Every year I make and preserve my own cookie ornaments for our Christmas tree. It's time consuming, no doubt about it, and depending on how much detail you are putting into each cookie ornament, making even a dozen ornaments can take several days from start to finish. But it's totally worth it! -- Making ornaments from scratch is not only rewarding and impressive to your friends and family, but it also gives you the opportunity to completely change the theme of your tree every year. This year my tree is done primarily in gingerbread cookies decorated with a number of techniques and following is the recipe and simple preserving method that I use that will keep your cookies in perfect condition for this holiday season and, if stored properly, for many years to come.
If you have any questions or tips of your own regarding the process, feel free to leave a comment on this post, and if you don't have time to make your own cookie ornaments this Christmas, I'll be happy to make and ship a dozen to you. Contact me HERE for pricing information.
GINGERBREAD ORNAMENT DOUGH RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
6 - 3/4 cups all purpose flour
4 - 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 - 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 - 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 - 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 - 1/2 cups (three sticks) butter (room temperature)
1 - 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup robust (dark) molasses
SUPPLIES
Assortment of cookie cutters
silicon mats (2 or 3)
rolling pin
Paints, Luster Dust, silver and gold gilding, dragees
paintbrushes (small bristles)
piping bags with various size tips, including but not limited to size 00, 1, 2, 3 & 4
Gel & paste based food coloring
Bright White
(Many of these supplies are available at your local baking supply store -- check google or the online Yellow Pages for a location near you)
1 Chop stick
Clear acrylic spray (I use KRYLON Crystal Clear, available at your local hardware store)
INSTRUCTIONS
Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cardamom into medium bowl. Using electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar and beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add molasses and beat on high speed until well blended for about 3 minutes. Add dry ingredients in four additions at low speed until dough forms, stopping between additions to scrape down the mixing bowl with spatula. Divide dough in half, then half again and then shape the four equal parts into disks, wrap in plastic wrap and place the disks in the fridge for at least two hours, or until firm and easy to work with.
Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees F. and cover two or three baking sheets with silicon mats.
Working with one disk of dough at a time and keeping the rest in the refrigerator, lightly flour a rolling pin and, working directly on the silicon mat placed over the baking sheet, roll out the rough to about 1/4 inch. The dough will be a little thicker than a cookie you'd eat, as it adds strength to the ornament, but not too thick so that it takes a long time to cook all the way through, as the cookie might be soft in the middle and be prone to humidity after preserving.
Use your selected cookie cutters, dipped in flour first, to cut shapes into the rolled out dough. The great thing about rolling the dough directly on the mat is that you don't have to transfer the cut shapes, which always raises the chances of tearing or completely ruining their forms. Instead, pull the dough from around the cut shapes and leave the cookies on the mat. Put the first sheet (only bake one sheet at a time) in the preheated 350 Degree F. oven for 13 minutes. The cookies should be slightly darker around the edges, but not much. 13 minutes should be ample time for most small to medium large size cookies to cook completely through.
While the cookies are in the oven, start cutting your second sheet of cookies so that they will be ready to go in the oven when the first batch is done baking.
When the first batch is done, remove the cookies from the oven and immediately, using the pointed end of a chopstick or similarly shaped tool in a twisting motion, gently put a hole into the gingerbread ornaments where you plan to hang them. If the cookies cool too quickly before you are finished putting holes in all of them, put them back in the oven for a minute or two and that should soften them enough. After you place holes in all of the cookies on the baking sheet, let them sit and firm up for another minute or two before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.
Repeat until all of the dough is finished.
DECORATING COOKIES
I won't go into the detailed steps on decorating cookies ... I'll just say to use your imagination and find inspiration from things that you find beautiful, unique and interesting! For the gingerbread, I use a simple Royal Icing. Here's the recipe:
ROYAL ICING
2 egg whites
1 pound powdered sugar
In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the egg whites at high speed until foamy for a minute or so. Add 1 pound of powdered sugar and mix at medium high speed, then medium low speed, until thick in consistency. You can add a few drops of milk until the frosting is at a consistency for piping that you are happy with.
For gingerbread, I like to use a thicker icing that leaves nice, clean lines on the cookie, which to me works best with gingerbread, but feel free to experiment with the thickness of the frosting and the frosting tip that you use (I prefer to use a tip that is between 00 - 4 in size for piping on the cookies).
PRESERVING THE COOKIES
Place the decorated cookies on a sheet of aluminum foil (do this in an area with good ventilation if possible). Using KRYLON brand Crystal Clear acrylic or the equivalent, spray lightly and quickly over each cookie and let it set for ten minutes or so. Spraying it lightly at first prevents any paints you might have put on your cookies from running. Once the acrylic spray has set a bit, spray them a second time, this time longer and a bit heavier. Let them dry another ten minutes. Gently turn the cookies over and give the backs of them a good spray coating. Let them set another ten minutes and then turn them over again. Spray the decorated fronts one last time with a good coating and allow to dry for at least ten more minutes before putting a ribbon through the hole and hanging your cookie on the tree.
*** If you are painting on the cookies with straight food coloring, as I often do, then before piping on the cookies, start the preserving process above to prevent the colors from bleeding onto your piped icing. Once the cookies have dried, apply piping and spray the cookies again with acrylic.
AFTER THE HOLIDAYS
At the end of the holiday season, store your cookies in an airtight container separated by tissue and newspaper between layers -- no cookies should be sitting on top of each other. The cookies will keep for several seasons, although even with the best care, they won't last forever. However, they will stay beautiful for the entire current holiday season!
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