Friday, December 25, 2009

my kitchen: christmas cookies



When a friend asked me if I wanted to make Christmas cookies together, I jumped at the chance. I always wanted to, but never was motivated enough to do it. She made the dough the night before, I had the oven/baking supplies and the sprinkles/icing (from LA) and we both had a mini-spree to get cookie cutters from CitySuper, so we were all set.



She wasn't able to find shortening, so she just substituted butter, but it made the dough quite soft. Despite being in the fridge overnight, our dough would get too soft to work with. So we stuck the batch in the freezer when we weren't working with it, which made it nice and firm to roll out and cut cleanly to decorate and put on the tray.



I loved this icing from LA which made it super easy to decorate. Why can't we find this stuff in Taipei- or can my baking readers divulge where the stash is in this city? If you're having trouble finding sprinkles, you can order the ones I have - Wilton 6 Color Christmas Sprinkle Mix from Amazon.com. It's an awesome combo that you can use for eyes/buttons, general sprinkling.




Mmmm, cookies baking in the oven are awesome and it's actually my first time making Christmas cookies! (Not counting the time that I _watched_ my friend L make a ton of different amazing Christmas cookies in high school).



I realized after looking through these pictures, I could have taken cuter photos, but it's okay- I was too busy decorating and eating to art direct. Next time! :)



Here are a few of the cute ones, packaged up and ready to be eaten by friends.




Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you're having a holly, jolly holiday whether you're in Taipei or reading from somewhere else around the world. :)

10 comments:

brian said...

awesome cookies! i'm not much of a baker, but i did see an episode of good eats where AB recommends sticking a sheetpan in the freezer, so if your dough is too soft, you just pull out the sheetpan and lay it on top of the dough for a couple.

merry christmas!

junko said...

cute! I love Christmas cookies!!

Jean said...

merry christmas!!

Ms Annster said...

I just made some macha and oatmeal/blueberry cookies but yours are too cute to eat! Merry Christmas!

joanh said...

brian: thanks! putting them in the freezer worked well too, but that's a great idea w/ the sheetpan thanks!

junko: thanks for commenting!!

jean: thanks! merry christmas!

annie: thanks for visiting! i tried making some again today and the dough was so mushy!! :( i think it was because i used cake flour instead of all purpose flour.

amber yang said...

so cute!!!

Sunny said...

Those cookies are so cute. Good job! Merry Christmas!

Fertility Path said...

Those are really cute cookies... so precioso, I wouldn't want to eat them!

Jar of Buttons said...

Wow! Yum. You can try making your own icing from sugar powder which you can get at most supermarkets here. I haven't seen food coloring but I'm sure you could find it without too much trouble.

I love baking, too! I have a little series on my blog called Baking Teensy.

JoB x

Generic Viagra Pharmacy said...

Hi,
I like this cookies they are so cute, and good for gift.Thanks for for this Christmas cookies.

:)