More Cookies

This is the last cookie post of 2009.

I promise.

It's just—how can I post holiday cookie pics after the holidays?

So it has to happen now.

Holiday cookie-making is like a art project in our house. Lots of paint brushes are used.

To start, you need an easy sugar cookie recipe that won't spread. Try this one. It makes buttery cookies that don't puff and totally hold their shape when baked.

I suggest you halve the recipe, because otherwise you end up with enough cookies for an army. However, the dough freezes well, so go ahead and make the whole recipe if you think you're gonna need it.

As soon as the dough is made, roll it out between sheets of parchment paper and refrigerate it that way. I find this works better than refrigerating the dough and then rolling it out, because the act of rolling out the dough can warm it up too much. It's best to cut out shapes with dough straight from the fridge.

Since we usually have friends over for cookie making/decorating, I roll it into about 8 circles and stack them in the fridge. If you have 6 people decorating and you reroll the scraps, eventually everyone will have a least 2 circles of dough to cut out and decorate as they want.

The first day, we used a tempura wash and crushed sour balls to make painted stained glass cookies. The tempura gives the cookies a beautiful jewel-like sheen.

The Vegetarian eschewed the cookie cutters and created this cookie instead. She at first said it was Alice, her friend with beautiful curly red hair.
Then she painted a mask on Alice and proclaimed her a robber.

She didn't care one whit when I admonished, as she was making the cookie, that it would never come off the parchment in one piece.

Then she proved me wrong.

The next day, we switched gears and used a glace icing, which is put on after baking. Glace icing, like all most uncooked powdered sugar icings, tastes terrible, but the kids love it and it looks great.

I'm not sure why, but I was obsessed with the goat cookie cutter this year.

Finally, I made these for the Soccer Monster's class party. He loves meringue cookies because they don't adulterate his sugary pleasure with fat or nuts or other annoying ingredients.

The mushrooms were much easier to make than I had expected. I didn't do things as fussily as the recipe suggested, and I stuck the caps and stems together with melted dark chocolate, rather than more meringue. Also, if you want a lot of these, double the recipe, because I only got about a dozen smallish mushrooms out of this. Which is great if you're decorating a Buche de Noel or something, but not so great if you want a heaping basketful.

Honestly, try these. They're fun and hard to mess up.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

It's cookie season. Lots of fresh-baked cookies around here. Recently I made these chocolava cookies. But since the first time I made them I've had to change a few things. The chocolavas are supposed to be rolled in powdered sugar, and I can't abide things rolled in powdered sugar. (Yes, I'm talking to you Mexican wedding cakes and powdered doughnuts!) So I switched it out for regular old granulated sugar. And I wanted my cookies to be super-crackly crinkly on top, so I added some baking soda to the dough. Oh, and I flattened 'em out before baking, cause I don't like a puffy mound of cookie, I like a flat circle of cookie. So here goes:

The ingredients are pretty simple. • flour • sugar • brown sugar • cocoa • baking powder • baking soda • salt • butter • eggs • vanilla

First you mix the dry ingredients together with the butter, until the mixture kinda feels like sand. It's a little like making pie dough. Best to do this with your hands. I tried making these in the food processor once and they came out tough.

Then add the eggs and mix them in until the dough comes together. It might seems a little crumbly at first, but if you get in there with your hands it will come together.

Now take tablespoon-sized balls and roll them in some sugar. It can get a little sticky, but just work through it. Place on a baking sheet about 2 inches apart. (I could get about 20 on mine)

Tangent: Don't you just love silpats? Paul, my manager, hates them and constantly makes fun of me for having them, but I swear, they are one of the best kitchen inventions EVER! Paul doesn't know what he's missing!

(Paul: you don't know what you're missing. Try one and you will fall in love like I have!)

Use the bottom of a glass to flatten each ball.

Bake for about 10 minutes at 350. I turn mine halfway through because I have a very emotionally unstable oven. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a rack.

Then give them to your kids and see some smiles. Sophisticated, these cookies are not. But they are delicious. Especially if, like me, you had a serious recent childhood obsession with Archway dutch cocoa cookies.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

1 1/3 cups flour

1 cup sugar plus extra for rolling

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp coffee

• Preheat oven to 350.

• In a bowl, combine the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together.

• Add eggs, vanilla, and coffee and mix by hand until the dough comes together.

• Place some sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll heaping tbs of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place on silpat-lined or greased baking sheet about 2" apart.

• bake for 10-12 minutes, until crinkly on top and set around edges. Don't overbake, as you want them fudgy in the middle.

• Leave on baking sheet to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

• Eat with tall cold glass of milk.

Cookie Monster

The Soccer Monster has a problem.

A big problem.

He's addicted to sugar.

And like many addicts, he can exhibit some unsavory behavior when it comes to his addiction. He can wheedle and whine. He can plead and petition. He can even cry over sugar. (Which, when it happens, makes me feel like I have done the most god-awful parenting job in the world. Who lets their kid cry over sugar, for chrissakes?)

But sometimes, like all addicts, he can turn on the charm to get what he wants.

The other day, out of the blue, he handed me this:

I let him sweat for a few days. But then, because I am an enabler (Aren't all moms?) I gave in and decided to do what he asked.

But I chose peanut butter cookies. Peanut butter has protein. It has fat. If, like the Soccer Monster, you resemble a late-stage famine victim, it's actually good for you.

I'd never made peanut butter cookies before. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. I had to pick the kids up at 3.

So this recipe, in its simplicity, appealed to me.

It has exactly four ingredients: sugar, eggs, chocolate kisses, and peanut butter.

And there's no mixer involved. Simply take a whisk and mix together the eggs, peanut butter, and sugar until it looks like this:

Then take a measuring tablespoon and measure out level tablespoons, roll them into balls, and place on the cookie sheet. The recipe said to flour your hands because the mixture would be sticky, but I didn't find this necessary.

When your cookie sheet is full like this:

Put it in a 350 oven for about 12 minutes.

While the cookies are baking, unwrap as many chocolate kisses as you have cookies on the sheet. (I had 20, but probably could have fit more. They don't spread much.)

When the cookies come out of the oven, while they're hot, press a kiss into the top of each one. Let cool.

Eat.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Kisses

2 cups creamy peanut butter (natural is ok)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

chocolate kisses

1) Heat oven to 350.

2) In a bowl with a whisk, cream together eggs, peanut butter, and sugar.

3) Use a measuring tablespoon to measure out level tablespoons of the dough. roll into balls and place on cookie sheets.

4) Bake for about 12 minutes.

5) As soon as they come out of the oven, place a kiss on top of each one, pressing down so that the kiss sinks in a little.