Every single Christmas for all of our life, we have had a batch of these cookies. They go back generations and generations, rooted in our German ancestry. Grandma Mathilda made them for me, and her mother made them for her and my mom made them for our children and so on. My Grandma was an amazing cook, a real Renaissance woman~she made just about everything whether to eat or wear or adorn a home. Every year at Christmas time a big box would arrive from the post office. All of the contents would be packed in popped popcorn. There were these sugar cookies, fudge, penuche, divinity, something gingery, etc. A real eye-popping assortment. Now mind you I struggled to do 2 batches over the weekend and I was exhausted. How did grandma do it??? I was in a hurry to get these off to siblings who live a distance, otherwise it works best to cut out and bake these cookies over a weekend, freeze them, and frost the following weekend.
~The finished product~
~The Sugar Fairy would surely approve~
~Some of the items you will need~
~German Sugar Cookies~
1/2 Cup vegetable shortening (we found some trans fat free at Whole Foods)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup) room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon real vanilla
{we don't add this, but Grandma Mathilda did~ 1 1/2 teaspoons anise seed}
To Begin:
In a large mixer bowl, add the vegetable shortening, butter, and sugar- beat until creamy. Add the eggs and continue beating until well combined. Add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix just until it comes together~and is fully mixed. Don't overdo it. Cut in half and form into a disk. This is a soft dough. It is meant to be rolled out with lots of flour. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to get cold. (1/2 to 1 hour)
To roll out:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. You will need 2 cookie sheets, something to line the sheets with,i.e. parchment, silpat, etc., a flat surface to roll cookies out on, flour, cookie cutters, rolling pin spatula, bench scraper and pot holders.
Add some flour to the surface you are rolling your cookies out on. Cut 1/2 of the disk off. Lay the dough on the floured surface and flip it over so that both sides are floured. Flour your rolling pin. Roll the dough out 3/16 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour and cut out shapes and transfer them to your prepared cookie sheets. Leave about one inch space between cookies. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Make sure your rack is centered in your oven.
Remove baked cookies from oven and place aside to cool. Meanwhile, have your next batch ready to go into the oven.
How did Grandma do this with a wood burning stove??
Have all your baked cookies ready, a spreader spatula, cookie sprinkles and bits and goodies, food coloring. We collect all sorts of sugars, sprinkles, non pariels, silver and pearl balls, etc., not to mention all the cookie cutters we have collected old and new. This year we found some gorg silver and gold sprinkles at Williams Sonoma. They really dress up the cookies.
To Frost:
(Grandma used 7 minute icing) Mine is a lot easier!
1 box powdered sugar (1 pound)
3 tablespoons meringue powder (See pictured above. Purchase at Joann's or Michael's in the bakery section)
6 tablespoons warm water
Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed). Working quickly, place some of the frosting in small bowls to color or keep white. Frost and sprinkle each cookie as you go. Teamwork is best, grab some extra hands. Let the cookies dry a couple of hours and then package them up.
A few of our tree cookie cutters were used here.
~pearl sprinkles and snowy sprinkles~
Silver sprinkles and agey blue frosting, Tiffany blue with matching sugar and peachy-pink stars.
The packages of cookies are in the mail, going to some special homes. These cookies are even better after a few days, they taste like Christmas to us.
This tree is packed and really packed with ornaments. It was overkill, we just couldn't stop.
Whimsy in the form of snowmen capture a nostalgic feeling.
Tons and tons of icicles play well against deep, intense red.
Letting ribbon unfurl as it will creates a more interesting texture on the tree.
The colors on this tree play out with an old English feel. Ivy is tucked here and there. French reindeer and Santa's intermingle.
