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It's the season to roll up your sleeves and roll out the dough!
Mixing and blending and whipping and sharing — baking cookies is right up there with trimming the tree and wrapping the gifts.
And there's nothing quite like a house full of the heavenly flavour of warm cinnamon and spicy nutmeg, or enjoying a fresh, just-baked cookie with a glass of cold milk. It's Santa's favourite snack after a long night of gift-giving!
Baking cookies is all about infusing your own personality into the dough. Or bringing back warm memories by recreating your mom's or your nana's family favourite.
It's all good — so go ahead and set aside a few hours to create goodies that I guarantee will go in minutes, but will offer memories that will last a lifetime.
Cookie baking tips
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Getting ready to bake your favourite cookies shouldn't send you into a tizzy of stress, notes Michael Todd of cookielovers.com, whose gourmet cookies have been enjoyed across Canada since 1990. Todd suggests the following:
- Read all recipes carefully
- Take recipes with when purchasing ingredients
- Refrigerate cookie cutters before using them
- Dip cookie cutter in flour every time you cut out a cookie
- If it's taking you more time to roll out dough, refrigerate unused dough until ready to use.
- Use parchment paper —makes cleaning easy and ensures cookies don’t stick to pan.
- If your dry ingredients (like baking soda and baking powder) have been in cupboard since last year, throw them out and purchase fresh
Here's a few recipes to enjoy!
FESTIVE BUTTER COOKIES
Recipe courtesy of Dairy Farmers of Canada (Dairygoodness.ca)
2 1/2 cups (625 ml) all purpose flour
1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
1 tsp (5 ml) cream of tartar
1/4 tsp (1 ml) salt
1 cup (250 ml) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (375 ml) icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla
1 egg yolk
Food colouring
Stir together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
Cream butter; gradually beat in sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients, part at a time.
Divide dough in quarters. If necessary chill dough for ease in handling.
On lightly floured surface roll dough to approx. 1/8 inch (3-mm) thickness. With floured cookie cutters cut into desired shapes.
Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Use a jumbo straw to cut out a circle in the top of each cookie. Bake at 400F (200C) 5 to 7 minutes.
Beat egg yolk; divide in half; tint each half with food colouring.
As soon as cookies come from the oven use egg yolk mixtures and small paint brushes to paint designs on cookies. Return cookies to oven. Bake 4 to 5 minutes more.
Makes about 5 dozen cookies
GINGERBREAD MEN
No holiday is complete without the sweet and crunchy taste of gingerbread. Recipe courtesy of Robin Hood. (robinhood.ca)
1 cup (250ml) butter, room temperature
1 cup (250ml) lightly packed brown sugar
brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup (50ml) molasses
1 egg
2 3/4 cups (675ml) all-purpose flour
2 tsp. (10ml) baking soda
2 tsp. (10ml) cinnamon
1 Tbsp. (15ml) ground ginger
1/2 tsp. (2ml) clove, ground
1/2 tsp. (2ml) salt
Cream butter, brown sugar, molasses and egg together thoroughly, until light and fluffy.
Sift together dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients gradually to creamed mixture, mixing well. Chill dough for easy rolling.
Roll dough 1/4" (6 mm) thick on floured board. Cut with gingerbread cutter or other favourite shaped cutters. Place on lightly greased or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 350F (180C) for 10-12 minutes, or until set. (Time will depend on size of cookies.) Cool and decorate as desired.
NOTE: For a softer, more moist gingerbread cookie, add 1 Tbsp. (15ml) corn syrup to dough, cut a little thicker and and cut back on baking time.
MACAROON KISSES
This has to be just about the easiest recipe of the season! Recipe courtesy of Eagle Brand.
1 14-oz. can (300 ml) Regular Sweetened Condensed Milk
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
5-7.5 ml (1 - 1 1/2 tsp) almond extract
3 pkgs (200 g each or 6 cups/750ml) flaked coconut
48 solid milk chocolate candy kisses or halved maraschino cherries
In large bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and almond extract. Stir in coconut.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets; with spoon, slightly flatten each mound. Bake in preheated 325F (170C) oven 10 to 12 minutes or until browned around edges. Remove from oven and immediately press candy kiss or halved maraschino cherry in centre of each macaroon. Cool completely on wire racks. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
Makes about 4 dozen.