Swedish Christmas Cookies and a few tips

Who doesn't like to eat cookie dough?

All that fresh butter, sugar, flavoring, sometimes chips or nuts...
The flour holding it all together...

Sometimes I think the dough is better than the finished cookie.
Ok, not usually.
Nothing beats a homemade cookie hot out of the oven.
Nothing.
But as cookie dough (spell check had a fit when I wrote doughs) goes, this is my absolute favorite dough to eat!

Growing up, my sister was the baker of our family. (I was happy to eat all her wonderful creations.) With 2 or 3 weeks off for Christmas vacation she would go nuts in the kitchen. She never made boring sugar cookies, I don't think I even remember her ever making a sugar cookie.

She would make cream puffs and tarts and other things that just made you drool. Some of my best cookie recipes came from her. Oh and just to brag on my sister a little more, She also sews (beautifully) and has a PhD. And 3 amazing kids! I lovingly call her the Martha Stewart of the family.

Back to this cookie dough. It doesn't even have chocolate in it. How can it be my favorite?

It's the blend of spices. The minute you start opening them up and measuring, The aromas start to combine in the air, I think there is definitely something to aroma therapy (at least as far as this dough goes,) And once they are mixed all together, In with the fresh butter, sugar and other ingredients...

 ok, just take a moment and look at these spices,

 they are beautiful together

Just try it, see if I'm right.
And the baked cookie is good too.

Swedish Christmas Cookies 
from Gail Dickinson
no idea why these are Christmas cookies, I like them anytime!
Makes 7-8 dozen

1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons lite corn syrup
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 tsp all spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and corn syrup, blend until combined. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture, work into a stiff dough. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

On floured surface, roll out very thin ( 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick) Cut with cookie cutter

 and bake 7-10 minutes on ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven. . Remove to wire rack and cool.

These are good plain, but they are wonderful dipped in chocolate too!

Now for some cut cookie tips. 

This blog is also for my children, when they grow up, venture out on their own, and can't reach me by phone because hubby and I are off traveling the world, spending their inheritance, lol 

I am no cookie expert, I would never try to say I am. If you want to see some real cookie makers, go to Cristin's Cookies or The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle, these ladies take cookie decorating to a whole new level.

My tips are about the cutting and baking of rolled cookies. From what I have done right (and wrong).
You'll get a small look into the messy part of my baking world so don't be shocked, we start out clean and we finish up clean so it's all good.

Let's start with the dough.

Know your dough. Never, ever, try out a new recipe with plans for the finished cookie (or cake, pie, whatever.) That is a guarantee that it will burn, the power will go out, whatever. Get to know your recipe.
It could even taste bad.

I made these cookies the other day

AND THEY SUCKED!

So you won't see a post about them.

Now for the rolling. Have plenty of space. I roll directly on my counter. Right next to the sink. (You'll see why in just a minute.) 

I like to work with small portions when rolling out dough, especially for a thin cookie like this.

 The more you spread your dough, the more likely it is to stick in the center to your work surface.

Your work surface should be lightly dusted with flour (don't over do it or you will have big, nasty, flour globs on the bottoms of your baked cookie.) 

Having said that I will give my dough a few rolls then lift it up (before it gets too thin) and add a another dusting under the dough.

See the bright shiny spot in the middle of this picture, my dough definitely would have stuck.

Also make sure to lightly dust your rolling pin with flour.

OK, you've rolled out your dough. Now choose your cutter wisely. You want to get as many close cuts as you can out of each roll, less scraps to re-roll later. 

These are a simple, elegant cookie, so I chose a diamond and circle cutter. 

This cutter used to belong to my Grandma, so yes it's really old.

All the cookies are cut, now to move them to the baking pan. 

I use a small metal spatula, dipped in flour to get under my cookie without messing with the shape of the cookie.

Now your first batch is ready to bake. 

This is where you need to know your oven.

The old worn recipe card I have for this recipe says bake for 10 minutes. And every time I make these, I burn the first tray. In my oven these only need to bake for about 7 and a half minutes. 

See how much darker the cookies on the back 2 rows are? Those are from the first tray.

If you are trying a recipe for the first time, cut 4 or 5 minutes of the recommended time and then start watching your cookies for doneness (spell check doesn't like this word either). Every oven is different so cooking times will be different.

OK, we're almost done. This tip is an important one. Scrape your work surface clean before rolling your next batch.

I scrap right into my sink.

If you do this between each batch,

a. you're cookies are less likely to stick to your work surface and

b. the bottoms of your cookies won't burn.

Your work surface gets a build up (that's really gross) each time you roll out dough.

Finally, my last tip. 

Don't roll dough more than twice. The dough is absorbing the flour from the work surface each time you roll it out. You will end up with "tough" cookies if you continue to roll. 

I keep a bowl by my work space (it's right there by the flour) to put all my scraps in. 

Once I have cut all my cookies out, I then gently knead my scraps together and roll them out. 

Any leftover scraps are just that, 

scraps, 

dough scraps, 

and you all know how I feel about scraps. 

We eat them. 

And remember this is some good dough.

Enjoy!