cookies cookies cookies

in honour of the holidays here are two great cookie recipes.

sugar cookies.

classic. delicious. can't picture christmas without them.

3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

cream butter and sugar. add eggs one at a time. add vanilla. add dry mixture in slowly. scape the bowl and make sure everything is mixed well.

cut dough into two pieces. flatten into disks, wrap in plastic and put in the 'fridge for 12 hours.
after the long wait, leave the dough out on the table for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up. on a WELL floured surface (it's sticky!) roll out the dough. make sure that your rolling pin or wine bottle (i didn't have a rolling pin of my own until this year, prior, i've always used a wine bottle - whatever works!) is well floured too.
cut the dough with adorable cookie cutters that your mom bought and shipped to you. they're all cute except that one that i don't know what it is - it may be a santa hat but i'm not sure. i don't use that one.

bake on a un-greased cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes. when the edges are starting to get brown take them out. give them a few minutes to rest on the pan, then put them on a cooling rack to, you know, cool. keep doing that until all the dough is gone or you've eaten so much that you have a stomach ache.

you can also freeze the dough for later. and this isn't like pie dough so you can roll it out as many times as you want!

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pecan shortbread linzer cookies!

my dad, who doesn't like cookies (i know, what a freak), ate all of these. all. ray had one and that was it. so these are good. and they look super fancy so your friends will think you're the best.

1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
20 tbs butter (2 1/2 sticks) softened
1 cup 10x sugar (powdered sugar), plus extra!
1 tsp vanilla
raspberry jam
fluted biscuit cutters - two sizes (depending on how big you want the cookies: a big size and little size for the cut out)

in a food processor, pulse pecans and sugar to make a coarse meal. save that.
mix dry ingredients. save that.
cream butter. once it's creamy add 10x sugar.
once it's mixed together well add pecan mix and vanilla. - mix well!
then add dry mixture slowly.
mix on high until the dough becomes a homogenous mass of deliciousness.

**if your dough is not becoming a mass and is just crumbly, add a tiny bit of water to the mixer. it should then start sticking together. only use a little at a time though!!**

cut the dough in half, flatten, cover with plastic and put in the 'fridge for 2 hours.

preheat the oven to 350.
you can line your sheet pans with parchment paper or you can use a silpat mat. these are like reusable parchment. they're kind of greasy so nothing sticks to them and you don't have to throw it away. totally worth it for cookie makers. you can get them at any cooking store. probably target too, but i'm not sure.

on a floured surface, roll out the dough. it will be hard to roll out because there's not a lot of liquid in this dough. it'll crack but that's ok.

with fluted biscuit cutters cut out the cookies. then on every other cookie cut out the middle.   (save the middles! they make tiny cookies that you can roll in 10x sugar and gobble up)

bake them for 16 minutes - turning them around half way through.

let them cool completely.
keep doing this until all the dough is used up. or again, you can freeze it for later.

take all the tops (the ones with the hole in the middle) and line them up on a sheet pan (cooled!). in a wire sieve dust them completely with 10x sugar until they're totally coated.
with the other halves spread a bit of raspberry jam in the middle of the cookie. you can leave the edges clear so it doesn't drip out everywhere.
then put the two pieces together for a fancy beautiful sandwich cookie.

they're so good. you may have to make extra to make up for the fact that you're going to eat about half of them before you're ready to give them out.

cookies are a good way to say, 'i wanted to remember you at christmas but i have no money to buy you that wii you wanted.' plus this is, for some reason, the one time of year that's it's socially acceptable to eat everything you see - which around christmas, is pretty much just cookies.

joyeux noel.

love,
keighty