Cookies and Milk for Santa

Christmas is a holiday full of tradition.  And tonight I’m sure lots of people are taking off their Christmas sweaters, putting on PJs, reading “The Night Before Christmas” and putting out cookies and milk for Santa.  I love the tradition of putting milk and cookies.  Not sure if it because it involves cookies or because it involves believing in something.  Everyone needs to have faith in something and a jolly guy in a red suite who brings presents to all who believe is still a good thing.   

I made these cookies in September and kept thinking they would be great as a letter to Santa in case the letter sent to the North Pole got lost.  I supersized this letter to Santa and made it out of a gingerbread cookie.  I used the side of the house of the Wilton Gingerbread House Cutter Set – it is about 5”x 7”.  I flooded the cookie with white royal icing (as always I use Ateco meringue powder) and blue and red for the lines on the paper.  The cookie dried overnight.  I used black AmeriColor Food Colour Markers to actually write the note.  Pete wanted a white Christmas, which I’m not sure will be happening in Toronto this year, so I included a snowflake sugar cookie too.  This letter can be personalized as you wish or your kids can actually write or sign their own letter. 

What kind of cookies are you leaving for Santa? 

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Heaven

The "BOYS"

The "GIRLS"

The "MEN"

Why is it that when we think of Christmas we think of gingerbread cookies?  I mean gingerbread has to be some of the yummiest cookies and why most people make them only at the festive holiday season really does not make any sense at all. 

For those of you who have been following my baking you may have noticed that I will never succumb to this December gingerbread fetish – I make ginger cookies throughout the year.  In March, I made gingerbread Purim masks  and in July I shared a Ginger Doodle recipe.  Maybe, subconsciously, I want that holiday feeling all year long.  The feeling of peace on earth and goodwill towards our neighbors – not to mention the sweet smell of gingerbread baking.

Here are some sweet gingerbread cookies I made recently.  These cute gingerbread boys, girls and men, were inspired by Bakerella, and a lot of sprinkles.  Sitting down to the great smell and a ton of sprinkles allowed my mind to go and my creativity to fly.  They were as fun to make as they were to eat.


Wishing you a holiday season full of joy, Santa and gingerbread.

Purim Masks

Purim celebrates the rescue of the Jews of ancient Persia from a plot to destroy them as told in the Book of Esther, which is read at this time. Purim is a joyous holiday, celebrated by wearing of costumes, giving gifts to friends, giving to the poor, and socializing. 

So in the spirit of this holiday I made gingerbread masks.  I made gingerbread because I think this is a cookie that should be made all year round not just for Christmas -- plus one of my sister's LOVES gingerbread.


The recipe I used is modified from my favorite Betty Crocker's COOKY Book.  I mentioned this book in my Yoga Cookie blog for Frosting for the Cause but I always need to always give it credit.   This book is falling apart and held together with an elastic but still has great cookie recipes and I love that is must be over 40 years old (no publication data in the book).

The Gingerbread recipe is:

1/3 cup shortening (I use Earth Balance for a healthier trans fat free cookie)

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 1/2 cups dark molasses

2/3 cup cold water

7 cups flour -- maybe a little less -- I always use Five Rose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cloves

1 tsp. cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar and molasses thoroughly.  Stir in Water.  Blend all dry ingredients; stir in. Chill.  Now the recipe calls for 7 cups of flour but I probably used about 6.5 cups in the recipe and the other half cup for rolling the cookies out.

Heat oven to 350.  Roll dough 1/4" thick on lightly floured board.  Cut with gingerbread boy cutter or other favorite shape cutter (in this case I used a mask with eye cut outs which I got at Copper Gifts).  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.  I think this made about 3 dozen masks but the number of cookies, of course, depends on the size of the cookie cutter and this mask is a pretty nice size.


Materials Needed for Decorating :
· royal icing – my new favorite royal icing is made with Ateco meringue powder — it tastes like marshmallows. I coloured the icing white, purple and black -- but also had some other colours left over from some birthday cookies I was making so I used that too for some polka dot masks which looked pretty cute -- I do love those polka dots and could probably polka dot just about any cookie
· piping bag and round tips I probably used a variety from #1 to #4
· Wilton White Pearlized Sugar Pearls

· Wilton Pearlized Sprinkles in Gold & Silver

· Wilton Sprinkles in Black and Purple

· purple disco dust

· dragées in gold & silver

· candy tweezers to put it all together – you could use your fingers but I find the tweezers way easier for manipulating the small candy decorations

Decorate as you wish and have fun creating delicious disguise mask cookies.

Happy Purim! 

Polka dots are just cute on everything!