« Plain Vanilla | Main | Other Cookies and Datiles con Bacon »
December 18, 2006
Holiday Baking, Take 2
We had a very small gathering to show off our tree last night. To make the occasion properly festive, I figured some homemade holiday cookies should be present. I should know better than to find recipes at the last minute and expect to emerge from the kitchen with a gorgeous holiday platter of baked goods, but last year's fudge fiasco did little to deter me. I found a recipe online for spiced sugar cookies, and the reviews were good, so I charged ahead. (Note: Normal recipe sources, like Epicurious, also have this recipe, but they all use vegetable shortening).
I made the dough early because, uncharacteristically, I read the recipe ahead of time and saw the note about refrigerating the dough for "a few hours." (Why is this necessary, anyway?) This represents considerable progress in my recipe-reading skills -- not only did I pick up ingredients ahead of time because I read the ingredients list, but I read the directions as well. Only I didn't exactly read the whole thing because I didn't realize a cookie cutter was required until I had already rolled out the dough (you'd think the rolling of the dough would have been a good clue, no? I suppose I was expecting to be told to slice it into squares with dental floss, or some such ingenious non-cookie-cutter-requiring solution).
So, at about the time that someone was buzzing our buzzer, I was rolling little balls of dough, smashing them into discs (which probably negated the chilling effects of the refrigerator), and madly shaking sugar crystals all over the counter. I made two batches, and I managed to forget completely, each time, that I was baking cookies at all until they were rather brown (mostly dark brown). We ate them anyway, but I knew I could probably coax a better cookie out of the dough. And finally, tonight, I did. I used a knife to make rounds and then popped them in the oven for 6 minutes (during which time I forbade myself the use of the internet, for fear of overbaking whilst reading bloggish drivel). The cookies are good -- not as spicy as hoped (the recipe calls for cinnamon, ground cloves, and allspice), but very good anyway. I am curious to know if I can skip the whole regfrigeration and rolling and shaping steps ... might have to try that. Or not. They taste similar to the snickerdoodles I made from my chilren's cookbook as a kid, and I don't remember any rolling for them...
Update: Nevermind. The cookies were good right out of the oven, but they're sort of blah today. Anyone have a great cookie recipe?
I actually got one for ginger cookies from the pastry chef at Stone Park Cafe a while back -- I would make them, but the measurements are all metric (argh).
Posted by csageday at December 18, 2006 11:27 PM
Comments
Dude, we could totally swap holiday cookie baking stories this year. I tried to make my favorite German cookies, which you're supposed to be able to roll and cut, but that was totally not happening. I did the blob-on-sheet, flatten with spoon method and now they look no-so-very, but taste about right. And ask Jeff about his adventures with cookie dough. He'd never made roll-and-cut cookies before and we had a bit of an adventure involving the refrigerator, the freezer and the microwave before they made it in to the oven. But they came out well.
Posted by: Amber at December 20, 2006 10:51 AM
I'm coming to this discussion late, but you refrigerate the dough to set it. Otherwise, it's too gloppy to cut. I suck at cutter cookies, because they are muy dificil. But I bow down to my friend, Liz, who after much practice has become the cookie maestro. I plan to hitch my wagon to her cookie star in some way, but haven't figured out how we will make our first billion.
Posted by: melissa at December 21, 2006 02:33 PM
Have you seen those $5 cookies that appear around Easter with the elaborate icing designs? Get Liz to make some. Create some celebrity versions (this is your forte, not mine, or I'd offer a suggestion here). Advertize via Daily Candy or somesuch. Sell to wealthy Manhattanites for billions.
I don't like cookie cutter cookies because you're supposed to bake them until the edges are brown, and I can't stand that. My Rules for Cookies were established back when I was 5, and brown means burned. Obviously I have some issues to work through here.
Posted by: Cindy at December 21, 2006 05:17 PM