The Cookie Madness Continues

Some cookie decoration -- though, sadly, not all -- was accomplished this weekend with the help of Tyee in the moral support department and her lovely daughter in the the sprinkle application department.

Guess what I'm doing every night this week? I may even coopt Mr. Elinoire's time and labor until the Cookie Decoration Push is over.

I wanted to try out some new cookie cutters when I was baking last weekend, but held back because they had lots of little skinny bits. I thought it would be difficult to get the cutter to release the sticky, thick gingerbread dough I was baking.



I tried spraying oil on them cutters and that sorta kinda worked, but what ended up being really successful was just plopping the cutter in a small pile of flour before cutting dough with it. As a bonus, it also left a thin white outline on the rest of the dough and when you're making gingerbread men, you end up with what looks like a carefully documented crime scene with chalk outlines where the bodies were.




Now that I know that flour helps, I'm a little sad that I didn't try all my new cookie cutters. Next time I bake, that adorable castle with all the little fiddly bits is going to get a workout.

Despite all my whining here, I will probably make yet more cookies once my sister's in town. Our mother was hoping we'd have an evening of springerle baking, but she didn't take the time lag into account. You need to make these cookies at least two weeks before you eat them (or they are even more like cardboard* than they are when they're "edible") and my sister won't be here until the 21st.

We might try a different dough or maybe marzipan with the springerle molds, but we will definitely attempt Finnish spoon cookies, AKA Lusikkaleivat (<--- note lack of link: I have discovered something that is not in wikipedia!). The recipe calls for browning butter, hours of molding cookie dough into teaspoons, and a "tart jam" for the filling. The high maintenance cookie production process is why this is going to be a group effort, but I will be supplying the jammy goodness. (If there's one thing I've got in abundance this year, it's tart jam.) Stay tuned for updates.

Oh, and also? My cookie production levels are nothing compared to my in-laws. Check out the bounty from Mr. Elinoire's family Annual Post-Thanksgiving Bake-a-Thon. Holy Cow! (Or Hellig kua! in Norwegian, which is what most of these cookies are.)



(The krumkagas have the funniest name but the peppernodders are the tastiest.)

*When I ate springerle (from a bakery) in Switzerland, they were terrific, though you have to appreciate anise or you will disagree with me, possibly (but hopefully not) violently.** The ones created by regular folks like you and me and my mother, however, were much more fun to look at than attempt to eat.

** I have noticed that some people have strong feelings about anise.

That's MISS Snottybottom to you, buddy

My friend Sandy (AKA Crabbygloom Rottenshorts, but only (let's hope) seasonally) sent me this link so I could find my Grinch Name. You may address me as Woefulwhiner Snottybottom,* thank you very much.

(I think the last name is funny but I worry that the first is a little too close to home.)

In other news, here's a picture of a relatively new installation at the Getty Center in LA. It's a reproduction of one of my favorite pieces of theirs -- a watercolor of a stag beetle by Albrecht Dürer.



The original work is maybe as big as your hand, but if you use the top of Mr Elinoire's Mr Snottybottom's wee little head at the bottom of the picture for scale purposes,** you will note the reproduction is much, much larger. Plus there's the addition of the mounting pin. That's a recent addition is what that is.

(I am not a huge fan of insects when they're up close and personal, but I am all about seeing them in art.)

In holiday baking news, I baked several batches of gingerbread cookies last weekend in my parents' kitchen, and the plan for this weekend is to join Tyee at her house and ice cookies like a madwoman while she starts her holiday baking. Wish us luck! Hopefully by Sunday I'll have pictures. Or a wicked sugar hangover. Or both!

* But only via this blog. And please stop after the end of December.
** Sorry, the small brown cat did not volunteer to join us at the museum in order to be on hand for scale purposes or any other reason.