HotmailHoliday cookies: Fun to make and eat!
Both you and the kids will enjoy making these haute holiday cookies, courtesy of Good Housekeeping. Here are the recipes
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We all know that making holiday cookies can be fun, but too often we end up with results that look, well, amateurish. Good Housekeeping food editor Susan Westmoreland was invited on “Today” to demonstrate how you — and your kids — can achieve professional-looking results that will also taste great. Here are her tips.
Sugar Cookies
Makes about 60 cookies
1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and creamy. At low speed, beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour and baking powder just until blended.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or place dough in freezer for 30 minutes.)
3. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough 1/8 inch thick. With floured cookie cutters — see suggested shapes below — cut dough into as many cookies as possible; wrap and refrigerate trimmings. Or, if you like, trace child’s hand on cardboard and cut out hand pattern to use as template to cut out cookies. Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet.
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5. When cookies are cool, they can be decorated. See five suggestions below.
Five finishes for cookies:
1. Icing
This is the easiest thing you can do. A little bit of icing on a cookie always adds color. A quick tip is to ice the edges of a cookie and then fill it in. In this way you create a clean outline.
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2. Luster dust
This is edible powder, available in a wide variety of hues. It can be brushed on dry for a light sheen or mixed with an extract for a more intense shine. To apply, use a small artist's brush to paint the dust on a hardened iced surface. Let icing on cookie dry completely, then mix 1/4 teaspoon luster dust with 3/4 teaspoon clear lemon or orange extract. Paint on surface of cookies. For just a blush of luster, dip a dry paintbrush in the dust and brush onto cookie. Luster dust dries in minutes.
3. Sanding sugar
Just as it says in the name, these are white and colored fine-grade sugars. You sprinkle sanding sugar over wet icing for a sparkly finish. Or let iced cookie dry completely then brush some corn syrup onto area you want to sparkle and sprinkle on sugar; shake off excess.
4. Dragging
Use a toothpick to "drag" designs in icing before it sets. While icing is wet, pipe on drops or lines of icing in a contrasting color. Using a toothpick or the tip of a small knife, draw the tip through the icing to pull into a star or chevron pattern, or any other design you want to make.
5. Stained-glass cookies
This technique starts with a clear, colored gel combined with crushed candies; after heating in the oven, the mixture melts to give the cookies a stained-glass look. To apply, use 2 cookie cutters of the same shape, one of 3.5 inches, the other 2 inches. Roll out sugar-cookie dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out as many cookies in larger size as possible and arrange on baking sheet. With smaller cutter, cut out and remove the centers of cookies. Bake for 8 minutes, then add to the cut-out center crushed hard candies in assorted colors and bake 3 to 4 minutes more, just until candies melt and form “glass.” Tip: Put a hole through the top of the cookies and they become ornaments for the tree.
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