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Welcome to the first in a twelve-part series that will assure you a special place in the hearts of all you bake for, and possibly a spot on the Weight Watchers "hit list" for 2010... Twelve Days of Cookies! Yesterday, I explained how my life-long obsession with Christmas has led me to collect not only a stack of Christmas tea-towels about yea high and ornaments enough to cover two to 3.5 standard issue Christmas Trees, but also 77-plus hours of Christmas music and enough clipped cookie and holiday sweets recipes to send Richard Simmons into anaphylactic shock in just 77-plus seconds. So, for the next two weeks, my mania is your mania! Dust off your measuring spoons, turn up the speakers, and let's do Christmas.
Today's offering are the cookies that my Christmas just simply wouldn't be complete without: Christmas Cut-Out Cookies with an easy-to-spread frosting. I have posted them here before, but they are most certainly worth a repeat, as they are truly the best. Colored sugar, sprinkles, nonpariels, dragees, and other decors are optional, as these cookies will taste the same without them... but why not add another texture, another dimension, another level to your cookie decorating. These cookies are worth it.
KYLE'S FAMOUS CHRISTMAS CUT-OUT COOKIES
Despite the name here, I got these recipes, both cookie and icing alike, from the West Virginia food writer Thelma Pifer Gibson. Long a columnist for the Preston County News back in my home state, Gibson put out one of those classic spiral-bound "ladies of the church"-type cookbooks in 1989 called Thelma's Counry Clatter Cookbook, named after her column of the same name. Many moons ago, when I was still living and working in West Virgina, I went to the annual Preston County Buckwheat Festival (my one and only visit there), and picked up this gem.
In the quest for the perfect Christmas Cut-Out cookie (yes... I there is such a quest, and I was on it), I tried many recipes, and this one is, oven-mitts down, the best of the bunch. Consider doubling the recipe (mixing in two separate batches, unless you have an industrial-sized mixer). Believe me... even if you don't bake it all at once, you'll want it later. The extra dough can be kept frozen for a month or more!
Gibson doesn't include a recipe for icing for these cookies, suggesting instead that you decorate them with colored sugar or sprinkles before baking. That's all well and good, but because the cookies are fairly neutral in taste, I think they benefit from a nice buttery topcoat. So, I took the icing from another cookie in the same cookbook and adapted it to my needs.
Roll the dough thicker (up to a 1/2 inch) or thinner (no more than a 1/4 inch) for a chewier or crunchier cookie. Don't use very detailed cookie cutters, as the cookies puff a bit especially if rolled thicker, and the icing I suggest can obscure a lot of fancy edging. Best to save the detail work for straight-up butter or gingerbread cookies (stay tuned).
The dough is so forgiving, you could give it to a baboon to roll out and it would still be great. The cookies keep un-iced for weeks in an air-tight container (refrigerate or freeze for maximum shelf-life), and even after you've decorated them, they get better and better and better tasting as the days of Christmas roll sweetly by.
- 1 cup vegetable shortening (don't use butter flavor; it doesn't add anything)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 4 Tbsp cold water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp good vanilla exctract
Place shortening, sugars and eggs in a large bowl and beat until creamy.
Add water, salt soda, flour, and vanilla and mix well.
Chill the dough for at least 1 hour or let it set overnight, wrapped or covered well in plastic. (The dough may be frozen for up to a month; thaw in the fridge overnight before rolling out.)
Pre-heat oven to 350º F. Pull off a good handful of dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for about 10 minutes each, less if you roll them thinly. Chill sections dough in fridge when you are not rolling them out.
Bake cookies until they are just browning around the edges and on any small protrudences on your cut-out shape, about 7-10 minutes. They will still be pale, and may be soft, but should have some solidity. Let them cool completely on the cookie sheet, then on a cooling rack. Cookies may be stored in an airtight container, un-iced, at room temperature for 2 days, in the fridge for a week or more, or frozen for up to a month.
