Time for Special Cookies

First published on 12/17/12

Two rolled cookie recipes--old fashioned sugar cookies and Swedish ginger cookies--are included today, along with a basic powdered sugar frosting, but first, some reminiscing.

The local paper this week featured a woman with over a thousand different cookie cutters. While I never came close to that number, I did have a collection that included everything from basic circles to an over-sized Mickey Mouse. I don't remember where the huge lime green mouse cutter came from, but I do know that it was never used, just like many of the others I amassed over the years.

Christmas shapes monopolized my collection, but I did have a lot of animals and a few for other holidays like a fat turkey and a shamrock. Over the years, one set of the Christmas cookie cutters ended up becoming decor for my kitchen at the holidays and most of the rest just sat in their old three pound coffee can storage home.

I enjoy the memories of decorating cut out cookies with the kids over the years, but I also know that these are not at all my favorite cookies, both for flavor (I have never cared for any kind of frosting) and all the effort that goes into them. I have also gone through far too many recipes that turned out to be almost impossible to roll easily.

So, a few years ago, I took the drastic step of giving almost all my cookie cutters away--even more than I intended as it turns out, since a container of "keepers" ended up going out the door to the thrift store too.  Suddenly, I had almost no cookie cutters when I began making a batch of cookies for the grandchildren to frost and sprinkle to death. Thanks to the dollar store, however, I now have six basic shapes, in addition to the round biscuit/donut cutter that makes a wonderful wreath, and this small number of choices has really made it easier to cut out cookies with little ones. No more lengthy decisions over which of dozens of shapes to cut; just make another tree and one more star and you are done.

Now my only decision process involves which recipe to make. While the cake mix dough is a great, easy fall back recipe (you can find that one at cake mix cookies), I really wanted to make some "from-scratch" ones today. So there are now two balls of dough chilling and ready to cut out later today.  One thing I have learned over the years:  If you are going to make rolled out cookies for the holidays, try to do them all at once. You'll have just one day of flour-y messes on the table, one extended oven use, and only one clean up of cookies, rolling pin, etc.)

The first batch of the day is a basic sugar cookie. Over the years this has been perhaps the hardest kind to get "right." The following is based on one from an "antique" recipe card in my mother's files, a promotional recipe from Robin Hood flour.  It is not all that different from many others that I have tried, but this one seems to have just the right mix of butter, sugar, and flour to roll easily and not end up tough or flavorless. I have enhanced it with more extracts to further remove it from blandness, but other than that, the recipe stands much as it was written years ago.

Robin Hood Sugar Cookies

3/4 cup butter, softened (but not melted)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup milk

1.  Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg and extracts until well mixed and light. 
2.  Sift the flour and baking powder together and add alternately with the milk. Stir just until the mixture is well blended.
3.  Form into a ball with your hands and chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. This makes the dough easier to roll out.
4.  Roll to desired thickness and cut in desired shapes. Use a mixture of about half powdered sugar, half flour for rolling the dough. This will keep the cookies from becoming tough due to too much flour mixed in--always a danger if you have lots of little "helpers" in the rolling and cutting step.
NOTE:  The original recipe suggests sprinkling the cookies with sugar at this point. However, because we always frost these, I omit that step.
5.  Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes, depending on thickness of the cookies. They should begin to turn lightly golden at the edges. If you press lightly on the center of a cookie, it should spring back.
6.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on racks before frosting.

After frosting and decorating the cookies, allow them to dry thoroughly. Then store in a tightly covered container, placing waxed paper between each layer of cookies. 

The yield is hard to determine, as it will depend on the size of the cookie cutters being used as well as the thickness you choose. Thicker cookies will be softer and more cake-like while those rolled more thinly will be more crisp.

