Check out our next class. We are so excited to get together with friends and students and share in the creation of what are sure to become a holiday traditions. Saturday, December 7, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Not Your Grandma's Christmas Cookies
Back to UtensilsCookingSchool.com
Decorating the tree, picking out the perfect gift, listening to Christmas carols, building a gingerbread house, visiting Santa. Every family has traditions and those traditions are the things that make the holidays so wonderful. In our house, my mom was not the mom puttering around cranking out batch after batch of holiday treats. She did, however, have a recipe for simple spritz style butter cookies and it was always my job to split the candied cherries and put them on before the cookies went in to the oven. I still make these cookies every year. I make the first batch on Thanksgiving just like my mom. I love these cookies and will pass this tradition to my children. Of course, I have also created some of my own traditions with my family. I build a gingerbread house almost every year. Buche de Noel is always our Christmas Day dessert and on Christmas morning, French toast made with the sweet fruit bread, Panatone is always on the menu. So what if you want to create traditions in your own home but you don't have any baking experience?
There are books on top of books and magazines by the mile chocked full of holiday cookie recipes. So where do you start? There are so many cookies, so many favors, so much technique....it can be overwhelming. In the end, you end up with a couple of batches of chocolate chip that might have some red and green M&M's in them. Hardly a show stopper!
Refrigerator Cookies-Sometimes called Slice and Bake Cookies, this dough is incredibly versatile while still being easy to make and use. This dough will be stiffer than drop cookie batter. Be sure not to over handle the dough or it will become tough. This type of dough can be made ahead of time and frozen. After the dough is blended roll dough into a log approximately 2-3" across and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill the dough for at least an hour before slicing and baking. To get nice consistent shapes, turn your log an eighth turn between each slice. The log of dough can be rolled in crushed candy, sprinkles, or nuts before slicing for a custom made batch.
Bar Cookies- This type of batter is another great choice for new bakers and children. It will be a loose to medium batter that can easily be spread or pressed into a sheet pan. It is a perfect choice for the cookies that you want to add fruit, nuts, granola of chips to. Just make sure to cut bars while they are still slightly warm. If cooled completely, they will be harder to cut in to neat squares.
Shaped Cookies- Now we're getting to the bigger guns. Shaped cookies are the ones that are made by rolling dough out and cutting with cookie cutters like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies or the dough is shaped by hand like almond crescents or rum balls. Shaped cookies are definitely one of the more time consuming cookies to make but they are fun to do with your kids. They can be iced simply by making a slightly more wet Royal Icing, hold the cookie face done and dip. Decorate with sugar, chips, candy while still wet and then dry on a baking wrack. The Royal Icing will dry hard. This is an easier technique than channel icing which requires that a bead of icing be piped along the edges and back filled with a looser icing.
Piped or Spritz Cookies-My mom's butter cookies are an example of this type of cookie. The dough is firm enough to hold it's shape when handled properly but is soft enough to be forced through a pastry bag or cookie press. I highly recommend an electric cookie press if you are going to add these to your arsenal. I discuss my favorite cookie gun in my post on small appliances. These doughs can be a very simple way to make cookies that look like they took a lot of effort. The one thing I will recommend for these in particular if not for all of the cookies, is to make sure the dough is chilled before piping. The cookies will hold a better shape and have a much nicer texture. I will discuss handling the ingredients in more detail below.
Filled Cookies-The definition of filled cookies does vary but all are generally simple to make. Some are filled prior to baking like thumbprint cookies or filled after they are baked and cooled like macaroons and sandwich cookies. If you are assembling sandwich cookies with icing, make sure they are thoroughly cooled to keep icing from melting and running.
No Bake-These kinds of treats can be made quickly and are great when you need a last minute dish to bring to that party or bake sale. They almost all will require melting some sort of chocolate or making a granola based batter. As long as you have a fair understanding of how chocolate needs to be treated and how it behaves, these are a nice alternative when on a tight schedule.
No matter what kind of cookies you decide to tackle, there are some basic techniques that will guarantee a perfect end product. Here are a few good things to know.
