Christmas Cookies

We tend to do a lot of baking around Christmas, but most of it is eaten on Christmas day. Usually we end up with far too much, but we enjoy baking for Christmas because it is one of our traditions; it's difficult to give up on baking even though some family members are trying to avoid a lot of the sweet stuff. There's just something about the whole baking process, Christmas music playing in the background, the smells wafting from the oven, and the decorating of cookies that says Christmas to me.

We started our Christmas baking with shortbread cookies. We usually bake multiple batches, but in our attempt to bake a little bit less, we only baked one batch. As it turns out, most of them are already gone so we need to bake one or two more batches so we'll have some for Christmas. We cut them quite thin so they browned really nicely and have a kind of tender crispness. They are definitely at their best if they aren't too thick. There aren't many ingredients either; you just need butter, cornstarch, flour, and icing sugar to make the cookie dough. The simplicity of the recipe, and the taste of the cookies have definitely made this recipe a winner!

We also decided to bake gingerbread cookies. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the recipe we used last year, so we decided to give another gingerbread recipe a try this year.

I think what makes this particular recipe so good is the spices that are mixed into the dough. The dough is so fragrant with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg that it reminds me of pumpkin pie. The molasses gives the cookies a nice flavour, and a dark brown colour, as well.

Although we have used cookie cutters in the past, this year we tried a gingerbread village pan, which is why the cookies are shaped like houses and churches. I was a bit skeptical about how easily the cookies would come out of the pan once baked, but sure enough they slid out perfectly and they look beautiful. You can decorate them with icing, of course, but my sister and I prefer them plain; they have a good enough flavour that you don't need the addition of sickly-sweet icing.