Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Xmas cookies

I hadn't planned to make any Xmas cookies this year, other than the obligatory windmills for Rachael, but then Annie texted me this picture of her spritz failure:















I rushed to make some nice tree-shaped spritz from Betty Crocker--only modified by using flax egg and adding green food coloring and pandan extract--so I could show her how it's done.
























Buoyed by my success, I decided to make some rose-flavored Strasbourgs from the booklet that came with my cookie press. They were a little trickier, as the dough would not break off from the press unless squirted onto a bare, un-Silpatted cookie sheet. It took me a while to figure this out.

The recipe's very simple: 7 oz oleo, 1.5 oz powdered sugar, 10.5 oz flour, vanilla to taste. I added rose essence and pink coloring, plus water sufficient to get the pink mixed in. Once spritzed onto cold, bare cookie sheets, bake at 400F for about five minutes.

























I ended up making a fourth kind of cookie as well, as when I was searching for the windmill link I  saw that in 2010 'cinnamon rolls' had been Rachael's favorite.