Makes 7 - 8 dozen cookies.
ICING FOR CHRISTMAS COOKIES
This is not a pretty, dries-flat and cement-hard royal icing... this is a good, solid, not overly sweet icing that holds on nicely to sprinkles and colored sugar, especially if you put them on right after you slather the icing on. It will likely obscure any fine detail on your cookies, so don't hope to pipe it on for a dressy look. Your cookies will be beautifully rustic and no one will be too intimidated to eat them -- which is the point!
This icing is a sort of variation on the classic un-cooked classic buttercream cake frosting, or the "country buttercream." It turns out very white, which looks great on the cookies. If you use food coloring, be sure to keep the amount of milk you add to the mixture on the low side, especially if you are using the standard liquid kind. I recommend the gel-type food coloring, since it tends not to thin the icing out too much.
I have increased Ms. Gibson's amounts here for you by 2.5 times like I always do, which will give you plenty of icing to play with. You'll want it!
- 5 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 5-6 tablespoons milk (whole milk is best)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
- food coloring (optional)
Combine all ingredients in a big bowl and beat until fluffy. Mixture may appear to be too thick at first, but try really beating it a few extra minutes before adding more milk, which can impede the drying process and make your cookies stick together when stacked.
Separate into smaller dishes and add food coloring. Use to decorate cool Christmas cookies. The icing will dry nicely in an a couple of hours, or overnight. Dried, decorated cookies stay fresh tasting and delicious for at least a week or two in an airtight container, preferably at cool room temperature. Do not freeze decorated cookies.
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Listen while you work!
Today's song is a kiddie classic, made mature by Eartha Kitt, pop jazz siren, and the original "material girl."
Don't judge a book by its cover. This is a lesson I learned the day I got my beloved gun-metal gray Kitchen Aid stand-mixer.
Everyone who has ever gotten a kitchen implement, gadget, tool, notion, or widget knows that most of them come with a booklet that, along with some basic assembly and care instructions, comes with a few recipes. I usually try one or two of these since A) I am anxious to use the thing in question, and 2) I figure someone or other has tested this recipe a few times to be sure the device will successfully deliver the goods even if some half-wit uses it.
It was with this philosophy in mind that I flipped through the really quite elaborate booklet that came with said mixer and came across what looked to be your bog-standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Since it had ingredients I, like most home bakers, have on hand, and figuring in my honest affection for a nice Toll-House style cookie (minus the nuts, please), I put the eggs in some hot tap water, put the cold butter in the microwave for 2 mintues on 10% power*, and commenced to measuring.
Ohmygodyouguys... these cookies were so freaking good. I am an inveterate dough and batter eater, and when I tasted the raw stuff from this recipe, I honestly wondered how they could taste any better. Then I baked them. Ohmygodyouguys.
At around the 9 minute mark, they come out of the oven just a little underdone in the middle for that soft-batch kind of feeling, and near 12 minutes they have just the right amount of crispness so you don't need a glass of milk to soak them in to prevent you from breaking a tooth.
Now, I'm not a guy to skimp on ingredients: I use very good vanilla and the best chocolate (within reason) that I can get my hands on, but I've literally made these with store-brand extract and good old Nestle's Semi-Sweet Morsels, and they are still amazing. Forget the New York Times, Neiman-Marcus, and Thomas Keller's recipes: my Best In Show award goes to the Kitchen Aid test kitchen.
*This is a wonderful method for getting butter to just under room temperature without melting it.
BEST EVER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
It might seem funny to make such a big deal out of plain old chocolate chip cookies, but these are worth it. And besides, I want to have access to this recipe from the nearest internet outlet. You know... in case of emergencies.
If I were a better food scientist I'd know why this apparently run-of-the-mill combination of your typical cookie ingredients yields such perfect cookies time and again. Of course, I think the quality of the ingredients makes a big difference... garbage in/garbage out as my programmer friends would say. So, once you've tried them with your standard supermarket offerings, wow your friends with a batch made with some nice Irish butter, Madagascar vanilla, and Guittard chocolate. It couldn't hurt, am I right?