Decorating the cookies

Materials and equipment for any really fun decorating time could/should include the following:

• Frosting--I make one gigantic batch of powdered sugar icing (see below) and then divide it into smaller bowls, with food coloring added to each. We always have lots of green and red, with smaller amounts of blue and yellow. Over half of the frosting remains uncolored, as white is the best backdrop for many sprinkle toppings, and this allows me to add dye to more of any specific color that may run out early. 
• Sprinkles and colored sugars--the sky is the limit on these. If you are frugal, you will watch for markdowns after the holidays, since the shelf life is virtually endless and the size of these little bottles is so small, there is not a lot of trouble in keeping them from season to season.
• chocolate chips, M and Ms, etc.
• Red hot cinnamon candies--This is another item that is often available at very low prices after both Christmas and Valentine's Day, and no reindeer cookie seems complete without a red cinnamon nose
• Craft sticks (see photo)--These are probably the very best frosting spreaders for little hands and for somewhat detailed additions to the decorations
• Toothpicks--These are even better if you have "artists" working in really fine detail on cookies
• Small dishes that are fairly flat but that have resealable covers--these are the kinds of containers that are best for each color of frosting. They don't tip easily, allow even the smallest decorator to use without difficulty and can be closed between decorating sessions without having the frosting dry out
• Baking sheets or trays with at least a small edge--This is where you want to put the cookies that are having sprinkles poured on, so that tables, floors and everything else don't become littered with the overflow. These are also helpful for spreading out the cookies to be sure they are completely dry before being put into storage containers.

The second batch of cookies has shown up on this blog before (December 10, 2010, if you want to look it up), but I'm posting the recipe again for ease in locating it. It has an unusual method, so read the instructions before starting out.  Overall, it's a very easy cookie to make, with the dough exceptionally easy to work with.

Swedish Gingerbread Cookies

2/3 cup dark molasses
2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons ginger (we like our cookies spicy, so you could reduce this if desired)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (optional)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup butter
1 large egg, slightly beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1.  Cut the butter into chunks in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

2.  Combine the molasses, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon in a very large saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. When it is just beginning to boil, stir in the baking soda and continue to heat until the mixture is very light and foamy.

3.  Remove from heat and pour over the butter. Stir until the butter is melted and blended in. If the mixture is still very hot, you may want to let it cool for 3 to 5 minutes (no longer) before adding egg.

4.  Beat the egg just enough to mix the yolk and white well and then stir quickly into the molasses and butter mixture.

5.  Stir in the flour a cup at a time and mix well. Toward the end you may want to use your hands to mix evenly, gently kneading the dough to develop a smooth, evenly mixed ball.

6.   Roll out the cookies as thick or as thin as you like. Use a mixture of half powdered sugar and flour on the board you are using to roll out the cookies. I prefer about 1/4 inch thickness for very crisp cookies. Place on well-oiled pans and bake at 350 degrees for 11 to 14 minutes, depending on size and thickness of your cookies. Store tightly covered until ready to decorate.

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And finally, a basic powdered sugar recipe for frosting cookies. These measurements will remain quite approximate, since the amount of milk the sugar will absorb can vary quite a bit, probably dependent on the amount of humidity in the air (or phase of the moon, for all I know. It just seems like you always have to add a little more milk and then, oops, now a little too thin, so a little more powdered sugar!) The key for this kind of decorating is to keep the butter content a little lower than a usual butter cream frosting so that it hardens more quickly and thoroughly--the better to stack and store what will soon otherwise take over every square inch of kitchen counter space!)

Powdered Sugar Frosting for Decorating Cookies

1 lb powdered sugar
1 tablespoon softened (or melted) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
milk--about 2 tablespoons to start

Combine the powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the 2 tablespoons of milk and beat until smooth, adding a small amount of milk at a time to reach the desired consistency. If you add a little too much, just stir in a little more powdered sugar. To color, put small amounts of frosting in separate bowls and add a few drops of liquid food coloring or tiny amounts (I use a toothpick to transfer these) of gel coloring. If the frosting thickens too much to spread, add a few drops of milk and stir well.

Note: The amount of butter can easily be adjusted to another tablespoon or two. The more butter, the softer the finished icing will be. 

Rolled Cookie Basics

For many of us, this is the only time of year that we get out the cookie cutters, rolling pins, and often tattered and stained recipe cards from Grandma, ready to tackle the great American rolled cookie tradition.

