Little things often make a world of difference. At least they do in the baking world. I changed several things to avoid a repeat of the Best Christmas Cookies debacle of last week. Issue one: the ambient temperature, which was a balmy 70˚F (21.11˚C) at my sister-in-law’s house, was a little chillier at 64˚F (17.77˚C) here at home. Issue two: using a hand mixer v. mixing by hand. I suspected that using a hand mixer made the batter a little too fluid for the cookies to roll out right, and this time, my dough set up nicely when popped in the freezer for thirty minutes. I didn’t need to re-flour the parchment paper on my work surface, nor was it necessary to refreeze the dough halfway through, as it was at my SIL’s. The cookie cutters sliced through the dough quite sharply, and the silicone spatula I used was thin enough to get under the cookies without distorting them. Issue three: no shortening in the icing. All I used was a cup and a half of confectioner’s sugar, three tablespoons of half-and-half, a tablespoon of vanilla, and Wilton Paste Colors. I made up eight ramekins of the sugary stuff (black, brown, violet, rose, red, yellow, leaf green, and white) and used tiny paintbrushes instead of butter knives in order to frost with precision. Check out my results!
