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."
You're my hero, Kyle! When I get to St. Louis next week, I'm making
these and the choc. chip cookies. Thanks for the inspiration. Merry
Christmas with your oven-mitts down, cb
Posted by: Chris | 12/17/2009 at 10:14 PM
Good man, CBaum! This dough is ideal for young hands to get involved because it's so forgiving... it can be rolled, and re-rolled and re-rolled. The colder the better, though, and the more you roll it (and the more flour you add) the tougher the cookies get.
Have a great Christmas!
Posted by: Kyle Minor | 12/18/2009 at 12:05 AM