Butter- Of course it is the best choice for cookies in terms of flavor and texture. If you notice that your cookies made with butter spread too much, it is likely caused by the dough being too warm. Butter has a very low melting point so if you use dough at room temperature, the butter in the oven becomes liquid almost immediately causing the dough to spread. For cookies with a nicer shape and better texture, chill dough for at least an hour before baking. Some people will go to shortening or margarine because the melting point is higher giving you the shape and texture that's desired. I say that there is no substitute for the taste and mouth feel of butter so take the time to chill the dough. Plus margarine is a very unhealthy choice in the end.
Sugar- Different sugars have different results. It is good to know what the differences are so you get just the results you are looking for. Brown sugar is simply white sugar blended with molasses. Other than the distinct taste that it brings to the cookie it also will add moisture back in to the dough creating a softer, more tender cookie. White sugar doesn't have the same depth of flavor but it does create lovely color and a crisp bite. There are a couple of things to know about honey if this is your chosen sweetener. First, it is sweeter than table sugar so you don't need to use much and second, it does add moisture to the dough so it will change the texture of the cookie when baked. A quick note about artificial sweeteners. Many of them like Sweet n Low and Equal and even Splenda cannot be used to cook or bake. When they reach high temperatures they change molecularly and become bitter. They also will pretty drastically change the texture. I will be honest. I have not tried to bake with some of the newer sweeteners like Stevia, Monk fruit, and agave so I really don't now how they will change the recipe.
Eggs- This is a natural leavening agent. Air is beaten into the eggs and as a result require no other leavening agent in recipes like sponge cakes and souffles. If eggs are over beaten in cookie dough it will give your cookies a caky texture which in most cases is not the desired result. I have also found that fresh farm eggs do not work as well as pasteurized eggs in baked goods. Fresh eggs are higher in protein and fat and I find that the baked goods can often be tough. So save those for a yummy omelet!
Leavening- These ingredients are where the chemistry of baking comes in. There are several ways to create rise in baked goods. As I mentioned earlier, eggs can be used alone or with other leavening to make lovely tender sponge cake. Most cookies either use baking soda or baking powder or both to do the job. I won't bore you with the chemistry of it all but I think it is good to have an idea of what each one does and where they apply. Baking Soda is an alkaline. It neutralized acid so this is the agent you will see in products that have acidic ingredients like citrus, molasses and even cocoa powder (who knew!) while baking powder is used in doughs that have no real acidic ingredients. They are not interchangeable and be careful to not overuse baking powder. It has a strong browning ability but if too much is used the cookies will taste bitter and metallic.
Flavoring-This is where the fun begins! When it comes to flavoring the dough itself, extracts or essence oils work the best. Use them sparingly. If it is a different extract than the recipe calls for, add a small amount, taste and adjust accordingly. Be very careful of almond extract. It is extremely strong and will give your cookies a medicinal taste if over done. The same can be said for peppermint and anise but don't be afraid to experiment to find what you like the best. A good way to add a pop of flavor along with extract is with citrus zest. Zest releases the lovely oils that exist naturally in the fruit's skin and won't change the texture. I find a Microplane works best for a fine fragrant zest. I discuss them a bit more in my previous post covering kitchen gadgets. Be sure you only take off the COLORED part of the peel. The pith, or the white part, is very bitter. If you want to use fruit juices as flavoring be sure to substitute another liquid ingredient. Adding it on top of the already added liquid will change the texture sometimes dramatically. Add in ingredients are pretty much the sky's the limit. You can add, substitute or omit add ins like chips nuts, dried fruit or candy. I am a huge fan of dried cranberries with dark chocolate chips or crunchy salty pistachios If you want to add in fruit that isn't dried such as pineapple or apples, you may have to increase your flour a bit. The additional moisture will upset the delicate balance but with a little experimenting you can get just the end product that you like.
Decorating the tree, picking out the perfect gift, listening to Christmas carols, building a gingerbread house, visiting Santa. Every family has traditions and those traditions are the things that make the holidays so wonderful. In our house, my mom was not the mom puttering around cranking out batch after batch of holiday treats. She did, however, have a recipe for simple spritz style butter cookies and it was always my job to split the candied cherries and put them on before the cookies went in to the oven. I still make these cookies every year. I make the first batch on Thanksgiving just like my mom. I love these cookies and will pass this tradition to my children. Of course, I have also created some of my own traditions with my family. I build a gingerbread house almost every year. Buche de Noel is always our Christmas Day dessert and on Christmas morning, French toast made with the sweet fruit bread, Panatone is always on the menu. So what if you want to create traditions in your own home but you don't have any baking experience?
There are books on top of books and magazines by the mile chocked full of holiday cookie recipes. So where do you start? There are so many cookies, so many favors, so much technique....it can be overwhelming. In the end, you end up with a couple of batches of chocolate chip that might have some red and green M&M's in them. Hardly a show stopper!
Even though it seems like there are a million recipes and a million techniques, in reality there are merely a few techniques that can be made with different ingredients to give you a huge fanciful array of Christmas treats! Get a handle on the basics and the sky's the limit! Here are some of the basic techniques and some great varieties of each.
Drop Cookies- I started with this one because it is the easiest so even your young bakers can turn out yummy cookies. Drop cookies are made from a soft, fairly wet but stiff batter. They result in a free form irregular shape. Some examples of drop cookies are the ever popular chocolate chip, oatmeal, and peanut butter cookies. Use a small to medium spring loaded scoop to portion your batter. That way all of your cookies will be uniform in shape and size and will cook more consistently.
Refrigerator Cookies-Sometimes called Slice and Bake Cookies, this dough is incredibly versatile while still being easy to make and use. This dough will be stiffer than drop cookie batter. Be sure not to over handle the dough or it will become tough. This type of dough can be made ahead of time and frozen. After the dough is blended roll dough into a log approximately 2-3" across and wrap tightly in plastic. Chill the dough for at least an hour before slicing and baking. To get nice consistent shapes, turn your log an eighth turn between each slice. The log of dough can be rolled in crushed candy, sprinkles, or nuts before slicing for a custom made batch.
Bar Cookies- This type of batter is another great choice for new bakers and children. It will be a loose to medium batter that can easily be spread or pressed into a sheet pan. It is a perfect choice for the cookies that you want to add fruit, nuts, granola of chips to. Just make sure to cut bars while they are still slightly warm. If cooled completely, they will be harder to cut in to neat squares.
Shaped Cookies- Now we're getting to the bigger guns. Shaped cookies are the ones that are made by rolling dough out and cutting with cookie cutters like sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies or the dough is shaped by hand like almond crescents or rum balls. Shaped cookies are definitely one of the more time consuming cookies to make but they are fun to do with your kids. They can be iced simply by making a slightly more wet Royal Icing, hold the cookie face done and dip. Decorate with sugar, chips, candy while still wet and then dry on a baking wrack. The Royal Icing will dry hard. This is an easier technique than channel icing which requires that a bead of icing be piped along the edges and back filled with a looser icing. 
Piped or Spritz Cookies-My mom's butter cookies are an example of this type of cookie. The dough is firm enough to hold it's shape when handled properly but is soft enough to be forced through a pastry bag or cookie press. I highly recommend an electric cookie press if you are going to add these to your arsenal. I discuss my favorite cookie gun in my post on small appliances. These doughs can be a very simple way to make cookies that look like they took a lot of effort. The one thing I will recommend for these in particular if not for all of the cookies, is to make sure the dough is chilled before piping. The cookies will hold a better shape and have a much nicer texture. I will discuss handling the ingredients in more detail below.
Filled Cookies-The definition of filled cookies does vary but all are generally simple to make. Some are filled prior to baking like thumbprint cookies or filled after they are baked and cooled like macaroons and sandwich cookies. If you are assembling sandwich cookies with icing, make sure they are thoroughly cooled to keep icing from melting and running.
No Bake-These kinds of treats can be made quickly and are great when you need a last minute dish to bring to that party or bake sale. They almost all will require melting some sort of chocolate or making a granola based batter. As long as you have a fair understanding of how chocolate needs to be treated and how it behaves, these are a nice alternative when on a tight schedule.
No matter what kind of cookies you decide to tackle, there are some basic techniques that will guarantee a perfect end product. Here are a few good things to know.
Butter- Of course it is the best choice for cookies in terms of flavor and texture. If you notice that your cookies made with butter spread too much, it is likely caused by the dough being too warm. Butter has a very low melting point so if you use dough at room temperature, the butter in the oven becomes liquid almost immediately causing the dough to spread. For cookies with a nicer shape and better texture, chill dough for at least an hour before baking. Some people will go to shortening or margarine because the melting point is higher giving you the shape and texture that's desired. I say that there is no substitute for the taste and mouth feel of butter so take the time to chill the dough. Plus margarine is a very unhealthy choice in the end.
