Reel Meals: Mr. Will Wong’s Bend and Snap Cookies

Reel Meals is the latest side dish to Hollywood Suite’s signature programming, which features movies you love from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. With Reel Meals, get to know a Canadian chef or food personality through an original recipe catered to a film from the Hollywood Suite catalogue.

Our second Reel Meal comes courtesy of entertainment blogger Mr. Will Wong. Will has paired Legally Blonde (2001) – A courtroom comedy starring Reese Witherspoon that teaches us to never judge a book by its cover – with a recipe for sinfully delicious cookies appropriately called “Bend and Snaps!”

Check out the full recipe below and don’t miss Legally Blonde on HS00 June 28 at 9pm ET, or stream it all month long on Hollywood Suite On Demand and Hollywood Suite GO.

BEND AND SNAPS!

Our friends at Hollywood Suite enlisted our help crafting a yummy Legally Blonde-inspired creation as part of their Reel Meals series. We’re so thrilled to hear Mindy Kaling will be co-writing Legally Blonde 3, one of our favourite underdog stories of all time!  How timely, especially since Legally Blonde is airing on Hollywood Suite in June?

While cookies aren’t technically a meal, who doesn’t love a snack while watching a movie?

These ginger snaps not only are sinfully buttery and full of spicy sass, they also can be dolled-up like Elle Woods would! We challenge you to break-out the sparkliest sprinkles and the hottest pink icing to pay tribute to one of our favourite on-screen heroines.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup Crisco Golden
• 3/4 cup organic raw sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 3 tbsps candied ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix flour, spices, baking soda and salt together in one bowl.
2. Using hand mixer, cream butter, shortening and 1/2 cup sugar. Add egg and vanilla, beating till creamy.
3. Add molasses and mix till combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
4. Add flour mixture bit by bit with hand mixer on low, combining fully.
5. Disperse candied ginger throughout cookie dough using hands. Shape dough into a ball, cover and refrigerate for minimum 1 hour.
6. Using food processor, take 1/4 cup sugar and grind for about a minute. Pour sugar in a shallow platter.
7. Preheat oven to 350°F.
8. After chilled, allow dough to stand room temperature till pliable (about 15 or more minutes). Roll dough into equal-sized balls.
9. Dip dough balls into sugar and place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Dough should yield 20-24 cookies.
10. Bake 13-15 minutes depending how firm you want the cookie. When you see crinkles form, this means the cookies are done. Remove from oven.
11. Cool on sheet for about 20-30 minutes. Once fully cooled after minimum 1 hour, you may start dressing the cookies with icing and favourite Legally Blonde phrases and words like “Elle”, “Bruiser” and of course, “Bend” and “Snap”!

About Will Wong

Mr. Will Wong has been a public mainstay for the past ten-plus years. His blog mrwillwong.com focuses on entertainment with a Canadian slant. His range of coverage includes celebrity sightings, film review, nation-wide contests, new and upcoming releases and now cooking even! His website, a red carpet staple in Toronto, has gained accreditation to major international film festivals like TIFF, Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca. For the past two years, he has been the only Canadian blogger to attend the Film Independent Spirit Awards. In addition to appearing every year this past decade as a subject matter expert on CP24 during TIFF, he is reigning Now Magazine Readers’ Choice Best Blogger.