Which Cookie to Make?

What could reek of Christmas more than the smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your home? The aromas of fresh cinnamon and cardamom, and the dark, sultry flavors of molasses and honey, mixed with the light sparkle of ginger and sugar are enough to warm anyone in the chilly December air. We love to churn out these homemade goodies and exchange them with one another as presents during the holidays, and as is customary, we embellish these simple cookies with festive themes that imbibe the spirit of the season. If you haven't tried baking cookies and spending an afternoon frosting and packaging them, then you're missing out on a lot! Half of the thrill is in the eating of course, but the other half can only be had from the time spent lovingly decorating each and every piece of cookie with a personal touch of perfection.

Deciding on the Perfect Cookie

The most difficult job at hand, before all else, is deciding which cookie to make. While it largely depends of our personal tastes, certain kinds of cookies work best when we're planning to decorate them with frosting. Many of us have tried and tested recipes for holiday cookies, and a good lot even have traditional hand-me-down recipes. Different parts of the world have different cookie traditions, but by far the most common ones that are avidly frosted and given away as presents or used as Christmas ornaments are gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies or springerls. Springerls are anise-flavored cookies from Germany, and they're made with special springerle molds. They are usually shaped in squares, with designs imprinted on them using the different molds, commonly depicting holiday motifs and nativity scenes. While these cookies are not difficult to make, they do take some time to decorate, because traditionally, tempera paints or food colors and fine paintbrushes are used to embellish each cookie in great detail. They make some of the most elegant holiday presents, but for the time-pressed home baker who does not have the luxury of scores of assistants on hand, you may want to opt for other simpler cookies instead.

Gingerbread cookies are also a good option, and these cutout cookies can easily be frosted into gingerbread men. These spice cookies are very warming, but because they present a dark background for your frosting, they can be quite limiting to your design choices. They're most commonly cut out in the shape of gingerbread men and while they can be cut out to whatever shape you wish, a different kind of cookie might be more fitting for a larger palette of colors.

Sugar cookies are regular butter cookies, and their fair color makes them an excellent base for different colors of frosting. These are the best kinds of cookies to use if you want to decorate elaborately with many shades of frosting because their light color allows for the frosting's tints to shine through. Use good quality butter, however, because it's the flavor that will definitely shine through this delicate cookie. Take care to watch the oven like a hawk, too, because if you leave them in for only a minute or two longer, the burn marks will show through, and it severely affects the cookies' delicate taste.

Shortbread is another option. Brown sugar shortbread gives you a dark-colored cookie, while regular shortbread gives you delicate hues similar to sugar cookies. Shortbread doesn't use leavening, and they also make for great cutout cookies. The disadvantage of these cookies, however, is that they take considerably longer to bake compared to the other cookies.

Baking Your Cookies

Always make sure that each ingredient on your list is in your cupboard; one of the most dismaying things that can happen is finding out you're out of an ingredient in the middle of baking. Allot an entire day for baking and frosting, so you make sure that you're able to finish the task from start to end. Check your recipe and read through it over and over. You can also check if your recipe allows for make-ahead dough. Some cookie doughs can be made days or weeks ahead and stored in the freezer, saving you much time.

When working with dough and using your cookie cutters, make sure your work surface is well floured. It takes up a lot of precious time having to roll out your dough again when you can't lift it because it's clung to your work surface. Dip your cookie cutters in flour when you first dig into your dough; this will help your dough release easily from the cutter. Lastly, watch your oven like a hawk---nothing can dampen your holidays more than the smell of cookies burning in your oven, and yet few other things can be as satisfying as digging your teeth into that perfect cookie, baked fresh and reeking of holiday love and cheer.