Christmas Vanilla Butter Cookies

I got a late start and it took me forever, but I am finished with all things Christmas!  It has been a crazy month.  I planned a gazillion blog posts, but for almost the whole month only published one.  That doesn't mean I haven't been baking and cooking.  There was a whirlwind of parties and potlucks to go to, and that doesn't sound like much work at all -- until you're up at ungodly hours making hand pies or decorating cookies with royal icing.  But you still haven't made the family cookies or mailed them out.  And your twin sister keeps asking you where her annual cookie shipment is.

But I did have fun at all the parties!  Especially this one -- doesn't my book club know how to do a party?

These are the Linzer Cookies my sister must have every year, slaved over by yours truly.  Hazelnut cookies are sandwiched with raspberry jam, and dusted with snowy sugar.

And I included Eggnog Marshmallows in the cookie baskets this year.  I didn't even like this picture, so I made another batch and saved a few.  I tried to think quickly (while I was rushed) of a place they would be safe from the cats until I had time to photograph them.  I put them in the toaster oven, and took care of some other tasks.  You can guess how this ends, right?  Joe went to preheat the toaster oven for something, and I ended up with toasted marshmallows.  I guess it's a funny story (if you're not me).

And every year I attempt fancy decorated cookies with royal icing, trying to make them look like the showpieces you see in catalogs.  Well, I failed once again, but here are the best and the simplest of the bunch, decorated by Joe and I.  The hour was late, one of the cats somehow had edible glitter on his coat, and I was laughing deliriously at some of our attempted designs.  At least they taste good.  I'm not a fan of sugar cookies; I find them too sugary and not very flavorful.  These are simple but tasty: buttery with a hint of vanilla, a bit of salt tempering the sweet.

Now it's time to sit back and celebrate.  Especially since it's my (and my twin sister's) birthday tomorrow!  (No way am I baking a cake.)  Merry Christmas, everyone.

Photo added Dec. 2013

Update December 2013: These cookies are made using the same recipe, but decorated with melted white chocolate. Apply white chocolate using squeeze bottles or an offset spatula, then sprinkle with colored sanding sugar, nonpareils, or edible glitter.

Christmas Cookies, Take 2

My second try with royal icing came out a zillion times better!  It dried up hard and shiny in about an hour, unlike that goopy mess from the first batch.  The keys to my success: a new recipe and gel food coloring.

The liquid food coloring just thins out the icing so much that it takes forever to dry.  And when it did dry, the icing became separated and grainy.  These gels worked out great, along with the squeeze bottle with piping tip.

I let the base coats dry before piping decorations on top.

The green set.

This time, I went to Baking911's page on Royal Icing and used the recipe for Outline Consistency.  Here's how I adapted it:

2½ tbs meringue powder (in the baking aisle, or at party or craft stores)

8 oz. confectioners sugar

¼ cup lukewarm water

Mix for 10 minutes on high speed with the paddle attachment.  Spoon out a third of the mixture into an airtight container -- this will be your portion for piping.  Turn the mixer back on and add 2 tbs water.  Scrape that into other airtight containers and stir in colorings.  If it's too stiff for your needs, add a tiny amount of water; if it's too runny, add confectioners sugar until it gets to the right consistency.

Decorated Christmas Cookies

To kick-start the spirit of the season at home, we made these decorated butter cookies in ornament shapes.  The dough was easy to make and we took turns rolling it and cutting out the shapes, assembly-line style.  I like it more than the standard sugar cookie, which often has no flavor except plain old sugar.  These have a sweetness offset by just a hint of saltiness and a nice buttery flavor.  Decorating them was a pain.  If you use royal icing, set aside a lot of time to dry, and know that colors darken as they sit.  Using half a bottle of red coloring was an error!  And use powdered or gel coloring if you can -- I have a feeling the liquid coloring added lots of hours to the drying time.  More on that later.  I had planned to mail these out to someone, but 24 hours later some still were not dry.  Oh well, more cookies for us!