Frosted Christmas Cookies

Last night, I baked a large portion of the 8x batch of sugar cookies that I mixed up the night before. The photos below show some of the variations I came up with for decor.

This is not really frosting. It's the meltable candy coating that comes in blocks. I like to use it for decorating cookies because once it's cooled, it's hard enough that the cookies can be stacked. I melt it very carefully in the microwave (at 20% which is "Cook Power 2" on my microwave) inside a zippered plastic baggie with one corner snipped for piping.

I baked enough cookies for two huge cookie trays and a big plate of cookies for us. That  was about 12 dozen cookies. Then I froze the remaining dough -- if Pillsbury can do it, I can too.

Today I gave my son one of the trays of cookies to take to the post office. (As a CCA -- city carrier assistant -- he has to work Sundays to deliver Amazon, believe it or not.) I took the other tray by my former workplace and put it in the breakroom. It was well received.

Holiday Sugar Cookies to Cut and Paint

This recipe appeared in magazine advertisements for C&H Sugar about 30 years ago. It makes a good dough that can be rolled and cut into shape cookies. I know that the list of ingredients is directly from the C&H recipe. I'm not sure about the directions. I think I may have rewritten them.

Holiday Sugar Cookies to Cut and Paint

1/2 cup soft margarine
1 cup C&H sugar
1 large egg
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Food coloring (optional)

Cream margarine and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, lemon juice, and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually beat into margarine mixture until well blended. Divide dough into three parts. Add food color if desired. Flatten each part to about 1 inch thick between two sheets of food wrap. Place in freezer until thoroughly chilled. Heat oven to 375°. Roll chilled dough to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut cookies; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with Egg Yolk Paint if desired.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. (About 4 dozen medium cookies.)

Egg Yolk Paint

1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon water.
Food coloring (optional)

Mix egg yolk with water. Divide into several cups and add food color as desired. Thin as necessary with water while using. Paint BEFORE baking.

Sugar Cookies For All

I'm glad to report that my knuckle and finger are doing pretty well now. I have to go back to the orthopedist next week for a final inspection. I think he will say that my left hand is OK to  resume its normal life.

For the last few days I have cheating on the buddy-wrap bandage. I only wrap the two fingers when I think there's a real risk of straining my knuckle.

With Christmas just ten days away, I have a long list of things I'd like to do. It will all go much better with both hands participating

Tonight, I intended to make a quadruple batch of my sugar cookie recipe. I planned to take part of them to my former workplace for my friends who are slogging through the holiday season. And I thought I'd give my son a big plate of cookies to take to the post office where he works. They are slogging through the holiday season too.

I glanced at the recipe, did the mental math, and creamed some margarine and sugar together.

An octuple batch of cookies

Then I glanced at my recipe book again and realized that I had added ingredients for the recipe at the bottom of the page, not my sugar cookie recipe at the top of the page.  Uh oh. According to the sugar cookie recipe, I had just creamed enough margarine and sugar for an 8x batch.

"Start where you are." I reminded myself. I moved the cookie dough to a huge metal bowl I ordinarily use for bread dough. Then I made an 8x batch of my sugar cookie recipe. And let me tell you, that is a large quantity of cookie dough. The bowl of dough that is now chilling in my refrigerator is as heavy as a mid-sized watermelon (and as large as a small one.)

So there will be plenty of sugar cookies to share next week. I'll be able to send cookies to my old work friends, my son's post office, AND the neighbors.

I didn't strain the injured knuckle doing this. My little KitchenAid portable hand mixer did the hard work. I hope it's all right. It worked pretty hard.