And for many of us, this ends up meaning a mess in the kitchen, shapes that seem almost impossible to get right, and ultimately sometimes tough and not very tasty cookies. To help avoid some of these problems, here are some helpful hints you might want to try.

Recipes

When you find a recipe that works, KEEP IT! If you do a search, you will find millions upon millions of variations. Some will work well for you; some will be total frustrations.

My cake mix cookie dough recipe (Cake Mix Cookies) is one very easy recipe. It is also acceptable (though not always the most inexpensive way to go) to buy cookie dough for rolling out.

Be aware that butter, margarine, and solid shortening may each require slightly different amounts of flour. If you substitute one for the other, don't be surprised if you need to add a bit more or less flour. When in doubt, start with slightly less flour than called for and then gradually add more until the dough is no longer sticky but also is not too dry. (If you do reach a point where the dough is crumbly and won't form a ball, add a few drops of water at a time, using your hands to mix it in.)

Unless the recipe calls for it, don't melt the fat that you will be using. To do so may mean that you will end up adding more flour than is really desirable. Having the fat at a soft, room temperature stage will make mixing much easier however. 

Don't over-mix your dough. This isn't bread dough, so kneading isn't what you want to do!

Preparation

Almost all rolled cookies will be easier to roll if the dough is chilled for several hours or overnight. It should be wrapped in waxed paper or plastic wrap or stored in a tightly covered bowl to avoid having it dry out. If you make the dough ahead and freeze it (an option with almost all of these recipes), bring it to refrigerator temperature for ease in rolling.

Sift together a mixture of flour and powdered sugar (about 1 or 2 parts flour to each part of powdered sugar). Use this to spread lightly on the area where you will be rolling your cookies. (Some people suggest using some baking cocoa powder added to the flour and powdered sugar for chocolate cookies, to mask the whitish coating flour can leave.) You may need to add more of this mixture as you continue to roll out more cookies.

Rolling and cutting

Roll small amounts of dough at a time. For most recipes, you should divide the dough in two to three parts, shape each lightly into a ball, and place the unused dough balls back in the refrigerator.  To keep the thickness as even as possible, roll lightly in one direction at a time, lifting the rolling pin at the end of each stroke to avoid having the edges end up thinner than the rest.

In general, the thicker the dough, the softer the cookie; the thinner the dough, the crispier the cookies are likely to be. Some recipes will specify the preferred thickness, but, to be honest, it may be very difficult to measure whether your dough is a quarter or an eighth of an inch thick. The key, really, is to make sure that all the cookies on an individual cookie sheet are all as close to the same thickness as possible. Sometimes running your hand lightly over the dough will help you to feel spots that are thicker or thinner than others.



Always try to cut your cookies with a minimal amount of space between them. You will want to re-roll the scraps and make more cookies, but the fewer times you re-roll, the less added flour will be incorporated. Too much and those later cookies may become tough and less flavorful.

Use the thinnest spatula you have to lift off cookies that may stick to the board. If you do encounter a lot of sticking, add more of the flour and powdered sugar mix in those areas.

Check your recipe to see if the cookie sheets should be oiled first. If in doubt, use a little oil or cooking spray--you don't want to make perfect cookies only to have them break because they stick to the sheet when you try to take them off. 

Place the cookies on the tray with space to spread. Not sure how much this recipe will "grow" while cooking? Bake a couple of "test cookies" to see how much they spread, and then space the rest of the cookies on sheets as far apart as necessary.

The more basic the shape, the easier the process will be. Again, be aware that many recipes will spread enough that the original shape may be less distinct after baking.



Re-rolling scraps

When you have cut as many cookies as possible out of your dough, gather the scraps and lightly shake off as much excess flour as possible. Place the scraps in a small container and refrigerate while rolling the next batch of dough.

When you have finished rolling out all the balls of dough, gather the scraps and gently mold into a ball. Roll again and cut. You can continue to re-roll the scraps until you have almost nothing left. (Challenge yourself to find the cutters that will best fit into the small amounts of remaining dough.) The last little piece can either be eaten (think cookie dough ice cream!) or shaped into a small round shape the same thickness as the other cookies. When that last pan is baked, that little "leftover" circle is a wonderful excuse to do a "taste test"!

