The inspiration for my woodland themed cookies this year came from, you guessed it, Martha Stewart's Living December issue. I used the cookie recipes featured in that story: Boiled Gingerbread, Honey Spice Gingerbread, and Chocolate Cut Out along with the ones I use every year; Sugar Cut Out (my friend, Shannon's recipe of The Misanthropic Hostess) and another MS recipe, my favorite; Spiced Cardamom. I don't think that I have ever made chocolate cut out cookies before but I am going to add them to my cookie repertoire, they were so easy to work with and yummy.
I also did things a little differently this year. Since I only made one type of cookie, cut outs, instead of different variations, I prepared all of the cookie doughs at once, chilled them all, then leisurely cut them out and baked them as I went, and then decorated them. This helped control the equipment and ingredients that tend to pile up when I am working on a big baking project like this. In years past, I would work with one cookie recipe at a time and I feel that the plan for this year was a lot more efficient. One of my favorite tricks is a trick I learned from Shannon (which you will see in her Sugar Cookie recipe post linked above), and that is to roll out the dough as soon as you have prepared it (skipping the making a flat disk and wrapping it in plastic and chill part), layer the rolled out dough between layers of parchment paper, place the stacks of rolled out dough on a cookie sheet or tray and put in refrigerator until you are ready to cut out. This works really well with most of the doughs except for the Honey Spice Gingerbread. This cookie dough was a little sticky and was really difficult to work with. Not only did it stick to the parchment paper when layered but I found I had to add a lot of flour to it while cutting and re-rolling. Another tip I learned along the way is to drape a dish towel over your mixer while you add the flour mixture to your wet mixture to avoid a flour storm.
I didn't have a toadstool cookie cutter so I improvised. I cut out a circle with a round cutter, then traced the shape with a knife. It was really easy and fun to do. Next time you are looking for a specific shape and cannot find it, check your cookie cutter inventory and see what you can do with what you already have.
I was really pleased with the cookies this year. I think that having a specific theme really helped me stay focused and took some of the pressure off. I am already thinking of what theme I will do next year. Suggestions are welcomed. The picture below was my inspiration.
XOXO,
SC
