, whisk together the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water.

It is ready when the icing begins to form a slow dripping ribbon when the whisk is lifted out of the bowl.

Divide the royal icing into four bowls.

These four bowls will be used to make red, green, blue and yellow/orange color icing for the light bulbs.

Use food coloring to make the appropriate color icing for the different light bulbs.

If you need inspiration, check out the Stranger Things light bulb pictures.

Ice the bulb part of the cookies with the different colored icings, and a pastry (or butter) knife.

Set them aside to dry once they are coated.

Once the light bulb cookies are done, remove the chocolate cookie sheet from the refrigerator, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each letter of the alphabet out of the chocolate cookie sheet. You should be able to fit the whole alphabet onto a single sheet.

When you are done, ball up the extra dough, roll it back out, and either cut more letters, or do what you please with it.

Bake the alphabet at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until they look about done (not wet).

Using black licorice, string the bulbs together.

The technique I like to use involved passing the licorice through the hole from behind, wrapping it around, and passing it through again.

Once everything is completed and laid out appropriately, use your cookies to communicate with the upside down.