Christmas Cookies to Share
This weekend our home was like a smoking censer; the hot oven breathed out warm gingerbread and buttery sugar cookie scents until the whole house was filled to the corners with it's billowing smell. Our cookie baking is just coming into stride. This year Evelyn had the idea to give Christmas cookies to people who might not get them otherwise this season. We let that grow into a full-fledged idea, and decided to bring a bunch of cookies to the assisted living home where our dear Kh. Charlotte is living.
So we are going to be doing a lot of baking this year!
So we are going to be doing a lot of baking this year!
Do you know how hard it is to find Orthodox Christmas cookie cutters?! One year I had to draw and cut out a template to hand-cut our cookies. (Here's the link to that post.) Well, I'm not doing that again... After looking fruitlessly on the internet for a cookie cutter that looked like a domed Orthodox church I settled for re-shaping a traditional church cookie cutter (which you can find both in the stores and online). The top was already nearly the right shape, being triangular. I just rounded it out until it looked more like an onion dome. It wasn't very hard to bend the metal by hand so I'm pretty sure anyone else who wants to try this could do it too! The new cookie cutter worked quite well! And the bonus is that I have it for the coming years too.
We've made gingerbread and sugar cookies but I'm looking for more cookie ideas.
What are your favorite Christmas cookies to make? Or to receive?
Comments
Here are some of my Christmas cookie recipes:
https://gretchenjoanna.com/2012/12/31/christmas-cookies-for-show-and-eat/
https://gretchenjoanna.com/2009/12/22/neapolitans-the-cookie/
https://gretchenjoanna.com/2012/01/17/lemony-cookies-are-good-any-time/
I know there is a school house cookie cutter in the the old (ahem still unpacked in the garage) craft box I will dig it out and clean it up and see if I can mangle it into a dome. My oldest has a gf gingerbread cookie that works for cutting out so the timing is perfect. Last year all the kids at the parish made cookies one evening and, as we are a "commuting" parish from a dozen far flung towns, plates went to the fire station of each of the communities the kids were from. Our neighbor worked over the holidays at our local station and my dc were so excited to hear when the kids next door told them their dad was teasing on the phone about how he was eating the best cookies. Hmm gingerbread and kolacky jam cookies are our favorites here.
Ma F., you will have to let me know how your cookie cutter turns out!
Emmie, thanks for the compliment! I love your blog & have added it to my sidebar!
GretchenJoanna, I hope you tells us all about the fun you will have baking with your daughter and granddaughter!