Baking and cooling

Unless you are making a test cookie as noted above, I recommend that you roll out and make enough cookies to fill all your available cookie sheets before even turning the oven on. This saves on the cost of having the oven heating while nothing is in it and makes the overall process much more streamlined.

Almost all cookies will take only minutes to bake, and the amount of time needed will be greatly affected by the thickness of the cookies, the kind of pan used, and even the size of each individual cookie. You should plan on checking a minute or two before the earliest recommended time for your first pan or two.

In general, cookies should be taken off the cookie sheets and put on racks to cool almost immediately after removing from the oven. A few very tender varieties might need to be left on the pans for a minute or two--the directions should tell you that. If you wait too long to remove the cookies, you may have more troubles with the cookies sticking.

Until the cookies are thoroughly cool, do not try to stack them or overlap in any way.

When the cookies have been completely cooled, store them as directed in the recipe. If the recipe doesn't tell you what is the best approach, assume they should be kept tightly covered.

Try to avoid stacking cookies of the same shape directly on top of each other--instead, stagger the stacking, as they are less likely to stick to each other when you do this. If you have soft cookies, it will be a good idea to put waxed paper between each layer.

Decorating the cookies

If a simple sugared topping is desired, you can sprinkle the cookies with the decorative sugar of your choice before baking. If you wait until after baking, you may need to brush the cookies lightly with a tiny amount of water or milk, to make sure the sugar adheres to the cookies.

If you choose to frost the cookies, an icing that has less butter or cream cheese than a typical cake frosting will result in a better topping, one that will become, and stay, firm.

After frosting the cookies, allow to sit for an hour or so to thoroughly dry.  The cookies should generally be stored in single layers. If space limitations mean you have to stack them, place waxed paper between layers.

Special notes for making cookies with children

 If this is going to be a project to do with kids, do allow for creativity. Make a large batch of powdered sugar frosting and then put small amounts in separate bowls. Add food coloring of your choice to each. Gather toppings like colored sugars and sprinkles, red hot candies, chocolate chips, etc. Provide lots of craft sticks for spreading, one per color per kid. Give each child a baking sheet or tray with sides so that sprinkles are corraled more easily. Then, it is creativity time.

One extra hint: You probably will want to set some ground rules at the beginning, such as, only one or two chocolate chips or similar toppings per cookie, no overly thick frosting, etc. As you can see from these three recently decorated cookies, kids love thick frosting and bright and imaginative color schemes.

These may not be the cookies you take to that special office buffet, but they are great gifts for fond relatives--or for the family's own holiday desserts.

A New Christmas Cookie, Along with an Old Standby

Yesterday we started decorating Christmas cookies, even though the weather altered the plans a little. In the middle of a blizzard, only my two youngest grandsons, ages 4 1/2 and 6, along with their parents, were here to enjoy the fun. I had planned to make cookies ahead so that there would only be decorating done with the kids, but the weather changed that too, and we ended up rolling out and cutting cookies as a group. Fortunately, the recipes I had chosen were easily worked and both proved to be "kid-proof" both at the rolling and decorating stages.

The first recipe is one that I received from my sister Alice many years ago, and it is still a handy one to keep around. This dough ends up remarkably like play dough in consistency and the cookies end up crisp and tasty. I made two batches, one with a chocolate cake mix and one with a white cake mix, the variations another advantage to the recipe.

I am not a huge fan of ginger cookies but wanted to try out something that could be the basis for "real" gingerbread men. The second recipe is an adaptation of Maida Heatter's Swedish Gingerbread Cookies that seems to be fairly common on the web. After making it, I can understand why. It met both the qualifications of ease of handling and great flavor equally well, along with being reasonable in price. This is definitely one I will plan to make again.

SPECIAL NOTE:

For either kind of cookie, or for ANY rolled cookies for that matter, here is a secret to avoid tough cookies, even with the re-rolled scraps: Spread your rolling surface with a mixture of half and half flour and powdered sugar instead of just flour. (I have also seen a recommendation to use cocoa in place of the powdered sugar for chocolate cookies, but I have never found that necessary.) If you find that you have a very flour-y surface on some of the cookies, you can lightly dampen a paper towel and brush some of the flour off before or after baking.

