I have been baking Christmas cookies with my kids since they were little. Actually, my mother-in-law handed me the job of making all cut-out Christmas cookies for the family long before I had children when she realized that my husband and I were doing it anyway. She delivered a large bag (garbage-sized bag, to be exact) of Christmas cookie cutters to our house. From then on, it was our job to make cookies.
Once we had children, it was much more fun, even though it was more complicated and certainly messier. But, it was worth it for the shared tradition, the time spent together being creative, and the opportunity to share the gift of a plate of cookies with friends and neighbors. And, of course, because the cookies are delicious!
I’ve learned a thing or two over the years though that might stream-line the process for you and your loved ones – which recipes are good, which tools work well, how kids can help and learn, and how the process changes as the children get older.
Choosing the Recipe and Making the Dough
Our goal each December is to make a variety of cookies and Christmas treats that we can share with others. So we tend to make different kinds of cookies, brownies, etc. Each year the lineup changes, but every year we make iced, cut-out sugar cookies.
If you are looking to make a variety, it’s fun to check out the seasonal issues of various food magazines. I have some that I have kept for years just as I would a cookbook. But I also have some favorite cookbooks which I’ve had for years: The Joy of Cooking’s Christmas Cookies, by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker, and The Christmas Cookie Deck. I look at these every year for new ideas. However, the very best recipe I have found for cut-out sugar cookies came from an on-line source: Click Here. It is my favorite from both taste and ease perspectives. It is excellent because it does not require refrigeration prior to rolling, cutting, and baking. So that’s my go-to. I can’t tell you how many people have asked for the recipe over the years.
When your kids are little, it’s fun to have them help mix up the dough. It helps them learn math to do the measuring and to think about the fractions involved. It is also good for even younger ones to just pour the measured amounts into the mixer – it helps with coordination. And, of course, it is also good for all of us to see where our food really comes from.
One true splurge that I think makes a big impact is to use Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste. And, what a splurge it is! A 4 oz. bottle is currently listed for about $28 at Williams-Sonoma right now. Although I believe I bought mine for about half that at Whole Foods the other day, it’s still crazy expensive and not a requirement. But, it does have a more intense flavor than regular vanilla extract.
Cookie Cutters and Rolling the Dough
The kids also like to help pick out which cookie cutters to use and to do some of the cutting. My experience is that they will often prefer the cutters that, in the end, make cookies that are harder to decorate or easier to break in the process. But, that’s all good learning, too!
Rolling the dough can be tricky. If the dough is too sticky, just keep sprinkling more flour. But don’t try to make the whole bowl of dough perfect. Pull out a ball to work with and add flour there if necessary. Toss flour on the counter top and sprinkle over the top of the ball before beginning to roll it. That ensures that you don’t accidentally add too much.
Roll the dough out with whatever rolling pin you have. I have had a few over the years and my most recent one – a wonderful going away gift by a friend when I moved here to Coronado – is now my favorite. It is heavy and marble. The weight helps you roll the dough well and the cool stone helps keep the dough from sticking. Can you tell yet? I am all about flavor and look, but it needs to come with a great deal of ease!
Most recipes will tell you to roll the dough very, very thin. I roll it somewhat thicker – enough so as to handle easily. You don’t want to be peeling up your cut-out only for it to break, tear or stick to your countertop. You’ll see as you bake what the right thickness is. Too thin, they are hard to handle; too thick and they spread into blobs while baking.
Have more baking pans than your oven can accommodate. It makes it easier because then you don’t have to wait for the one you just used to cool to load it up with another batch of cookies.
Once you put the cookies in the oven, certainly use a timer, but also watch the time. I usually need to bake the cookies a little longer than the recipe says and I usually prefer them when they are a little brown around the edges. I used to think that meant they were overdone, but then I read somewhere about how the French have mastered the fine art of baking sugar – which involves browning it. Since then, I’ve learned to let the cookies cook a bit longer, and my kids and I agree that it works. If you think they might be too brown to look nice, it won’t actually matter because you will ice them and no one will ever know why they taste so good!
Decorating
Over the years I have used a variety of icings for the cookies. They are all good for different purposes. I used to use a standard icing recipe. It tastes good and is easy to work with, but you will never get the picture perfect, smooth icing that you see in pictures. For that, you should use a royal icing recipe. For a lot of years, I was put off by royal icing because it seemed too onerous. Then I found meringue powder. It makes it super simple; use it in place of the Just Whites in this recipe below that I cut out of a magazine somewhere along the line.
Controlled piping on your cookies can be beautiful, but, we’ve found a lot of luck just using icing and dribbling what you would normally pipe from the edge of a very small spatula. If you do pipe icing, we’ve found it’s easier to work with a reusable pastry bag rather than the disposable ones. And, you might as well have an entire set of tips – you can really get creative (but they really aren’t necessary for pretty cookies).
Then there is the question of colors. My mother-in-law told me to just make white icing and let the kids use decorations to make the cookies colorful. I never abided by that, and this year my kids had the most fun mixing up various colors instead of using the simple and more traditional green and red and blue. They did it by mixing primary colors together. This is really the most fun they’ve had making cookies in the last few years. So what if we had a few brown Christmas trees and mulch-colored ornaments?
You can also get really fancy food dye gels. I didn’t use them this year, but I have in years past. They are terrific for getting odd colors that you otherwise couldn’t mix up without a lab, but also if you want to get a truly rich red or green, for instance. I used to have a set from a brick and mortar store, but haven’t noticed any recently. You can buy on-line however (of course).
We generally ice the cookies and also stick on decorations – little candies, red and green balls, snowflakes, etc. Certain tools can make all of this easier – the little offset spatulas, icing spatulas, icing paintbrushes, and even tweezers! All of these can generally be purchased at craft stores.
At some point, you get tired of decorating… But you might still have dough left. The best news is that really all you have to do to make a plate of pretty cookies is to cut them out, place them on your pans, and sprinkle with pretty sanding sugars and bake. When they come out of the oven, they are all done!
There is one critical danger. You may be tasting so often while decorating that you might not have many left for gifts. Local realtor, Meridith Metzger, described just this problem as she reminisced about baking cookies as a kid: “Growing up, my family would decorate elaborate sugar cookies every year, and my three brothers and I would horse around so much that very few cookies would survive till the end. We took liberties ‘sampling’ as we decorated. A piece here, a piece there. Even though she [our mother] supplied us with horses, gingerbread men, stars and saints, by the end of our session, most were missing key parts of their shapes. My poor mother never had a decent plate of cookies to offer guests!”
Gingerbread Houses
One year, also before we had kids, my mother-in-law was surprised to find my husband and me one Saturday morning, working away at baking homemade gingerbread with the expectation of making a house from scratch. What a fail!
After that, we learned to buy the readily available kits and enhance them with extra decorations from our supplies. Once we had kids, we had the process down pat – enough so that when our youngest son was in kindergarten we were willing to host ten young boys to build and decorate their own gingerbread houses.
Editor’s Note: Luan gifted my family with a plate of her homemade cookies, and we ate them all in one night. They were delicious, and beautiful!