Sugar- Different sugars have different results. It is good to know what the differences are so you get just the results you are looking for. Brown sugar is simply white sugar blended with molasses. Other than the distinct taste that it brings to the cookie it also will add moisture back in to the dough creating a softer, more tender cookie. White sugar doesn't have the same depth of flavor but it does create lovely color and a crisp bite. There are a couple of things to know about honey if this is your chosen sweetener. First, it is sweeter than table sugar so you don't need to use much and second, it does add moisture to the dough so it will change the texture of the cookie when baked. A quick note about artificial sweeteners. Many of them like Sweet n Low and Equal and even Splenda cannot be used to cook or bake. When they reach high temperatures they change molecularly and become bitter. They also will pretty drastically change the texture. I will be honest. I have not tried to bake with some of the newer sweeteners like Stevia, Monk fruit, and agave so I really don't now how they will change the recipe.
Eggs- This is a natural leavening agent. Air is beaten into the eggs and as a result require no other leavening agent in recipes like sponge cakes and souffles. If eggs are over beaten in cookie dough it will give your cookies a caky texture which in most cases is not the desired result. I have also found that fresh farm eggs do not work as well as pasteurized eggs in baked goods. Fresh eggs are higher in protein and fat and I find that the baked goods can often be tough. So save those for a yummy omelet!
Leavening- These ingredients are where the chemistry of baking comes in. There are several ways to create rise in baked goods. As I mentioned earlier, eggs can be used alone or with other leavening to make lovely tender sponge cake. Most cookies either use baking soda or baking powder or both to do the job. I won't bore you with the chemistry of it all but I think it is good to have an idea of what each one does and where they apply. Baking Soda is an alkaline. It neutralized acid so this is the agent you will see in products that have acidic ingredients like citrus, molasses and even cocoa powder (who knew!) while baking powder is used in doughs that have no real acidic ingredients. They are not interchangeable and be careful to not overuse baking powder. It has a strong browning ability but if too much is used the cookies will taste bitter and metallic.
Flavoring-This is where the fun begins! When it comes to flavoring the dough itself, extracts or essence oils work the best. Use them sparingly. If it is a different extract than the recipe calls for, add a small amount, taste and adjust accordingly. Be very careful of almond extract. It is extremely strong and will give your cookies a medicinal taste if over done. The same can be said for peppermint and anise but don't be afraid to experiment to find what you like the best. A good way to add a pop of flavor along with extract is with citrus zest. Zest releases the lovely oils that exist naturally in the fruit's skin and won't change the texture. I find a Microplane works best for a fine fragrant zest. I discuss them a bit more in my previous post covering kitchen gadgets. Be sure you only take off the COLORED part of the peel. The pith, or the white part, is very bitter. If you want to use fruit juices as flavoring be sure to substitute another liquid ingredient. Adding it on top of the already added liquid will change the texture sometimes dramatically. Add in ingredients are pretty much the sky's the limit. You can add, substitute or omit add ins like chips nuts, dried fruit or candy. I am a huge fan of dried cranberries with dark chocolate chips or crunchy salty pistachios If you want to add in fruit that isn't dried such as pineapple or apples, you may have to increase your flour a bit. The additional moisture will upset the delicate balance but with a little experimenting you can get just the end product that you like.
Whether baking with my kids or by myself, I have always taken great joy in the process. I have baked many, many, many types of cookies. ( I get bored easily) I have built a scratch gingerbread house almost every year since I was 17 years old. I have baked and sold hundreds of holiday pies and made and decorated wedding cakes, including my own. I have even gone through the process of mastering some french pastry techniques. Although baking is a much more exact scientific process, I love that I can be wildly creative and experiment with so many different combinations of technique and flavors. So I hope this holiday season you will feel inspired and bake with confidence. Please feel free to post the results of your baking adventures here. We love to see what you are up too
Have a wonderful holiday season and try something new to leave for Santa. He is so over chocolate chip. I am sure that if you left him something more creative and delicious there might just be an extra gift under the tree for you!
And please visit and like us on facebook. That's where you can find out all about upcoming classes, see some great pictures of our cooking classes, or just come by to say hi!
Simply search Utensils Cooking School to find us!!!
And please visit and like us on facebook. That's where you can find out all about upcoming classes, see some great pictures of our cooking classes, or just come by to say hi!
Simply search Utensils Cooking School to find us!!!
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