Tuesday 9 December 2008

Cookies For Christmas . . .



"Mom is making Christmas"

Cookies baking in the kitchen -
The smell floats through the air,
Mom is making Christmas
With her usual merry flair.

The house she gaily decorated
Each gift she stitched with love
and we'll gather around the Christmas Tree
For an evening of old fashioned fun.

This evening she'll sing a carol for us
with her Angel's voice,
Yes, mom is making Christmas -
A true reason to rejoice.
~Vicky A Luong




One thing that I have long loved to do is a little Christmas Baking. I no longer do it on the scale that I used to do it on when I had five children wrestling with each other at my feet and lots of family living nearby and knocking on my door. Back then, I used to start baking in November, and filling up my freezer with lots of goodies to share. Now . . . there is just Todd and myself, and we live far too far away from family of any sort. Todd only has a very small family, and mine are all in Canada, so there is really nobody much to bake for . . . ceptin Todd and I.



I was thrilled however, when last week I had the opportunity to bake some lovely Christmas Cookies for our Annual Christmas Party at the church I go to!!! Welcome to Tuesday's With Dorie, the weekly baking group that is baking their way through the lovely baking book. "Baking, from my home to yours, by the equally as lovely Dorie Greenspan! This week's recipe was Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies on pages 146-147, as chosen by Ulrike of Küchenlatein .



Thanks so much Ulrike for choosing such a delightful recipe! I love making Christmas Cookies, especially sugar cookies that I can decorate with flair!!! The only hard decision I had to make was . . . hmmm . . . should I make them all different, or should I make them all the same? I decided to make them all the same. I got a new Christmas Tree cookie cutter earlier this year and I was just gagging to use it!



Dorie's recipe is, quite simply . . . L-O-V-E-L-Y. Simple and without any artifice, the dough went together quite easily, and in no time at all, I had it made and resting in the refrigerator. It rolled out like a dream when the time came to roll it out, and before you know it, I had several trays of beautiful looking Christmas trees waiting to go into the oven! They baked up beautifully! Just perfect . . . well . . . all except for the tray that I got distracted by one of the gardeners that was up here helping Todd to find out where the main phone line into this house was. That tray got extra dark, but they did taste good anyways, at least the middle bits did! *blush* We won't talk about that . . .



That night I got down to the business of making some royal icing to ice them with and dug out all my *Christmassy* type of cake decorations to adorn them with. I've never been able to master Martha's method of flooding the cookies so I just dabbed it on and made it look all *foresty* and then dropped the decorations on. I got a bit carried away at the end and had some really psychedelic ones going on!

I just loved this recipe, and judging by the empty plate I brought home at the end of the evening Saturday night, so did everyone else!!!



Next week's recipe is Buttery Jam Cookies on page 80 as chosen by Heather of Randomosity and the Girl. Yummo!!! I love butter. I love jam! I love cookies!!!! Don't you just love Christmas??? It was the one time of the year when I was growing up that we could eat as much as we wanted and there was lots around to eat. Nothing has changed!

If you would like the recipe for the cookies, please check out Ulrike's page later today and make sure you check out the Dorie Blog Roll so that you can see some of the other beautiful creations as well. There are sure to be some really incredible cookies to look at!

In the meantime, here's my recipe for the Royal Icing I used to decorate these little gems with!



*Royal Icing*
Makes about 3 cups

You can substitute meringue powder for the egg whites if you wish. Follow the package directions.

3 egg whites
5 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
juice of 1 large lemon

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until still and glossy on medium high. Stir in the sugar and the lemon juice. The icing should be dense but spreadable. If the icing is too thick, add a drop or two of water. It it's too thin, add more sugar. Tint whichever colour you wish with a few drops of food colouring. Cover until you are ready to use it.

You know . . . there is only one problem with baking cookies to take to a party that are so delicious . . . you end up having to bake more!


36 comments:

  1. Marie - I love those cookies!
    I am soooo behind with just about everything! Your card did go in the post yesterday!! Thank you for yours.
    Ps; I like your new look blog!

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  2. Mmmm, Marie, little gems indeed! I love your tree cookies, with such a great cutter, you were smart to make them all the same shape. And look at the different decorations! Great job.
    Nancy

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  3. Oh how I love frosted Christmas cookies. Wouldn't it be lovely if I could drop by Oak cottage and share a few with you!

    Tonight for Family night Austin, John and I made your reindeer cookies....yummy....could you tell we were thinking about you in your dreams?