Whatever the shopping list, resist the urge to eat all of the batter before baking, or at least save some for your significant other like I find I have to. Let the batter sit for a while (even ovenight) wrapped or well covered in the fridge for an even better taste. Or form and freeze the cookies for up to 3 weeks before baking -- freeze them on a sheet tray (they can be close, but not touching), and transfer them to a freezer bag or another air-tight container once they are reasonably solid. There's no need to adjust the oven temperature or baking time. Just keep an eye on them from minutes 10-12 and take them out when they look almost like you want them to -- remember they keep baking for a bit even after coming out of the oven.
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup (two sticks) salted butter, softened (unsalted is OK, too, but I like salted better for this)
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1½ tsp good vanilla extract
- 12 oz (one standard-sized bag) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
Pre-heat oven to 375ºF if baking the cookies right away. In a meduim bowl, whisk the flour, soda, and salt together, and set aside.Place sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. With a hand or stand mixer, mix on low for 30 seconds or so to combine and loosen them up. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix on medium high speed for another 30 seconds. You want to cream the ingredients until they are nicely combined and the batter is looking pale, a little fluffy and otherwise uniformly mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 2 or 3 batches, waiting for most of the flour to disappear before adding the next bit. Scrape down bowl, and mix in the chocolate chips until just distributed. Let batter rest if possible; overnight is best, but baking right away is OK, too.
With a 1 or 2 Tablespoon ice cream or cookie scoop, or with a tea spoon, drop rounded mounds of dough onto a prepared sheet pan (lined with a silcon mat or parchement, or lightly greased with butter or shortening), placed about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the sides begin to brown and the tops give a little but bounce back when touched with your finger. The cookies will puff up a bit, but will flatten out when out of the oven. Cool on the baking sheet set on a cooling rack for 5-7 minutes, then remove from the sheet and cool the cookies completely on the wire rack.
Makes around 2-3 dozen cookies; store at room temperature for up to 4 days.
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Listen while you work!
How about another jazzy diva tune today from the same sampler album as
yesterday's. This time we're visiting the late Big Band era with the
incomparable Kay Starr, with what is to me the definitive version of
"Man with the Bag." Sorry Vonda Shepard! You're good and all, but Kay
Star is the original.
I started my Christmas baking with this recipe. It's fabulous. If you want to check out the original, pick up a copy of the Joy of Cooking Christmas Cookies by Irma Rombauer, et al.
Ingredients 
- 14 tbs (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
- 3/4 cup unsalted shelled peanuts
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix until light.
- Add eggs gradually, one at a time.
- Add peanut butter and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.
- Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Remove bowl from mixer. Add chocolate and peanuts by hand and stir until well combined.
- Drop rounded teaspoons of dough 3 inches apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake between 15 - 18 minutes, checking after 15 minutes.
- Transfer sheets to wire racks to cool.
For years, my parents... and later my roommates... had to put up with my Christmas obsession, so for yet another reason, I count myself lucky to have met and fallen in love with Christopher, a guy just about as excited about Christmas as I've ever been... if not more so! Because of this, every December we throw our favorite friends -- both new and vintage -- an annual Christmas party the likes of which are seldom seen. We get the biggest tree our budget will allow (yes... a REAL tree!), set up the bar with good things to drink, gather the musical for a session of carol singing, and then there is the food....
Ah the food at our Christmas party! I've written about some of our standards before: the Tomato-Pistachio Spread and the Chevre with Rosemary and Garlic Olive Oil, the Puff Pastry Rolls and the Chocolate Popcorn, the Baked Brie and the Hot Artichoke Dip... especially that Hot Artichoke Dip, man... but what I think of first and plan the most time for making is, of course, the cookies.
