grapes cookies for wine club

grapes cookies 

You don’t have to make these grapes cookies for wine club, necessarily. You can make them for any old time, since they are so easy. But I made them for wine club. Wine club being a group of smart, funny women who gather once a month at rotating houses to sample lots of wine, learn a few things beyond “cork vs. screw top,” and eat lots of food that tastes good with wine. So I’m pretty appreciative of this wine club thing.

I hosted January’s monthly meeting (let’s call it a “meeting,” shall we?). My wines: Red Blends. I can now wax poetic about red wine blends, thanks to my research friend, google. But I won’t. I’ll stick with cookies lest I bore you with my new knowledge. I served these with my cheeses and kale-topped pizza and meat pies and dark chocolate, not because they pair well with red wine blends, but because they are cute. That’s the only reason why.

I love this idea for grapes cookies because the individual grapes are so much more serve-able than making a whole bunch for each cookie. You can make green ones, too.

And dang, I had the table all set up post-wine club, what with the empty bottles and fragments of food left and the few remaining “grapes,” but I forgot to actually snap the picture. Let’s blame the red wine blends, shall we?

how to make grapes cookies

you will need:*

cookie dough
royal icing
circle cutter 
sharp knife
purple and/or green and brown food colorings
disposable decorating bags
couplers
size “4” or “5” decorating tips
rubber band
purple and/or green sprinkles

*My circle cutter came as part of a set and is 1 1/2 inches, but you can use any comparable size circle. Find the decorating bags, couplers, tips and sprinkles at the craft store. For tips on finding supplies, click HERE. For food coloring, I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Regal Purple, Electric Green and Chocolate Brown). For basic cookie decorating how-tos, click here.

step one: prepare your cookies. Prepare cookie dough according to the recipe. Chill and roll out. Cut out circles for the grapes and use the knife to cut out the little branch shapes.

step two: prepare your icing. Prepare royal icing according to the recipe. Divide and tint your colors. You’ll need purple and brown (more of purple). Prepare two decorating bags with couplers and tips, fill with the colors and close tightly with rubber bands.

step three: decorate your cookies. To make the stem, just pipe lines with brown. To make the grapes, pipe a purple (or green) spiral on a circle cookie to fill the cookie with icing. Immediately coat with purple sprinkles and turn over to remove excess. Let the cookies dry overnight and arrange on a plate so the grapes are piled and the stem sticks out.

SUPPLIES:

PIN FOR LATER: