I'm having a cookie party this weekend. It's a tradition started by my mom who used to invite all of her friends' young kids over for a cookie decorating party every December. For her it was a celebration of Christmas and an excuse to get together with friends she rarely saw. I've started doing the same thing, but slightly differently. For one thing, I like to make all kinds of kooky cookie shapes: yes, candy canes and reindeer, but also menorahs and dreidels, rabbits and oak leaves, pineapples and pigs. Also, grownups greatly outnumber kids at my party. You'd be surprised how much the over-13 crowd enjoys getting drunk and making a mess on a Sunday afternoon. (Or maybe you wouldn't.)
And I take the cookies much more seriously. My ma used to buy those logs of pre-made sugar cookie dough that you slice and bake. Pah! Slacker! I clear out the butter shelf at Albertson's and make dozens and dozens of real sugar cookies. Her icing was just powdered sugar, milk and food coloring; I do that too, mixing up a psychedelic rainbow of colors in coffee cups.
And then come the sprinkles. You can never have enough sprinkles, red hots, confetti balls, tiny sugar snowflakes or those yummy little silver balls that you're not supposed to eat. I stockpile the things, buying them when I see them on sale. Who knows what's in the things but they never seem to go bad. If you wanna do it the fancy way, check out the selection over at Las Cosas. They've got Dean and Deluca colored sugar and sprinkles for $4.50 to $6.50 and zillions of cookie cutters that cost about a buck each.
Once you've got all your accoutrements, it's time to make cookies. Whip up a batch of sugar cookies (my recipe follows) and a bunch of bright icing colors (don't forget blue, purple, orange and brown). Lay newspaper all over the dining room table and start spackling. The best part is when you get down to the last dozen or so, all the broken bits that you can't quite identify. Watch a reindeer's hind end get glued to a chuck of tree and become an alligator! Pass the green icing!
Scrumdiddlyumptious Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are really simple. People expect them to be simple and they get pissed off if you mess with them, so resist the urge to use whole wheat flour or turbinado sugar or add crystallized ginger. You can even use fake vanilla extract if you find yourself in an unfamiliar kitchen and that's all they have. This recipe makes several dozen cookies, depending on the size and shape of your cutters.
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1 cup regular white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1) In a large mixing bowl or the workbowl of your standing electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat again, about 3 minutes, or until the sugar is completely incorporated.
2) Add the extract and eggs and beat again.
3) Put the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and stir together with a fork to disperse the salt and soda evenly. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beat a minute or so, until the flour is fully incorporated.
4) Scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl and divide in half. Using the palm of your hand, press each half into a rough circle. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours up to a couple of days.
5) When you're ready to bake cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F. Roll one disc of dough out to between 1/8-inch and ¼-inch-thick.
6) Use your fancy cookie cutters to cut out your Christmas trees, dreidels, cats, pumpkins, SpongeBob SquarePants or whatever you want. Save the scraps, reroll them and cut again.
7) Place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 12 minutes. Start checking after 8 minutes; they go from beautiful to burned pretty quickly.
8) Cool the cookies on a wire rack or several layers of paper towels or newspaper.
Cookie Spackle
This is the cheapest, easiest icing in the world. You will want to make vats of it for your cookie party. It doesn't taste that great (hence the name) but it looks good. Let the cookies sit, undisturbed, after they've been iced and this stuff will harden like stucco.
½ cup powdered sugar (per color)
Milk
Food coloring
Put ½ cup powdered sugar into a coffee cup or small bowl. Add milk just a tiny bit at a time until you can stir the powdered sugar into a thick paste. Add food coloring until you get a color garish enough for your tastes.
Las Cosas Kitchen Shoppe
181 Paseo de Peralta (in the DeVargas Center)
988-3394
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