I’d be worried if I made cookies for Santa and he didn’t eat them. What would that mean? Was I too naughty this year for him to even take a bite? Or, is Santa expecting more from me than stale cookies from the store?
Santa expects cookies from scratch and I’ve let him down in past years. That would probably explain the amount of coal I’ve been receiving.
I now know that cookies for Santa should be sugar cookies, and sugar cookies are rolled cookies. Rolled cookies are great because you use a rolling pin to create a flat dough that you can cut into Christmas trees, hearts or any other shape. Once you decorate with sprinkles, chocolate chips or colored sugar, you have an attractive holiday cookie.
I’m going to impress Santa this year and try to change his opinion of the crummy cookie offerings I’ve made in the past. I’ll make some fantastic sugar cookies with a basic dough formula that will rest in the refrigerator for a few hours.
However, the challenge in rolling sugar cookie dough is that you can get inconsistent thickness of the dough. This means you’ll have cookies of different sizes and some will burn while others are under-cooked.
Cookies for Santa should never be burned or under-cooked, so I’ve developed a great trick to assure the consistent thickness of the cookies I create.
By using wooden dowels or the metal hanging file folder rods, I can give my rolling pin a guide and maximum thickness for the dough automatically. When I place my thickness guides on either side of the dough, the rolling pin will never fall to a width below that of the guides.
With a uniform thickness of the dough, now I can impress Santa with the many different shapes I can cut them into, the myriad ways to decorate them, but most importantly, the great way they’ll bake because of my cooking rolling trick.
This year, my cookies for Santa are going to move me from the “naughty” to the “nice” category and hopefully score me some of the kitchen tools I’ve been asking for.
Do you have a holiday cookie trick that Santa would appreciate? Please leave a nice comment below:
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I use that trick with clay when rolling out for my pottery projects! Why didn’t I think of it before for cookies!?!
Hi Chef Todd,
I have thoroughly enjoyed the recipes, tips & techniques you
have shared with me. You have helped me so much. Your
tip for rolling out sugar cookies was unique. Seeing you
cut them out with a large biscuit cutter reminded me of a molasses cookie my grandmother made when I was very
young. They were big but soft on the inside almost cake like.
I have tried so many recipes, but have never been able to duplicate hers. Unfortunately she died before I was old
enough to think of asking for a recipe and my mother or her
sisters did not think to get it. Do you by any change have
such a recipe. Thanking you in advance for sharing.
Ann
Hi Ann!
Thank you for your kind comments.
I’m sorry, but I don’t have a Molasses Cookie recipe for you.
There’s a wealth of recipes on the internet. If you find one that you think might be close, I can scrutinize it for you and give my opinion.
Just send me a link of what you’ve found and I’ll be able to tell you how they’ll come out.
Todd.
Got any cookie suggestions for those who know the Santa coming down their chimney is trying to (or must) eliminate sugar from his diet?
Yes,Emmet, there are some great diabetic baking baking formulas on the Internet. Often, fruit juices or concentrates are used in place of sugar.