Do you remember those candies that come in little envelopes that explode once they hit the moisture in your mouth? I used to love those when I was a young, and frankly, I still do! I went to an ice cream shop and they had pop rocks ice cream. I couldn’t resist it! I ordered it, but was disappointed with that the pop rocks didn’t crackle. The moisture had taken all the “pop” out of them. But I loved the idea and decided that I wanted to make my own creation out of pop rocks. So I experimented with the candy by putting them in sugar cookie dough, and they kind of dissolved. So I decided that the best thing was to just put a heaping load of pop rocks on top of each frosted cookie. This worked great! I just used a drop sugar cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour and a basic cream cheese frosting recipe.
I had to many cookies for my little family of 2, so I took some over to my Uncle “Olinselot’s” house to share the goodness. He has a couple of really cool Youtube channels and he posted his kids eating the “Exploding Cookies” and experiencing pop rocks for the first time. Go check out my cookies on his Youtube channel Phamdamily. The movie is called “Exploding Cookies.” Watch it, Like it, or Subscribe.
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Ingredients:
- 1/2 C. shortening (I just used softened butter. It’s healthier.)
- 2/3 C. sugar
- 1/4 C. buttermilk or sour milk
- 1 TBSP. vanilla
- 1/8 to 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, to taste
- 2 C. Unbleached flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1/2 stick butter (1/4 C.)
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2-3 C. powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
- 3 or 4 packets pop rocks (you might want to get a couple extra packets for snitching)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream together the butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the buttermilk and vanilla and combine until combined.
2. Add the dry ingredients and combined until mixed. Note: it doesn’t really work to put the pop rocks straight into the dough because they just melt and lose their “pop”.
3. Drop the dough in round blobs onto a cookie sheet that is lined with parchment paper, silpat, or has been lightly greased. Make sure the dough isn’t cold before you cook them or they wont spread out as much. The ones in the picture above came straight out of my fridge and into the oven and they didn’t spread as well. Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until they just start or turn golden brown. Do not over cook if you want soft, chewy, yummy cookies.
4. While the cookies are baking, cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until combined. With the mixer on low, add in the powdered sugar about a half a cup at a time. Once it is combined a little bit you can increase the speed to high. Beat until the powdered sugar is mixed in well. Try to resist licking sticking your finger in to snitch some frosting. It will be hard. Trust me. It’s ok if you give in. We are human. : )
5. Let the cookies cool and frost them with the cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle the cookies with loads of pop rocks. Eat as soon as you put the pop rocks on.
Note: I looked around the web after I got the idea and I found a few other versions of pop rock’s cookies. Cake Spy had a very similar idea, but she sandwiched them and used blue and red pop rocks to make Fourth of July cookies. I thought that was such a cute idea! Exploding cookies on Independence Day!
Cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour. I’m not sure where my frosting recipe is from. It is just my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe.
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great for kids of all ages!