Cookies have were my first foray into baking back when I was a wee thing, and what is Christmas without cookies! Each year Christopher admonishes me for going just a little too far with the cookie selection -- we always have extras -- and each year I push back and try just one more new recipe. Just one more new drop or bar. One new cut-out or gluten-free offering. Slowly but surely, I have gathered a group of cookie recipes that I simply can't live without. Some have appeared here in the past, but far too many have gotten left out, so over the next twelve days, I'm joining the rising tide of "The Twelve Days Of..." and sharing my top twelve Christmas Cookie recipes with the world. And by the world, I mean the Internet.
But because my second (or maybe my most) favorite thing about Christmas is the music, I can't pass up this opportunity to also share a few of my favorites from the ever-growing library of Christmas music that Christopher and I have managed to collect. We're up to 766 songs as I write this... that's one day, 15 hours, and 53 minutes of holiday goodness for those of you playing along at home. We have 8 different versions of "The First Noel," 13 versions of "O Holy Night," and 14 of "The Christmas Song" (aka Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire). We even have two different versions of The Pogues' classic "Fairytale of New York." So yeah... we are hard core in case you were wondering.
A couple of years ago, I posted a "Twelve Songs of Christmas" series, so I feel like this is too good an opportunity to pass up. For the next twelve days, I'll be posting a recipe AND a song each day. This is mostly my effort to get onto the internet more and more of my favorite recipes in one easy-to-find place, but hopefully you'll find some joy in it, too. After all... if you don't like to bake, you might like to eat! And if you don't like Christmas music...
...hm. Well, I guess I can't help you there.
Off we go!
Fabulous food quotes from chefs, epicures, foodies, and films!
Came across this fantastic audio discussion regarding teleportation & time travel today (project pegasus). At first was a little skeptical but after about ten minutes into this discussion it really started to make sense, you have to be a member to hear the second hour and if I could afford membership I would join just to listen to the second hour, however check out the original website at www.redicecreations.com because other than more audio interviews they have an excellent assortment of links to interesting articles and such, check it out. Here's the link I found this little jewel bouncing from here, not quite teleportation however
Just follow this link: http://neverhomemaker.blogspot.com/2009/11/quick-easy-tofu-marinade.html
Just in time for Thanksgiving here is a perfectly yummy dessert that will impress your friends and family. Try it and let me know what you think of this little twist on a traditional apple pie.
Sienna and I were in a baking mood again, you know what that means,
right? Reading cook books and coming up with our own recipes. Sienna
loved helping me. As i made the pie dough I made sure to make extra
so she could play with some. She loved it and spent hours playing with
her special "real" dough. Too Cute. The pie is delicious and was pretty
easy to make. I was able to bring it over to my in laws who loved it as
well. So all around a keeper of a recipe.
Crust
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cold butter
1 tsp. salt
2 to 3 tsp. ice water
(or buy a pie crust, which ever works for you)
Filling
6c. sliced, peeled Granny Smith apples (about 6 apples)
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Crumble Topping
1/3 c. butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make pie dough in food processor. Combine flour, salt and butter until butter is the size of peas. Then slowly at ice water, until the dough makes a ball. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. In large bowl, combine sugar and flour. Mix together with apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Roll out pie dough and place in pie pan. Trim edges and crimp. Take left over dough and put back in food processor and add one tablespoon of flour and mix. You should have small crumbs, sprinkle crumbs on the bottom of pie crust, do NOT press them into the crust. This will help keep your crust from getting soggy. I saw this on food network and it really works.
layer in apple mixture into pie. I think you get a much better result when you layer the apples in the pie, you get less air pockets and more apples. It might take you an extra minute put it really does make a difference. Make French Crumb Topping by mixing 1/3 cup butter and sugars together. Cut in 3/4 cup flour. Sprinkle topping over apples in pie plate. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until topping is golden and apples are tender.
Let cool for at least an hour. Serve warm with ice cream or whip topping.
