Tuesday, December 9, 2008

TWD - Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

This week, Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies, which can be found on pages 146-147 of Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours". Before I get started discussing these cookies, I wanted to take a few moments to ramble on about how great this cookbook is! I have learned so much from this book and from my fellow TWD bakers! Oh dear, now I'm all verklempt. Please, talk amongst yourselves.

Now about those sugar cookies ... I've said it in a least a half dozen posts ... I do not like hard cookies. All of the sugar cookies that I have known have been hard. With that in mind, I wasn't really excited about making these cookies BUT I had an agenda so I made them. Please take out your Winter 2008 Fancy Flours Catalog. I'll give you a minute to find it. Come on ... I know you have one. Turn to page 25 and check out the upper right hand corner. That snowflake cookie wreath is beautiful! I really wanted to make one so I forged ahead with the sugar cookies, including my first foray into royal icing.

The cookie dough was pretty crumbly but I was really afraid of over beating it. I roughly divided the dough in half and put each half into a gallon ziploc bag and gently kneaded it until it came together. Then I rolled it out (while it was still in the bag - a tip I learned from making the brown sugar shortbread) and refrigerated it for a few hours. Most of the times when I make cut out cookies, the dough spreads into an unrecognizable blob. This time around, after I cut out the shapes, I popped the baking sheet and the cookies back into the refrigerator so they could chill out for another half hour or so (a tip from the linzer sables). It worked like a charm, my cookies came out beautifully!

The royal icing was not a fun adventure. I wanted to get it to "pouring" consistency, but no matter how much water I added, I couldn't do it. It took me hours to frost these cookies but I think the end result was worth it .... and if anyone has any royal icing tips to share, please do!
Here is my take on the Fancy Flours Cookie Wreath which you can see HERE.

I took the wreath to work and left it out for my coworkers. Apparently, they were quite good! After being admonished several times and told that the cookies were NOT HARD, I decided to try one for myself. Except, that by the time I made it back to the kitchen, then entire wreath was gone. Seriously, in less than a half an hour! Gone. Luckily I had a few stashed at home and I found them to be soft and delicious. Like buttah ...


As always, please check out the rest of the TWD Bakers.

24 comments:

vibi said...

Woahhhhh! That is what I call taking sugar cookies to a whole new dimension! I'm amazed as much by the cookies themselves, as by the wreath! Great, great and wonderful job, Kimberly!

Sabrina said...

Those cookies are amazing! That wreath is so beautiful!! Very well done!!!

Jules Someone said...

Lovely! Looks like it was worth the effort!

Amanda said...

Wow that is amazing, love it! I really enjoyed this recipe and will definitely make it again :)

kimberly salem said...

wow! that is such a gorgeous cookie wreath. sorry i have no tips on royal icing, since i've never used it ;) looks to me like you were pretty successful though!

Unknown said...

Wow! As another Fancy Flours fan, I know just what wreath you're talking about. Yours is beautiful.

ostwestwind said...

What a breath taking wreath, I am impressed.

Thanks for joining TWD this week

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Katrina said...

Gorgeous snowflakes! And I can't believe you let people eat them. I would have save the wreath for a decoration! ;)
Glad you liked them. I'm not a huge sugar cookie fan because they are usually too hard. My mom loves her sugar cookies way underbaked. They ARE just better that way.

Anonymous said...

Oh, these are the most beautiful cookies. You are very talented in the creativeness department...lovely, absolutely lovely.

Anonymous said...

Those are some of the best looking cookies I've ever seen. They're amazing!

spike. said...

Glad you got to try one! It is amazing how fast treats disappear in an office!

dharmagirl said...

wow, wow, WOW! i love this cookie wreath, and your artistically decorated individual cookies. gorgeous!

i don't know about fancy flours...could you share more info?!? sounds like something i must have!

Anonymous said...

What an adorable presentation! I love the cookie cutters shaped like snowflakes, perfect to bake cookies well into January!

Banjo said...

Holy cow, I am incredibly impressed! Not only are your cookies gorgeous, but the wreath is just adorable. Bravo!!

AmyRuth said...

Loved your creative opportunity, that being the cookie wreath. How neat!! Who would have thunk it? I'm sure your co-workers were sparkling all day. :-)
Thank you for stopping by for a visit
AmyRuth

Leslie said...

What an amazing wreath! At least you managed to get some photos before your coworkers demolished it!

Jodie said...

Very pretty wreath! What a fun idea!

Annette said...

Wow! Your wreath is beautiful. Gorgeous cookies. They put my little misshapen slice and bake versions to shame. ;) Great job!

Anonymous said...

You made the wreath! GET OUT!!! That's fantastic.

Ellen and Tom said...

Gorgeous! I love the cookies on their own but as a wreath they are amazing.

Lynne Daley said...

A real work of art! Looks fabulous as a wreath.

Anonymous said...

WOW. That wreath is absolutely STUNNING. I seriously need to try that! I'm bookmarking this and making this for my office party! Great work!

Michelle said...

I love what you did with the cookies as a wreath! What a clever idea!

Princess of Power said...

I love the wreath--what a perfect holiday treat!