It wouldn’t be a piñata without a candy surprise in the middle! These multi-striped, burro piñata sugar cookies are frosted together in sets of 3. The middle cookies have hollow centers so you can fill them with a secret stash of mini M and M’S. That way, when you break open or bite into the cookie, the M and M’S come spilling out. Just like a real piñata. Olé!
Plastic container
Find a plastic container similar in size to your donkey/burro piñata cookie cutter. In a later step, you'll be placing the layered sugar cookie dough in here to form the cookie log shape you'll need for later steps.
Line with plastic wrap
Line the container with plastic wrap for easy removal of the dough later.
Food coloring
You will need a few colors of food coloring, including black, for your festive piñata cookies. Gel food coloring works best for intense colors.
Split and dye the dough
Split the dough into 5 even-sized balls and 1 smaller ball (this will be the black). Add food coloring to each dough ball until the desired color is achieved.
Colored dough
Now your dough is ready to be layered into the container.
Layer the dough
Split all your colored dough balls in half (except the black), and begin layering the dough in the container, starting with the black dough on the bottom. Alternate the colors so you end up with 2 layers of each color by the time you're done.
Freeze the dough
Cover the layered sugar cookie dough, and freeze it for 4 hours or overnight.
Remove the dough
Remove the dough from the container, and unwrap it from the plastic.
Slice the dough
Cut into slices approximately 1/4 inch thick.
Place on baking sheet
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake
Bake the colorful cookies at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes.
Burro cookie cutter
Locate your burro cookie cutter.
Cut the dough
Immediately after you take them out of the oven, use your burro cookie cutter to cut the cookie shapes.
Line up cookie cutter
Don't forget the hooves! Make sure you line up the bottom of the cookie cutter with the black layer of dough to get the effect of hooves.
Hollow middle cookie
For the middle cookies in each set, cut off the ears and legs, and cut out the center where the M&M'S will go. We used a small square cutter and made 3 cuts to get a narrow rectangle.
Let the cookies cool
Try to work quickly, because as the piñata cookies cool, they are more likely to crumble or break. Let them cool on the baking sheet before you move them, and remove the excess, outer cookie.
Assemble the cookies
To assemble, take the first piñata cookie, and lay it upside down so that the baked bottom is facing up.
Make frosting “glue”
Make simple frosting to use as glue. We used 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of milk.
Pick your candy
Locate the candy you want to include in the middle of your piñata cookies. We used mini M and M'S. You want to choose something small enough to fit the center cookie.
Frost 1 cookie
Outline the center of the piñata body with frosting. We recommend putting the frosting inside a ziplock bag and cutting off a tiny tip of the bag's corner. This will allow you to pipe the frosting onto the piñata cookie easily.
Set the middle cookie
Put the middle cookie on top of the frosting glue.
Fill with candy
Add the candy to the hollowed portion of the middle cookie.
Frost the next layer
Add another layer of frosting.
Place the final cookie
Place the opposite-cut piñata cookie on top (so that the pretty side is facing out). Let these sit and harden for at least 30 minutes before you stand them upright.
You’re done!
Your finished product is perfect for any gathering.
A sweet surprise
Your guests will be pleased to see the sweet surprise inside these cookies.
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