It’s October and you know what that means, moms. The cutout cookie death march is about to begin. You have to make ghost and pumpkin iced cookies. Then maybe, maybe you can skip maple leaves and turkeys, but I doubt it. Then it’s December and it’s time to go big or go home, and you can’t go home, because your kids will be scarred for life and write their college essays about disappointment and failure if you don’t make umpteen batches of iced trees, wreaths, reindeer, angels, and candy canes. Those goddamn candy canes. Always breaking. Then there’s Valentine’s hearts, and, in my house, Fleur-de-lis for Mardi Gras, and shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, and finally, finally, you drag your ass to the finish line with a batch of Easter bunnies and chickies.
Do I sound cranky? I am not, really. I actually love the cookie making and icing tradition. Well, I love it in theory. But there have been years, man, where the whole house is cloudy with powdered sugar and flour and every available surface has a tray of drying cookies on it and the kids left an hour ago to play video games so you are the only one still covered in green and red goo. And I think we all know who cleans up.
So, assuming you, like me, have no choice in this matter, I would like to help you out with a really great recipe for the dough. I used my mom’s for years and years, the one that uses cake flour and seems to break every time a rolling pin comes within three feet of it. And who ever has cake flour just sitting around? Then when the kids were little I caved and went with store-bought dough. But really, they tasted gross. Next, I tried my mother-in-law’s tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe, but they were always coming out too puffy. So, I googled, “How to make roll and cut cookies that are not puffy,” and voila! This recipe turned up. I have been using this one for years, and the cookies turn out perfectly crisp and thin and ready for icing.
I am not going to reprint it here; it seems neighborly to send you directly to the blogger who saved my cookie behind and will save yours as well. You are welcome!
P.S. The icing? Back of the confectioner’s sugar box, people. Sugar, butter, a little milk, some vanilla. Don’t be a hero with “royal” or whatever the heck Martha uses.
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