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Saturday, December 4, 2010

Countdown to Christmas #4: Cookies

I'm not a big cookie guy. They fall behind pies and ice cream in the dessert pantheon (and just ahead of cakes). But I definitely enjoy me some Christmas cookies at this time of the year.

My favorites are spritzes, those little Christmas tree and pinwheel shaped sugar cookies. I have no idea how they're made (it's involves some kind of specialized equipment, and, I suspect, dark magic) but I love 'em.


I also favor simple sugar cookies cut out into various Christmas shapes, with corresponding colored icing (white for snowmen, red for stocking, etc.). When I was a kid, my mom had a set of cutouts with all kinds of different holiday shapes, and she'd make these cutout cookies for damn near every holiday throughout the year. It was awesome.


Gingerbread men are another favorite (the softer and chewier, the better). Every year, the Macy's (nee Dayton's in Downtown Minneapolis sets up a themed display with animatronic robots and detailed sets on the 8th floor, and it's a family tradition to walk through it and then get a Gingerbread Man cookie in the gift shop (Mrs. Teebore always gets my Red Hots buttons...).

10 comments:

  1. my favorite xmas cookies ar Russian TeaCakes.
    Also, i lurve me some krumkaka
    Sarah got a spritzer last year and we tried it out- it wasn't that hard actually, and kind of fun
    every year we spend a saturday at our parents to help bake xmas cookies

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  2. Ah yes all good cookies. My favorite is what my siblings and I came to call grandma cookies. They're the ones with a Hershey Kiss sitting on top of the cookie part. Pecan sandies are also pretty darn tasty.

    My mom turns into a baking machine this time of year starting in early October and right up to Christmas. She makes about 18 different quick breads, maybe a dozen cookies, several types of candy and all sorts of other goodies. What makes it even better is that each of us kids has a list of stuff that she sets aside so we can have our own stash for at home.

    I can let you in on the secret of making spritz cookies if you want to be spoiled on the process. :) If not then turn back now!! The dough goes into a tube with the pattern for the cookie punched into a little metal disk inserted on one end of it. Some of the ones my mom has are a dog, people, stars, snowflakes, camels and a handful of others. On the other end of the tube you screw a crank onto it. You turn the crank to push the dough through the pattern and onto your baking sheet. You have to be kind of careful not to put to much or to little dough or the cookie won't look quite right or might break apart when lifting up the tube. You go until you run out of dough in the tube and then switch out the pattern and rinse and repeat. There's your baking lesson for the day!!

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  3. I really don't like cake. How cake got to be so popular is a mystery, like it had connections that pie just didn't have. Mmm, pie! Cherry pie is the best thing ever.


    Here is the best cookie in the world:

    You take a bag of marshmallows and melt them down with a stick of butter over low heat, stirring feverishly. Remove from heat and squirt in a bunch of green food coloring and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Take a goodly amount of corn flakes (4 cups, 5 cups? Who can say? It'll just feel right) and dump them in your huge pot. It should be a huge pot, the pot that has the marshmallow mix in it. So, begin again if you have to. Then! Lay out some wax paper (you should have actually have done this before you started) and take a spoon (have a cup of cold water on hand to dunk your spoon in as the cookie junk is very sticky) and put golf ball sized blobs of the "cookie batter" on the wax paper. Finally - add three little cinnamon candies, you know, the little tiny round ones or heart ones on top of each cookie. Let cool. You now have a ton of Super Awesome and delicious Christmas Wreath Cookies! Store in the freezer for the 12 hours they will last in your house.

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  4. mmmm wreath cookies.

    yeah it took us like 2 years to find a cheap spritz cookie press, but it was AWESOME! I will be making more this year. And we're going to try and make some peppermint bark this year as well

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  5. @Anne: my favorite xmas cookies ar Russian TeaCakes.
    Also, i lurve me some krumkaka


    We made Russian Tea Cakes this weekend. And I love me some krumkaka too.

    every year we spend a saturday at our parents to help bake xmas cookies

    Yeah, Mrs. Teebore and I were over at my parents baking with my dad on Saturday.

    @Phantomas: They're the ones with a Hershey Kiss sitting on top of the cookie part. Pecan sandies are also pretty darn tasty.

    I love pecan sandies, but I'm not a huge fan of the Hershey Kiss cookies, but I'm weird in that regard.

    My mom turns into a baking machine this time of year starting in early October and right up to Christmas. She makes about 18 different quick breads, maybe a dozen cookies

    That's pretty awesome. We do a couple three different cookies and some fruitcake, and that's about it.

    @Joan: I really don't like cake. How cake got to be so popular is a mystery, like it had connections that pie just didn't have.

    That's good to hear. People look at me oddly when I say I'm not a big cake fan. I mean, I'll eat it, but it's not the kinda thing I seek out. Pie is where it's at.

    You now have a ton of Super Awesome and delicious Christmas Wreath Cookies!

    Those are pretty awesome too. I haven't had them in ages.

    @Falen: And we're going to try and make some peppermint bark this year as well

    That sounds good! I love me some peppermint bark.

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  6. I don't like when there's candy and crap on my cookies. I like sprinkles on sugar. Nothing else. Oh and my peanut butter cookies, which I make every year. Deeeeelicious.

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  7. @Hannah: I don't like when there's candy and crap on my cookies.

    Generally speaking, I agree. I don't even like Red Hot buttons on my gingerbread men.

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  8. h
    If Joan ever has to give me directions, anywhere, remind me to say goodbye to everyone I love.

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