Cookie Day

 I had put off cookie making long enough so for the second year in a row I used my stove top and the 12 inches I have left of counter space to roll out some dough.

 

I can't find any of the tried and true recipes I have stored away so I decided to go with the big names this year. This is Martha Stewart's gingerbread cookies. 

They would have been fine-if I had left out the black pepper. I've never used it in cookies before and thought I might try it. I won't again. Ack....it is nasty.  Not having any meringue powder on hand, I also tried out a recipe for eggless royal icing. You use honey instead and it worked just fine. In spite of my sloppy and impatient piping it dried nice and hard. 

I used Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe. It was crumbly to roll.......

.....but it made a decent sugar cookie. You can't go wrong with sprinkles. That's my kind of decorating. 

I got tired of rolling out that crumbly mess so the rest of the dough turned into to Russian tea cakes.

Then I tried something I've wanted to try for ages-the chocolate crinkle cookie. I had a co-worker that made them and I loved them. Mine spread out. Hers were rounded.

I added another 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining batter and they puffed up a little better but still not like hers. I'll have to try another recipe for them next year. There were several online. 

I killed an entire day fooling with cookies and have a nice big tin to show for it. 

The big hero of the day however was my castile soap. It's officially one year old now and that's the proper cure time. It's not a big bubble maker but when you are washing sticky dough off your hands fifty times an hour the gentleness is much appreciated.