Grover Cookies (Cookie Favors)

Presenting the further adventures of everybody's favorite hero. A monster who is faster than lightning, stronger than steel, smarter than a speeding bullet. It's...SUPERGROVER! (And he's cute, too)!


This posting is about a month overdue. I had some deadlines at work to deal with, and my baking/posting predictably suffered accordingly. But within the next few weeks, I hope to be entirely back on track.


This posting isn't technically a recipe.It is a decorating and packaging idea for making Grover cookies (which could easily be adapted to make pretty much any Sesame Street monster into a yummy cookie. And, because of their very nature, they are also a great thing to make with kids!!!



I also show a glimpse in an easy way to package cookies in general for favors, but I am saving the details of that for a different post.


Now, onto the cookies, with some little-known Grover facts sprinkled in, such as:


(Grover's official birthday is October 14th!)


These cookies (along with a matching cake) were made for our friend Allison's baby shower which just so happened to be Grover-themed.  They were done primarily by my cousin, with yours truly assisting, and help from momma-to-be Allie herself!


To make these cookies, you will need some 
Basic Supplies (for Grover) colors will vary depending on the monster you are making:

• Sugar cookie dough (store bought or your favorite recipe), for rolling
• Frosting, dyed blue (from scratch or ready-made, we used tubs of BC Vanilla frosting dyed with blue gel)
• Blue sprinkles (or jimmies, depending on which part of the country you are from)
• White fondant (Satin Ice is an excellent brand. Stay away from Wilton, it tastes horrible)
• Blue gel dye, for the icing
• White, red, black and pink  candy coating melts (you can melt these yourself and use a small #2 or #3 decorator's tip, or buy These nifty candy coating pen writers that we found, in red and pink.
• A circular cookie cutter, ion the 2" to 2.5" range. A set like this is particularly useful, and has every size you will probably ever need. You can find sets like this at your local craft store, as well as stores like Sur la Table, as well as online.
• A small oval cookie cutter (for the eyes). You can find graduated oval cookie cutters at the stores above, or online.

(Incidentally, all the links I provide above are for the specialty cake decorating store by my house, Candyland Crafts)


(Grover's original name was Fuzzyface!)


The workflow goes something like this:


1. Roll out your cookie dough, and using a large circular cookie cutter, cut out your cookies and bake them according to the recipe specifications. I leave the specifics up to you, since it will depend on what dough you decide to use. We had a lot of cookies to make, so we opted for the ease of Pillsbury Slice and Bake sugar cookie dough, which is a great option, especially if you are short on time. If you have the time, feel free to make your own favorite rolled sugar cookie dough from scratch


(The best-selling Sesame Street book of all time is The Monster at the End of This Book, first published in 1971!)


2. When the cookies come out of the oven, after they've cooled for a few minutes, you can go ahead and use the same cookie cutter to recut the baked cookies. This step is entirely optional, but it will make the edges sharp and the sizes uniform. Since we were making favors, we wanted the cookies as uniform as possible.

3.  Let the cookies cool completely. In the meantime, get your icing dyed to the proper color. 


(Grover originally had dark green fur and an orange nose. This puppet later was used for Grover's mommy!)


4. Roll out the white fondant and use the small oval cutter to cut out eye shapes (this is Grover-specific. For other monsters like Oscar, Elmo and Cookie, use a small round cutter). When eyes are cut, use melted black candy coating wafers to dot on the pupils. This is where the candy writer comes in handy, because it is a true black. Trying to dye melts black yourself usually results in a dark purple, and the only time I've seen black melts sold is at Halloween. You can get away with dark brown if you can't get a hold of the writer and can't find black melts. I wouldn't recommend using chocolate chips only because it needs a way to adhere to the fondant.

Here is my cousin, hard at work on a tray-full of fondant eyes

5. When the cookies are cool, frost the cookies.

(Grover first appeared in 1967!)


6. Then, dunk them in the sprinkles until the frosting is pretty much completely covered. 

7. With a little melted candy coating (preferably white), attach the eyes to the cookie.


8. Using melted pink candy wafers or the pink writer, draw on a circle for the nose below the eyes (you can try the more teardrop shape if you want, I am not much of an artist so I stuck with basic shapes).


(SuperGrover might know how to fly, but he can never land without crashing!!)


9.  Using your red candy writer or melted red wafers and a small round tip, pipe on a thin red mouth. All the cookies are smiling here, although having a nearly straight line going across would be a little more accurate.

We made some labels, and packaged them up.

Here's Allie, hard at work on the packaging details!

And here is what the finished product looked like:

The packaging itself is involved enough that it is in a separate post, if you are interested in the relatively easy way I package cookies for favors.

(Frank Oz voiced Grover from 1967-2001, and he still occasionally does so. Grover is currently voiced most often by Eric Jacobson!)


And here is a pic of the matching Grover cake that  my cousin also made. She used the same frosting and sprinkles for Grover's face. A larger oval cutter to cut out white fondant eyes. Fondant dyed black and a small circle cutter for the pupils, one of the sugar cookies frosted pink for a nose, and rolled fondant dyed red for the mouth.

These cookies could also be done with royal icing, but I love the look of the frosting and sprinkles because it looks, well, fuzzy! Just as it should. These colors and shapes could easily be modified for any other monster. If you make Oscar, don't forget to draw in his brown unibrow!


And last, but certainly not least, a huge congrats to Allison and her husband Mike, whose little boy was born on January 27th!!!!!