Tis the season to get your baking joy on. For those of us who enjoy making delicious treats for noshing on as well as sharing. I love to cook and bake. LOVE IT. Especially if the recipe is damn worth repeating. And one of my favorite Christmas cookies to bake are every child's favorite; sugar cookies. Biting in to a thin, crisp sweet cookie which can be just about any shape: star, ornament, tree, snowflake dusted with powder sugar or sugar sand or crystals. The possibilities are endless.
A dear friend of mine has decided to throw a Gold Party (you know...where they buy your unwanted cash.) And at said party will be a psychic as well as a cookie swap. So I decided to get a jump on the baking, and make a batch of freezer-friendly cookies...so when it comes closer to the date, I just decorate and go. Makes sense right? Well being that at the holidays I'll be stepping out bunches, I decided to double the recipe. Again....no big deal. I've made this recipe in the past and knew it was (a) a good one, and (b) worth doubling. So the other day I made the dough, and put it in the fridge to chill, as per the directions. The directions stated that the dough could stay in fridge overnight.
So this afternoon, with laundry in the machines I decide to have some special Aunt Ida time. (That's having Ida do something with me, that makes her feel helpful.) So I figured we'd cut the cookies and bake them. I could roll the dough, and she could stamp out the shapes. Easy-peasy. Well, that's what I *thought*.
The dough felt nice and solid and cool as I removed it from the fridge and placed it on the floured table. It rolled BEAUTIFULLY, and I was stoked. Let the cookie baking commence! I decided to do a trial run, and stamp the first few and then place on the sheets. Cookies cut, and I went to lift them from the floured table and.....................................................................nothing. Wait. What? They should be lifting up with ease. I try again, and the dough actually doesn't budge, doesn't roll as I try to reform it on to the dough ball. IN FACT, it actually SMUDGES! So I had to postpone cookie making, as I get the bright idea to put all the dough in the freezer, and make it get almost solid to roll out and then stamp the dang cookies out.
Off to work I head, and my thoughts drift to cutting out these cookies, so I can have that jump on baking that I craved, and do other things which I want/need to do. I get home, eat dinner and go in to my 'cookie-making' mode. Remove the dough from the fridge, it feels good to me. (Does it feel any different from earlier.........not too sure.) Flour my table which brings back the thoughts of how long it took for me to scrape off the ookie dough earlier and clean up. Plunk the dough on the flour and roll out. Stamp out a ton of cookies and if you must know the shape....they were Christmas trees. I go to lift the first cookie up..........and.....................................................NOTHING. NOTHING!!! Practically glued to the table and laughing at me. Again, I try to roll the dough, to put more flour...and it just mushes in to my table top as if it is mocking me. Knowing how I am going to have to work at getting this dough crap off the kitchen table. And it was as easy as that. I took *all* the sugar cookie dough and tossed it in to the trash can. I scrubbed and scrubbed until all traces of cookie crap was cleared. I tore up the sugar cookie recipe and chucked it out. I have no idea what went wrong and why. I had measured everything out perfectly. I want to cry and scream and am almost tempted to go to the grocery store and buy that pre-made crap which is manufactured by 'the dough boy'.
But I know me. I am going to Google sugar cookie recipes until my eyes cross. I'll consult Foodtv.com and all the bakers I know for a failproof recipe. And I'll go through all the motions again to craft my sugar cookies. If anyone knows of a good cookie recipe.........................I'm listening.
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