Tis the season for craziness – I’ve always wondered why we; I assume we and it’s not just me. Try to fit a few months worth of shopping, baking and cooking into 3 +/- weeks.
I always say I am going to start earlier, not do so much, not spend so much, simplify simplify simplify. I make lists; check them twice, OK at least a dozen times and I still seem to end up running around and spending too much.
The house is super close to being decorated, we still need to get the tree and decorate the porch. If it wasn’t so cold outside I would have done it this weekend. I think I’ll leave the porch to my husband; he is used to working outside.
We haven’t had our annual cookie making day yet, but I did find a sugar cookie recipe that I just had to try. I think what partly sold me was the picture they had with the recipe, they decorated their cookies with white and lite blue icing. My dining room decorations are the same blue and white and they looked super cool.
The cookie recipe was easy to make and tasted excellent. I tried to decorate my cookies with the same white and blue icing. While they don’t look professional like theirs, mine are most definitely mine and I can only imagine mine taste just as delicious as theirs.
Ultimate Christmas Cookie
Makes about 5 dozen 3 inch cookies – preheat oven to 385 degrees (first thing I have ever made at this temperature)
2 ¼ cups sugar
2 tsp salt
½ cup shortening
½ cup butter – softened
3 TBS corn syrup
2 large eggs
¾ cup heavy cream
1 TBS vanilla extract
7 cups cake flour
2 TBS baking powder
Cream the first five ingredients until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl.
Add cream and vanilla and mix slightly. Sift the cake flour and baking powder and add to the mix. Making sure to not over mix.
Chill dough overnight, working in quarters, roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut out shapes using cookie cutters of any shape.
If you don’t have time to decorate with icing you can brush a little milk on each cookie and sprinkle with sugar.
Icing – 2 cups of confectioners sugar with a little milk, it should be thick and just thin enough so it flows out of a pastry bag. if you want color; separate the icing into different bowls. add a drop of two of the color you are looking for.
Bake for 10 minutes – be careful to not over bake – cookies should be lightly baked and will be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
recipe: NHMagazine Dec 2016