Christmas is Coming

It's Christmas time and we will be stuck here in New York. As a result, I have been cooking like crazy to try to retain some semblance of tradition. Christmas isn't the same without my Mom's caramels, fudge and cherry-drop cookies.

In the past I have always failed at making my Mom's caramels but this year I finally succeeded (with a giant stock pot and a diffuser). Here's a shot of the caramel when I just started to heat it up (before I was distracted by the need to constantly stir and watch the thermometer):


Here is a picture of the huge pile of caramels when I was done wrapping them:


Now, I refuse to divulge my Mom's recipe to the internet. It is her recipe, not mine and I do not feel that I have the right.

I will, however, recommend a sugar cookie recipe. I always have had issues with sugar cookies. They never live up to my iconic memories of the perfect cut-out sugar cookie. This year I finally found a recipe that did live up to my internal hype. I got it from the Kitchn, a blog that I read daily:

Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
between 8 and 12 dozen, depending on size

3 cups butter, softened at room temperature for an hour
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
6 ounces cream cheese (3/4 of a standard cream cheese package)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 teaspoons lemon zest
9 cups flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and add the sugar. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until golden. Add the cream cheese and again beat until well incorporated. Add the flavorings and lemon zest.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl then add, bit by bit, to the butter/sugar mixture. You will have chosen a large bowl for this particular recipe, I hope - mine was overflowing by this point and I ended up doing the final mix in a large plastic bag.

Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour - preferably overnight.

Heat the oven to 350° F. Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll out 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out cookies.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes, depending on thickness. The small, thinner ones started browning after about 8 minutes, and I didn't want these brown at all. The larger ones had a slight golden bottom after 11 minutes, which was perfect for my purposes.

Let cool before icing or decorating, and store in a tightly covered container.

The recipe, taken verbatim from their post, worked perfectly:

I cut the recipe in half though. It made a ton of cookies. When I piled them onto my cake stand, I couldn't put the lid down until I ate a couple.

For the icing, I mixed 3 cups confectioner's sugar with 1/4 cup milk, a dash of salt and food coloring. They are perfect. I highly recommend them.

I hope to post more photos of our holiday cooking, decorating and celebrating in the coming days. Happy Holidays!