Snowman Cookies

The snowmen on these cookies were piped freehand onto an iced and dry base cookie.

I like cookie designs that don't require the purchase of a special cutter. I chose to use a plaque cutter for these but a simple round or square would work well too.

Because they were made freehand, every single snowman is a little bit different which I think makes them interesting and injects them with some personality. I got a kick out of piping their stick arms in different poses.

These cookies were decorated in four steps and need drying time in between. They aren't hard to make, they just take some time.

Here's how:

Outline and flood a cookie with light blue icing and then immediately pipe on some white dots for snow. Set the cookie aside to dry completely. Keep working until all of your cookies have this base coat.

Once your base coats are dry, pipe on a snowman with medium consistency white icing. Use your scribe tool or a skewer to move the icing to fill in the gaps and give the cookie a gentle shake to help the icing settle.

Repeat until there is a snowman on every cookie and set them aside to dry completely.

Once your cookies are dry, pipe on three dots of piping consistency icing and have a small food safe brush ready to use. (I apologize for the bad lighting, I was working late into the night.)

With the brush, spread the icing neatly out to the edges of the snowman working in a circular motion so that it looks natural. Set the cookies aside to dry completely.

The final step is to use a black edible ink marker to add eyes, a mouth and buttons. Also, with piping consistency brown and orange royal icing add the arms and carrot nose. For the nose, I used my scribe tool to help manipulate the icing to a point.

All done!

Once the cookies are completely dry they can be packaged. I put each cookie into a self-sealing cellophane bag.

Cherry Shortbread Cookies

A recipe suggestion from my friend Jennifer and a lack of refrigerator space led me to create these cherry shortbread cookies.

A while back, Jennifer, who also happens to be a chef, mentioned that she made some wonderful sour cherry shortbread from Leslie Mackie's "Macrina Bakery and Cafe" cookbook.

I found the recipe and liked it but knew I couldn't follow it precisely since it called for rolling the dough into two large rectangles and then chilling them on two sheetpans in the refrigerator. I don't have that much refrigerator space! I wish I did.

My solution was to change the recipe's ingredients and method a bit. Instead of chilling the sheets of dough, I rolled the dough into logs that I could fit into my fridge and then sliced them into cookies.

Before cutting, I brushed the logs with egg white and rolled them in granulated sugar for a sweet and pretty coating around the edges.

I also increased the amount of dried cherries by 1/4 cup, substituted dark brown for the light brown sugar and added 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. In my baking, I've discovered that the flavor of almond and cherry are kissing cousins and a bit of almond extract in cherry desserts really enhances them.

These cookies come together fast and you'll get five dozen with just one batch.


Cherry Shortbread
(makes 5 dozen)

1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup cornstarch
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup tart dried cherries, chopped (I like Tart Montmorency Cherries from Trader Joe's)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg white
granulated sugar

In a stand mixer, combine the sugar, cornstarch, flour, salt. Mix until combined and add the butter, a bit at a time. The mixture will look dry at first but then magically come together as you add the last bit of butter. Add the cherries, vanilla and almond extract and mix just until well combined.

The mixture will look like this before you add the cherries and flavorings.

Divide the dough into three parts. Roll each part into a 12 to 15 inch log that is about 1 1/2 -inches in diameter. Wrap each log with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until the logs are very firm.

Roll each third of the dough into a log. I find that it is easiest to roughly shape the dough, wrap it in the plastic wrap and then roll some more.

Place the logs in the refrigerator to cool for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line four baking sheets with parchment paper.

Brush one log at a time with egg white and coat with granulated sugar. Slice the log into 1/4 thick cookies and place on sheetpans leaving at least 1-inch space between them.

Brush each log with egg white and roll in granulated sugar.

Leave space between the cookies because they will spread a bit.

 Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until just golden brown around the edges. Let cool before removing from the sheet pan.

Let the cookies cool before packaging.

A package of cookies ready to give. I made three stacks of three cookies in cupcake papers and then placed them in a food safe cellophane bag. A pretty bow is a nice touch.