Frosting and Decorating!

For frosting, I make a very basic powdered sugar icing, in large quantity since I will also use this for icing the many coffee cakes that are also part of the Christmas baking here. Then I put varying amounts in resealable plastic containers and add food coloring to each. This year, we started with just red, green, and yellow--no blue for now. There is of course, lots of frosting left white, because that works best as a basis for colored sprinkles and sugars.

Ah the sprinkles.

There are all different colored sugars, chocolate and multi-colored sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, and red hot cinnamon candies for adding to the decorative creations. These are arranged on a tray in the middle of the table and each decorator also has his or her own cookie sheet or cake pan with sides to keep in stray sprinkles. The frostings are each supplied with several "Popsicle" type craft sticks, as these work far better than anything else for spreading the frosting. Toothpicks are also available for the more detailed efforts of many of our cookie designers. You will also need lots of room for the creative efforts to be spread out to dry; stacking too quickly destroys a lot of the best designs!

Never Fail Rolled Cookies

1 package cake mix, any flavor, two layer size
2 to 3 T softened butter
1 egg
1 T water

Begin mixing with a fork and then use your hands to make a ball of dough almost the consistency of Play-Dough. The dough does not need to be refrigerated. If you do chill it, remove it from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before beginning to roll. (Note that this is different from most rolled cookies.)

Using about a quarter of the dough at a time, roll it out on a mixture of flour and powdered sugar. I prefer them quite thin, but they can be anywhere from an eighth to a quarter inch thick; the key to any rolled cookie is to make sure there are no spots much thicker than others.

Cut the cookies as close to each other as possible to minimize scraps, but you can shake as much flour as possible off the scraps and press them all together into a ball before re-rolling.

Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet about a half inch apart. Bake at 375 degrees until just done. This will be anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies.

Remove immediately from the pans and cool on racks. Store in a tightly covered container until ready to decorate.

NOTE: You can also shape this dough into one inch balls and then roll in chopped nuts, sugar and cinnamon, or colored sugars before baking. Press slightly to flatten before baking.

Swedish Gingerbread Cookies

2/3 cup dark molasses
2/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 c butter OR mixture of half butter and half rendered chicken fat
1 large egg, slightly beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Cut the butter and/or fat into chunks in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Combine the molasses, sugar, ginger, and cinnamon in a very large saucepan and slowly bring to a boil. When it is just beginning to boil, stir in the baking soda and continue to heat until the mixture is very light and foamy. Remove from heat and pour over the butter. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is evenly blended.

Beat the egg just enough to mix the yolk and white well and then stir quickly into the molasses mixture. Stir in the flour a cup at a time and mix well. Toward the end you may want to use your hands to mix evenly, gently kneading the dough to develop a smooth, evenly mixed ball.

Roll out the cookies as thick or as thin as you like. I made these about 1/4 inch thick for a very crisp cookie. Place on well-oiled pans and bake at 350 degrees for 11 to 14 minutes. Store tightly covered until ready to decorate.

Rendered Chicken Fat

Using half rendered chicken fat makes these cookies especially light and crispy, with absolutely no taste of the chicken if the fat is properly prepared. To render chicken fat:

Cut all loose, outside, fat from chicken pieces and put in a saucepan with enough water to almost cover. You may also include chicken skin in this pan. Cover the pan, bring to a boil, and cook over low to medium heat for about 45 minutes to an hour. Pour the mixture into a colander or strainer and let drain without pressing the solids. Put into a wide-mouthed container and chill. The rendered fat will harden on top of the liquid which can then be discarded.

Note that the fat and skin must be removed before any seasoning of the chicken and before the chicken is cooked, to avoid mixing any flavor of the meat to enter the fat.

Chicken fat is found in some very old-fashioned recipes and can add a light texture to many baked goods. Even though it carries little or no flavor, you may want to use it only in baked goods with other strong flavors predominating--like ginger cookies and gingerbread!