A cookie gun is a kitchen utensil designed and intended for use with raw cookie dough to make cookies of identical shape and size, and to allow easy shaping of cookies before baking. While a cookie gun may not be required to make cookies of the same shape and size, it is intended to make the process easier and less time consuming. It is a handheld device that may be manually or battery operated and extrudes the raw cookie dough through a tip that can be designed merely to keep all the cookies about the same size or to form the cookies into creative shapes.
Most models of cookie gun look similar to a caulking gun, with a long tube-shaped barrel and a handle with a long trigger designed for the entire hand to pull it. The raw cookie dough is loaded into the tube and secured into place. A plunger in the back of the tube then pushes the dough forward through an extruder as the user squeezes the handle and trigger device. This allows a cookie gun user to quickly and easily squeeze a certain amount of dough out of the gun and onto a baking sheet.
Some cookie guns are made entirely from plastic, while others can feature an aluminum body and even clear plastic for the tube to allow a user to see how much dough is left. Many models also come with a number of different discs that can fit at the end of the gun, across the extruder, to allow the user to squeeze out cookies in a particular shape. These shapes are often common cookie cutter designs, such as stars, holiday trees, circles, and hearts.
Decorating tips can also be included with some cookie guns, and this allows a user to place frosting or icing in a cookie gun and use it to frost or decorate cakes and cookies. While this is not an essential aspect of the device, it does allow it to be used as a multitasking tool and can reduce the need for separate decorating bags and tips. Some cookie guns are even battery powered and allow extrusion of the dough through the push of a button, rather than manually squeezing a trigger. This typically allows a user to ensure identical amounts of dough are released for each cookie, making it even easier to produce cookies of uniform weight and size.