Christmas cookie baking is a tradition I've participated in since I was a little girl, though initially I just stood on a chair with the back turned toward the counter, making a mess and eating raw dough. Who doesn't love cookies, all crispy and chewy and nutty and buttery? In years when I have the time, six or eight different kinds are born of my kitchen, packaged in little tins for friends and coworkers.
The tradition has been in my family for generations (see Nancy's Cutouts below). It's a tremendous amount of work, which certainly did not phase my grandmother or her contemporaries, who routinely spent all day Sunday at the pasta board. For today's bakers, the time commitment required to produce a good quantity of cookies can seem daunting -- though many of us still go the distance for Christmas and weddings. My cookie list (five or six types for about 20 people) takes around 6 hours. Collaborators are obligatory for any operation beyond about 4 dozen, even if they are just around to talk you back from the edge during the inevitable meltdown when a batch burns in hour five.
Despite all the nostalgia of cookie-baking, and rewards presented by the finished product, I'm considering sitting this year out. My hesitation is due not only to time constraints, but to a scientifically unfounded idea that we don't gain holiday weight eating large meals or attending parties, we gain it by grazing on all of the food that's lying around our offices and homes for the four or so weeks of the Holiday Season. Boring (and out-of-character coming from someone who once wrote a piece about pairing Girl Scout cookies with Tawny Port) but I just dropped 6 pounds on the No Time to Eat Plan, and would like to keep it off.
How cruel to speak of weight control, then pepper this post with pictures of the luscious cookies of Christmases past! But this year, I'm afraid that's just the way the cookie crumbles. Then again, I might get off the bench for the last minutes of the game. One never knows.
If you think I'm nuts and can't wait to get into the kitchen, here are a couple of my favorite cookie recipes.
Aunt Nancy's Cutouts (pictured above)
My grandmother turned out some good cookies, but Aunt Nancy was the reigning cookie queen of our family thanks to these cutouts. This is a third-generation recipe for our family, unlike the Italian fried & honey glazed pastries that likely go back centuries -- she found it in a magazine and for a while I had the original, 1940's layout. These are so yummy; basically a shortbread made with powdered sugar, rolled very thinly, then glazed after baking.
For cookies:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup 10x sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 t salt
For icing:
1/2 c powdered sugar
1T water
1t lemon juice
food coloring as desired
Make the cookies: mix all ingredients in a food processor; remove as soon as a ball of dough forms. Divide dough into quarters and chill 20 minutes.
While dough is chilling, make the glaze by whisking ingredients together until smooth.
Remove dough from fridge a quarter at a time. Roll out very thinly (think of a cracker) and cut out with cookie cutters. Dough may be re-rolled once, but it's not ideal.
Bake at 375 until the first sign they are starting to turn golden around the edges. Remove from oven and cool, then brush on glaze. We like these with pastel nonpareil decorations, but we're quirky, so leave them out if you're not into it.
Chocolate Chip, Cherry and Walnut Rugelach, from Epicurious.com.
These are truly decadent and a nice nod to the Festival of Lights. Perfect "Christmas" cookies for multicultural families like mine, where mom has been known to light all of the candles on the menorah and use it as a centerpiece for Christmas dinner, and where the Jewish member of the extended family dresses up as Santa for the neighborhood kids.
