Thursday, December 03, 2015

OXO Good Grips Cookie Press: Review


I love baking, though admittedly I am not that great at it and as much as I want everything to be neat, tidy, uniform and perfect, I am always rushing it. Despite tasting nice, my bakes and makes are usually lacking on the aesthetic side. Not the end of the world, but if they looked and tasted good, I'd be on to a winner! Finally I have been sent a solution!


We were recently asked if we would like to trial the Good Grips Cookie Press from OXO. This has an RRP of £26 and allows you to make the most perfect cookies imaginable (by the looks of the box and listing!). I wondered if me and A (4) could actually pull this off and create a neat looking bake?

Firstly, we needed a recipe. I opted for a straight forward basic cookie recipe instead of those supplied with the press - who doesn't love a simple cookie? I knew baking with a four year old, these would no doubt be iced and sprinkled within an inch of their life, so the simpler the better. The images on the box show a 'production line' of perfect cookies in various beautiful shapes, I had everything crossed that ours would be the same!


The cookie press itself reminds me of one of the tools you use in, it looks like a proper bit of kit which is great. Alongside the press there are 12 different shaped templates to help make your cookies look brilliant. The full set of shapes come in their own little storage case (I love this!) and the shapes included are - a Daisy, Flower, Sunflower, Fleur-de-lis, Butterfly, Bear, Shell, Leaf, Heart, Snowflake, Tree and lastly a Wreath. We chose the snowflake and Christmas tree with it being December, shells for me and A chose the teddy bear, flower and butterfly too as he knew his little sister would like them - how sweet is that!?


We got to work making the tasty cookie dough! We actually used another OXO Good Grips product here, which was their non slip mixing bowl. We have two of these now in different sizes and we love that you don't have to chase them round the worktop while using a mixer, such a simple idea but such a big help. As a side note I'd recommend these!


Cookie wise, we've never ventured away from the traditional round (ish) cookie shape - mainly because I get in too much of a sticky mess and just find it easier. They are never all the same size and shape and I was so excited that for once my creations may look nice! If not, I'm blaming the boy. As you can see, the shapes came out beautifully! This took a few goes to practise, but seeing as it's cookie dough, if it goes wrong it just goes back in the bowl, easy peasy! I was so satisfied with the uniform look of most of our biscuits.


I found that my dough wouldn't stick to grease proof paper and the cookie stayed on the press. If you peel it off you risk changing the shape so I found pressing the cookie out straight onto a dry non stick baking tray worked perfectly. Just enough stick to release itself from the press and with it having butter in, the cookies didn't stick at all. I made two batches from the one lot of dough. The first lot I had the oven up to high so the cookies lost their shape (although still looked uniform and amazing!) but the second batch kept their little shapes. For a first attempt I was really pleased with our efforts and we will be definitely be jarring some up as gifts this Christmas!


As a Frozen addict, I love the snowflakes! The Christmas tree ones worked best of all though, each one came out absolutely perfectly and they looked great when baked too. Some of the other shapes I found I had to give it a click and a little bit more to release the cookie, whereas the tree just needed one little click. Practise makes perfect though and before long you have your very own biscuit factory in your kitchen! I love this gadget and wonder what else we could make with it, Christmas mashed potato could be fun!


The first thing that struck me about the press was the quality. I knew it would be good after seeing their other products, but when you actually have it in your hands it's really very solid and robust. The press was super simple to fill and press down to release a cookie through the discs. The discs were really easy to change. I also created a lot less mess than I usually do, I didn't have sticky dough everywhere and A loved helping me to press the cookies out. Some of the shapes worked better than others, but I think with practise they will all be perfect! I liked the 'good grip' element of the gadget which meant it didn't slip while we pushed it down - perfect when baking with kids.




I loved that the barrel was clear so I had a good idea of how much mixture was left, and also to see that it had been cleaned well afterwards! The recipe gave us scope for plenty of cookies, so we were able to try out a few shapes in the end. Voila. They are even tastier than they look!


Our cookies were really nice and looked so much more professional than they normally would, I was really proud of our efforts. A loved helping and I know that we will use this regularly. He needed a little help doing it but this didn't affect the fun element. I think from now  on I may actually make their snack time biscuits instead of buying them as it was a fun activity for me and  A to do together. The press was extremely easy to use and didn't take long at all to wash even by hand. I would like to experiment and find some other recipes though! I love that as well as the cookie press you can even buy extra discs like this Spring time disc set, how cool is that?!



This would be an ideal gift for anyone you know that loves baking. The whole Good Grips range from OXO looks brilliant and so much thought has gone into making these easy and effective to use. I would really recommend this press, it's really fun, very satisfying to use and although it takes a little practise to start with it works really well. I think we may even box some cookies up as cheap home made gifts this Christmas - that's if we don't eat them all first.

Are you doing any Christmas baking at the moment? Do you have any good cookie recipes I could try? Let me know! If you'd like to try some simple cookies like ours, the recipe is below.

Basic Cookie Recipe;

  • 225g (8oz) butter, softened
  • 110g (4oz) caster sugar
  • 275g (10oz) plain flour

Oven on 170 (gas mark 3), bake for around 15 minutes. Simples!




Thanks for reading,


Wafflemama (And A!)




Disclosure: We were sent a sample for review - all words/thoughts are our own. Contains Amazon affiliate links.






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