    I send love.....good night...upps I mean good morning sweet friend.

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  4. i'm in love with the xmas tree cookies! and where did you get those mini snowmans from? lovely.. now i've got to dig out my own cutter. *argh*

    i do love the new layout of the blog too! The colors are gorgeous!

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  5. As usual, what you've baked looks beautiful -- love the trees. And that illustration -- sooooooo wonderful.

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  6. You really had fun with these! Your little trees are lovely.

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  7. Your cookies are beautiful Marie! I love the way you decorated them! I'm gonna have to try this recipe it sounds very good!

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  8. YES! I just love cookies, I agree with you :) Your snowman decorations are so darn cute! I loved this recipe too. I cut my cookies thicker than recommended and they came out nice and chewy! I'm also with you decorating them in different ways. I used caramel icing I had from another recipe, cream cheese frosting tinted with food coloring and a confectioner's glaze. I even rolled some in colored sugar. YUM!

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  9. Oh, Marie! My Christmas cookies never turn out like these! :(
    They usually still taste good though. :)

    xo
    Di

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  10. Too cute, Marie! I love those little snowmen decorations! I had meant to go shopping to get you some (they have some really nice ones at the Mennonite store) but it just didn't work out. My cookies never turn out as cute as yours, anyways! Much love, Raquel XO

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  11. Oh, I love those sugary little snowmen on the trees. It looks so pretty around here, Marie!

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  12. Oh....your cookies are to adorable for words.

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  13. Those trees turned out soooooooooooo adorable. I love all the variations.

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  14. Thanks for the icing recipe! Your cookies are just beautiful iced with them...such cute little add-ons you have...very nice. Am sure Captain Todd was very pleased.

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  15. Beautiful trees, Marie!
    The icing is so fluffy, it really makes them look like they're all snowed up!
    Gosh! You guys are so lucky to be in the States, where silver beads can even be found in the mulicolored version! COOL!

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  16. Cute cookies Marie! The kids and I decorated cookies last night for Family Night. I think yours look better though. I will have to try that recipe the next time. I hope you have a great day today!

    XOXOXOXO
    Jen

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  17. Oh, so beautiful! Your trees with the pearls and the snowman -- just gorgeous! Thank you for the recipe for Royal Icing -- I'd like to make some of it to use on my next round of these cookies!

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  18. ooh, your trees are beautiful! i love the way you spread the icing. also, those snowmen are adorable:)

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  19. Your cookies with the little snowman and the colored balls are my favorite. The first picture is just how I decorated my cookies.

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  20. Your cookies look so nice good enough to eat. Love old fashioned things atChristmas. Love Joan.

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  21. Like you, I've scaled down my Christmas baking. I am well padded enough without the extra temptation! I think we enjoyed baking so much more when there were hungry, appreciative kids around to help eat up all the goodies. Christmas baking was a real family affair. The children and I would spend a whole day pouring over cook books to select just the ones we'd make that year. Somehow it just isn't the same when it's only me.

    Your biscuits look wonderful. What beautiful sprinkles you have in the UK. They really cheer up the icing and make them very festive.

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  22. Yours look so nice. I wish that I could eat one right now!! I also love your new look.

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  23. Your cookies look beautiful! I tried to use royal icing and the flooding technique on mine but couldn't make it work. :(

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  24. Your cookies look absolutely perfect!!! I love them.

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  25. Those cookies are gorgeous! I love them! I think I'll make them for our office party!

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  26. How absolutely gorgeous are those cookies!? My favorites are the ones with the green royal icing and the little snowmen! So cute!!!

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  27. Yummmm..and what fun Tuesdays with Dorie sounds like!

    I will have to give this recipe a try.

    Blessings,
    Doreen

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  28. I don't do much Christmas baking these days either. Your cookies are too cute, especially the ones with the snowmen :). Your new blog layout is really sweet, too!

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  29. Your cookies look swell. Glad they turned out for you. Royal icing would be good on these.

    Love your new web page, but will miss the pic of the lovely cottage.

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  30. Your sugar cookies are so pretty and festive! Nice work!

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  31. Your foresty trees are gorgeous!

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  32. I love all the different variations of trees that you did. very cute and I love the new look of your blog- it seems to fit your personality!

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  33. Your cookies are so cute. The little gems are adorable

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  34. Ooh what yummy looking cookies - they make me feel sooo excited about Christmas!!!! I love your funky decorations :D x

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