Serious Cookies: Perfect Cutout Cookies
With only weeks left until the holidays, it's time to break out those rusty cookie cutters—Santa and his metal reindeer have been languishing in your kitchen drawer for far too long.
Every snowflake- or stocking-shape cookie starts with a dry, rolled dough, almost like pie crust in texture and consistency. Once shaped and baked, a cutout cookie should be thin and crisp but not so delicate that it can't withstand decorating. Every day this week, we'll be posting a fail-proof recipe for a shapeable cookie, from classic shortbread and gingerbread to raspberry-sandwiched Linzer cookies.
Even if you don't have the luxury of boundless counter space, you can still make these doughs work for you. Simply roll the dough into a log about 2 inches in diameter and chill it in the refrigerator until it's quite hard. (For a pretty variation, try rolling the log in chopped nuts prior to chilling.) Just before baking, slice into 1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick rounds.
The Lineup, So Far
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1 Comment:
Michele, one of my favorite parts of the holiday season is making cutout cookies and decorating them. Some of my fondest memories of my mom center on the hours spent in the kitchen in the weeks before Christmas as my sisters and I would be given cookie sheet after cookie sheet of Christmas-shaped dough cutouts to adorn with colored sugars, nonpareils and sprinkles. Sometimes my mom would make her own colored sugars with food coloring and it's funny to remember my splotchy fingertips.
Anyway...you can also roll the dough logs in colored sugar crystals or even sprinkles before slicing and baking. And of course, nuts work great, as you mentioned.
I'm looking forward to the remaining cookie offerings!
holdthemayo at 3:42PM on 12/02/08