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Baking Christmas Cookies

Ah, Christmas. Most wonderful time of the year, right? Debatable. Some argue that all the stress and materialism can totally ruin a perfectly wonderful holiday and turn even the most cheerful elf into a Grinch. Others mention long held traditions and being together with family. And the food. Never forget the food. But who could?! Turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, pies, cakes, cookies, fudge, cheese balls, summer sausage and Ritz crackers! Ok, maybe those last few things are just my family, but that’s the fun of it! Each family has their own traditions that make Christmas, Christmas.

While I can tend towards the Grinchy Scrooge attitude about the holidays, there is one thing that can turn that attitude around in a tick. Baking Christmas cookies. We have two traditional cookies in my family, Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Cookies.

I remember making the sugar cookies with my mom while she told us about when her mom made them. “You have to make them as thin as you can without tearing them.” Mamaw said, but we’ve always made them thick and chewier, instead of the wafer thin cookies Mom had growing up. It’s a tradition much older than my mom, and a minimum of 50 years old.

Sugar Cookies

Combine sugar, powdered sugar, butter, and oil. Add eggs. Mix all ingredients and chill overnight (or at least 30 minutes.) Roll in balls and put on baking sheet. Mash sugar coated glass bottom onto balls to form thin cookies. Bake at 350* 5-8 min.

I started the tradition of making Gingerbread cookies when I was about 13. I decided we should have them, so I looked up a recipe and tried. Our gingerbread men neither ran away nor looked like they could. My impatience made the dough too warm and they spread into little obese cookie men. Those cookie men could never WALK that far, let alone run faster than all those animals! A little patience and those cookie men were trim and fit, looking ready for a jog around town. Nothing said about *us* after eating all of them, but I digress. I found this recipe off of the Food Network website, Gingerbread Cookies 101. The first and the last recipe we tried; the whole family loves these cookies.

Gingerbread Cookies

Preheat to 350 degrees F.

Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and salt in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer on high, beat the butter and vegetable shortening until well-combined, about 1 minute. Add the brown sugar and beat until the mixture is light in texture and color, about 2 minutes. Beat in the molasses and egg. Using a wooden spoon, gradually mix in the flour mixture to make a stiff dough. Divide the dough into two and wrap each disk in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours.

To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, (but try to keep it as cold as possible.)  Place the dough on a work surface that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar and sprinkle the dough with powdered sugar. Roll out the dough, being sure that the dough isn't sticking to the work surface. For softer cookies roll thicker, for crunchier cookies roll thinner. Cut out with your favorite holiday cookie cutters, and move to a cookie sheet (we use parchment in the bottom to keep cookies from sticking)

Knead leftover bits together, chill for 5-10 minutes and “recycle” the dough.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on the sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to wire cooling racks until completely cool. Decorate with Royal Icing.

So next time you’re invited to a cookie swap and have no CLUE what to bring, or want to try something new, instead of getting all pouty about the holidays and the rushing around, go slow down. Exercise some patience. Bake cookies.

Annie Hall, Teen Blogger

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