Gingerbread People Holiday Cookie Projects White Snowflakes Dreidel Trios And Ornaments Recipes

HOLIDAY COOKIE PROJECTS: SNOWFLAKES, DREIDEL TRIOS, AND ORNAMENTS

Steps:

• Cream the butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until smooth. Add the sugar and mix. Add the egg and mix. Add the molasses and vanilla and mix. Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves together. Working in batches, and mixing just until combined after each addition, add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture. Shape the dough into a thick disk, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 1 or 2 sheet pans. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out 1/4-inch thick.
• Icing decorations:
• Stir the confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth.
• To make snowflakes:
• Use a snowflake-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, rerolling the scraps as needed. If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make the holes in the dough about 1/8-inch wide, keeping in mind that the holes will shrink as the cookies bake. Bake until firm, 12 to 15 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Using only white icing and a pastry bag fitted with the smallest plain tip, pipe thin lines from the center of the cookie out to the points, like spokes of a wheel. Connect the spokes with thin lines in between them, making a spiderweb effect to make it look like a snowflake. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string or yarn for hanging.
• To make dreidel trios:
• Use a dreidel cookie cutter and cut out 3 cookies. Lay 1 on a greased sheet pan. Fanning out at an angle, with the handles overlapping at the top, lay 2 more dreidels next to the first one (it will look like a paper-doll effect). The handle is now 3 layers thick; press on it gently to thin it slightly and make it larger. Repeat with the remaining dough, rerolling the scraps as needed. If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make a hole in the handle about 1/8-inch wide, keeping in mind that the hole will shrink as the cookies bake. Bake until firm, 12 to 15 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Color some of your icing blue with food coloring, or use blue colored sugar and white icing together. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip, pipe Hebrew letters or stars of David on the cookies' faces. Sprinkle the sugar on the icing while the icing is still wet. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string, or yarn for hanging.
• To make ornaments:
• Use any holiday-themed cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, rerolling the scraps as needed. If you plan to hang the cookies, use a toothpick to make holes in the dough about 1/8 inch wide, keeping in mind that the holes will shrink as the cookies bake. Bake until firm, 12 to 15 minutes, and let cool on the pan. Meanwhile, color some of your icing in festive colors with food coloring, or use colored sugars. Using a pastry bag fitted with the smallest plain tip, pipe a few colorful borders and decorations on the cookies. When set, add more lines of icing in white. Let the icing harden before threading the cookies onto wire, string, or yarn for hanging.

HOLIDAY COOKIE TREE CENTERPIECE

Steps:

• COMBINE flour and salt in large bowl. Beat shortening, sugar and vanilla in separate large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Beat in egg yolks and orange juice. Gradually stir in flour mixture to form a soft dough. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces, shaping each into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Chill 4 hours or overnight.
• HEAT oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out dough, one piece at a time, to 1/4-inch thickness on floured surface.* Keep remaining dough chilled until ready to use. Cut out a total of 24 cookies, using the 2 largest cookie cutters 4 times each and the 8 remaining cookie cutters 2 times each. Bake on prepared baking sheets, 16 minutes for small cookies, 18 minutes for large cookies, or until edges begin to brown and centers are set. (Group similar size cookies on same baking sheet for even baking.) Carefully slide baked cookies on parchment paper onto work surface. Cookies may be fragile while warm. Cool completely.
• STIR powdered sugar and meringue powder in large bowl until combined. Add water. Beat with electric mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes. If necessary, add additional powdered sugar or water to reach the desired spreading consistency. (Keep frosting covered with damp cloth to prevent hardening.) Reserve one of the smallest size cookies for later use. Spread icing over remaining cookies, immediately topping with decorator sprinkles.
• PLACE one of the largest size cookies on decorative platter to begin assembly. Spoon about 1 tablespoon remaining icing onto center of cookie. Repeat to stack additional 22 cookies on top, by decreasing size, rotating each cookie slightly to stagger points of stars. To complete decoration, hold reserved small cookie by its edges and coat both side with frosting. Decorate as desired. Stand upright on top of tree, securing with a small dab of icing. Let stand until icing is firm.

GINGERBREAD SNOWFLAKES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and water. Combine the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle., On a lightly floured surface, roll out to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with 2-1/2-in. cookie cutters dipped in flour. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. , Bake at 350° until edges are firm, 10-12 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool., In a small bowl, combine frosting ingredients; beat until smooth. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a tip; pipe frosting onto cookies in desired designs.

GINGERBREAD COOKIE THINS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F; line three baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly coat with cooking spray. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, baking soda and cloves in a small bowl and set aside.
• Combine the brown sugar, butter, molasses, milk and egg yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and mix on low, increasing the speed gradually to medium high, until a ball of dough forms, about 3 minutes.
• Lightly coat two pieces of parchment paper with cooking spray. Sandwich the dough between the two pieces (sprayed side touching the dough). Roll out until about 1/16-inch thick. Freeze so the dough gets really firm, about 30 minutes. Cut out with 2-inch cookie cutters and transfer to the prepared baking sheets. Whisk the egg white in a small bowl, brush onto the tops of the cookies and sprinkle with the crystallized ginger. Re-roll and cut out the scraps if desired.
• Bake until golden, rotating the sheets about halfway through, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on the sheets, and then transfer to a rack to cool.

GINGERBREAD COOKIE COCKTAIL

Steps:

• To make Gingerbread Simple Syrup, mix sugar, water, molasses, gingerroot, cinnamon sticks and cloves in 1-quart saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; set aside 1 hour to cool. Strain into glass jar; discard spices. Cover jar, and refrigerate until needed. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.
• To garnish glass, moisten rim of chilled martini glass with orange wedge. Sprinkle brown sugar onto small plate, and dip moistened rim into the sugar to coat lightly.
• To prepare cocktail, fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add gingerbread simple syrup, vodka, half-and-half and coffee liqueur; cover and shake. Pour into martini glass.