Cookie Blitz

Shifting gears from madly knitting fingerless mitts for Christmas shipping, Jen, Zoe and I hit my kitchen to knock out two of six kinds of Christmas cookies we have planned for holiday parties and gifting.  First I made Helen Corbitt's Sand Tarts, little balls of butter, powdered sugar, cake flour and chopped pecans.  Melt-in-your mouth sweetness.  My mom used to make these as little crescents, but my current family prefers little balls. 

 Then on to the decorated sugar cookies pictured at the top.  I found these tiny little Christmas cookie cutters of trees, candy canes, ornaments and stars which Jen decided would make perfect little bites for her Christmas Eve Tasting Party with everything small scale.  Wow, a doubled recipe for "Rich Roll Cookies" in the trusty tome, The Joy of Cooking,  p. 711 made acres of cookies! We were icings and sprinkling toppings for what seemed like hours.  Oh, and the kicker is, the icing needs to set for 5 hours before you stack them in a tin.  Guess who got to do that at 10 P.M.??

 Zoe loved really helping this year.  She manned both the big KitchenAid mixers with ease.  Jen's newer model blue baby is much less libel to blow flour around as it is added to creamed butter mixers.  Just FYI, folks, if you are in the market for a new mixer.

 Jen kept checking our math.  We've been off sometimes in previous years with hilarious results.

Zoe loved scraping the  dough off the beater.

 These are tiny little 1 1/2 inch cookies.  So pretty!

Next up, Rachel Ray's fudge ring and Aunt Betty's shortbread.