Fox Run's Mega Sized Gingerbread Boy Cutter: Not For The Weak or Faint of Heart
Written: Mar 05 '08
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Pros: Huge size, well made, stabilizer bar, great shape, fun to decorate.
Cons: Hard to find, can be bent easily, small hands.
The Bottom Line: A great cutter for oversized cookies but it takes a lot of time to make, bake and decorate them.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Fox Run Gingerbread Boy Cookie Cutter |
Making gingerbread cookies is something that I love to do around the holidays and with this cutter, it is a little bit of a chore to churn them out but you can have a lot of fun personalizing them. Fox Run Craftsmen makes a few oversized cutters like this and while it can be time consuming to make them because you can only fit two on a cookie sheet at a time, the size is impressive and they are home made. Go to a grocery store or specialty cookie store and you are going to be spending at least four dollars for a cookie this size and you have no idea when it was made and chances are it is jammed full of preservatives. You will never hear me say that these cookies are good for you but I would rather have something that is home made and know what is in it than something that could have been sitting there for a few weeks.
Fox Run Jumbo Sized Gingerbread Boy Cookie Cutter
Overall, the shape of this is nice but the hands, in my opinion, are a little too small for the body. That's just my take on it, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it or that it isn’t fun to work with but I wish they were a little bigger. One nice feature to this is that there is a stabilizer bar that runs across the middle of it, it's there to help you get the cutter in and out of the dough or whatever your are cutting into but it also helps to keep the mid section from getting bent out of shape. You can use this on anything that you want but unlike smaller cookie cutters, using this on sandwiches and non-cookie things isn’t all that practical because you get the most from it when it is decorated.
Almost every time that I use this cutter I am using it with a gingerbread cookie recipe but you can use any type of dough or recipe that you want. Something that is thick and hearty works best but you want to make sure that you are going to be using something that is going to cook evenly and leave you with something that is solid so you don't have limbs falling off when you are decorating it. The bottom of the cutter is not sharp but you do need to apply even pressure to it so that all the edges are clean and you end up with a nice looking cookie. Kids can use this but you have to make sure that they are pressing down evenly on it.
Before you even start to mix the ingredients you have to make sure that you have the correct tools to get these cookies made perfectly. An oversized cookie shovel will be needed to move the cookie off the sheet once it has been in the oven but before it even gets there, make sure that you line the tray with some parchment paper. Not only will this make cleaning up easier but it will also ensure that your cookie doesn’t end up with a greasy bottom. You will be able to fit two of these on a standard sized cookie sheet, any more than two and you are running the risk of having the ends touch and the shape being distorted. When moving the raw cookie from the counter to the tray try to do it with care so the shape doesn’t get stretched out. Working with a cold or chilled dough will give you the best results.
The shape of the cutter is nice and it is undeniably a gingerbread boy but with a little customization you can easily turn this into a girl if you don’t want to buy the companion female 'girl' cutter. Add some pink tint to the dough to give her some curly hair, even add a hat or tiny teddy bear using scrap pieces of dough and mini cookies cutters. Decorating this doesn’t have to be a pain; you can make them plan with no extras or go all out and frost them with royal icing. If you are going to use an authentic gingerbread recipe I would suggest not adding any tint as the mix will be brown to start with and any color that you add to it will be lost or make the brown hue even darker which could make judging the baking time a little hard.
If this mega sized cutter is way to big for you, Fox Run does have smaller ones available. There are a total of five similar gingerbread boy / man shapes and the sizes vary from two inches right up to this one. The shapes are almost identical so if you want to create an army of cookies or have them personalized to represent a family, there are more than enough sizes to choose from. Because this is so large you really do need to make sure that you take care of it when you are using it as well as when you are cleaning it. This does clean up nicely and at most a five minute soak in warm soapy water should be all that is needed to get it clean. Storing it is best done inside a plastic container or small shoebox sized plastic box. If you have a lot of cutters that are oversized you can try nesting them with others to save space. There are more than a few oversized cutters available from Fox Run, you can check out their website to see them all and find places in your area that sell them.
The Bottom Line
If you are willing to put the work and effort into making oversized cookies from cutters like this then more power to you. I only make these a few times a year and when I do, I make about thirty of them and then call it quits. I received this as a gift with a gingerbread man kit but purchased an additional one at a country store in Lancaster for $3.50 which isn't bad for a cutter this size. It does require a little bit of work to maintain the shape of it but as I said, if you want to make mega sized gingerbread boys or other variations], this is the cutter to get. You can have a lot of fun decorating the cookie or adding names it to. I do like working with this cuter and recommend it to people that are looking for something like it but I do make sure they know what they are getting themselves into before the buy one and start making them.
As always, thanks for the visit…
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2008 Freak369
Gingerbread Cookies That Will Make Your Mouth Water!
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Wilton Comfort Grip Gingerbread Boy
Wilton Gingerbread Boy Baking Cups
More Fox Run cookie cutters
Dreidel, Round, Dog Bone, Pumpkin, Heart Shaped Crinkle, Momma Bear, Maple Leaf, Chick, Pig, Bunny, Angel, Shark, Mini Star, Turkey, Apple, Airplane, Mini Bear, Shamrock, Duck, Star, Bear
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3.50
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