Tuesday, December 1, 2009

12 Days of Cookies - Day 1 - Spice Rollout Cookies




A couple weeks ago I got an intriguing email from Sandy of At the Baker's Bench.  I've gotten to know Sandy as I've been joining her in a year of BYOB fun.  She invited me to be part of a group baking holiday cookies and posting them during the first 12 days of December.  That's right, 12 days in a row, one cookie per day.  I thought about it for a bit, since it would definitely be quite a bit of work to bake, photograph and blog all those cookies.  But I've been trying to think of ways to get out of my blogging slump, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and jump right in!

So welcome to my first post for the 12 Days of Cookies (a Bon Appetit cookie extravaganza)!  I'm baking along with nine other wonderful bloggers (see below for the full list).  A bunch of them did the same thing last year with recipes from Gourmet.  This year, we're selecting cookies from this list.  Part of the fun is that each of us is making our own picks from the 31 options, and none of us knows what the others are baking.  So we'll get to have as much fun as everyone else checking out all the different cookies as they're posted.

Once I decided which 12 cookies I wanted to make (and it's still possible the list might change), I had to decide which to share first.  Today's cookie actually wasn't the first one I made, but once I thought about it, I realized that it was the perfect one to start off with.  After all, it comes from Dorie Greenspan, and today is Tuesday. =)  (Just a note, my regularly scheduled TWD posts will resume next week.  I didn't make this week's tart--my apologies to Lauren.)  So first up is Spice Roll-Out Cookies.



Now roll-out cookies aren't a favorite of mine.  I like eating them, and they're pretty, but I just don't have the patience for them a lot of the time.  Plus my girls see cookie cutters and colored sugar and immediately want to help.  And I don't always have the patience for that. =)  But I really like molasses and spice cookies, so I figured I'd give these a try.

The dough was easy to mix together.  Lots of spices--ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and one surprise, dry mustard.  Once the dough was mixed, I divided it in half as instructed and stashed it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, I took half out to work with.  The dough was actually nice to roll out.  I tried to work quickly, cutting out shapes and transferring them to my parchment-lined baking sheet.  The dough did soften a bit, though, so I put the sheet pan of cookies in the fridge to chill for a few minutes before I put them in the oven.  Meanwhile, I gathered the scraps of dough together into a disc and wrapped it up to put back in the fridge to chill again.  I baked the cookies for 8 minutes; next time I think I'll go a bit longer since they ended up a bit soft (and thus a bit harder to decorate).  Later in the day, once the cookies were completely cool, I added a glaze.  I whisked together a couple teaspoons of cream cheese with a tablespoon of milk and about 3 ounces of powdered sugar.  I spread the glaze on the cookies with the back of a spoon and left the cookies on the rack until the glaze was completed dry.



The verdict?  These were definitely a hit.  Brianna and Gillian both liked them; in fact, Brianna specifically asked if she could have another one in her lunch tomorrow, which is high praise indeed. =)  I liked them better with the glaze than without.  The combination of spices was nice, but it seemed like the plain cookies needed a bit of...something.  I'm thinking that it might be just a bit more salt, so I'm going to try that next time.  Meanwhile, I've got half the dough in my freezer so we can bake some more between now and Christmas.

If you'd like to give these cookies a try, you can find the recipe here.



And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up for today!




Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
Tiffany of The Nesting Project







20 comments:

  1. Love the cutouts of these cookies! I think I would like them better with the glaze too but isn't everything better glazed? Hehehe!

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  2. Your cookies look great! I don't usually have the patience for roll-out cookies either, though I am planning on making some for Christmas. I love the sound of these, especially with the cream cheese icing! Yummy!

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  3. WOW. Just, wow. They look amazing, Di. So glad you are joining us this year!!
    ~Sandy

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  4. Oh! So pretty with the mini lights! Oh! I know a couple of little cookie thieves who are going to be pretty busy with those!

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  5. UUUMMMM! Spice cookies. Look delicious.

    I have such horrible luck with roll out cookies. I never can get them to look like the angel/tree/snowman they are supposed to be.

    Glad yours turned out.

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  6. Beautiful cookies! I love the pic with the Christmas lights!

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  7. I'm so glad you can bake with us this year! Cut out cookies are so classically Christmas, but like you I need to cultivate more patience for them. Yours turned out beautiful!

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  8. I'm so glad you're doing this blog cookie event; by the time I'm ready to start my Christmas baking, you'll be done and I can learn from your experience. These cookies sound like they'd suit my tastes perfectly - putting them on the list! Your back-of-the-spoon glazing technique is flawless.

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  9. Your cookies look awesome. I don't know how you kept the icing looking so neat. I bet your kids would be neater then me!

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  10. Just lovely! I'll use your tips on these since they're on my list. I'm with you on the patience for roll out cookies of any type so have a few of the drop variety on my list to recover some semblance of patience along the way ; ) Glad you've joined the group!

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  11. Nice choice! And yes, everything is better with glaze.:-) One down, eleven to go - can't wait to see what you do next!

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  12. Wow! Welcome and very impressive first post. Cant to see what else you bake.

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  13. Your cookies look fabulous! Wow, 12 different cookies in 12 days...can't wait to see what's next.

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  14. Now this cookie is on my list and I can't wait to make them!

    Love the mini Christmas Lights..so cute!

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  15. I love the mini Christmas light decorations.

    And the cookies look good too. I'm still hemming and hawing about which cookies to make.

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  16. Oh, Di! I want one of these in MY lunch bag! I really love the way the glaze looks on the cookies. They boys just "helped" me make sugar cookies today. Oy! What a lesson in patience. :o) Anyway, I'm trying this one!

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  17. These look fantastic! I don't think I've ever done any cut out cookies that weren't sugar cookies, so I'm really eager to try these. I hope to muster up enough patience to do cut out cookies at least once this month. :-)

    Love this blogging event and look forward to seeing all your cookies!

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  18. I love, love, love cutout cookies and these sound and look amazing! I will be putting them on my ever-growing list. I adore your little lights :)

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  19. How fun to make cutouts. I love how you displayed them with the little Christmas lights, so cute! I love this idea of the 12 days of cookies and if I was a better poster, I would have joined in...maybe next year. Sounds like such fun and I am loving seeing all your cookies!

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