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.

I'm one of the horde

Guess what we did tonight?



Yup, it's true. I have my very own copy of the new Harry Potter book right here in front of me. I figured hey, it's my last chance to join in the midnight madness, so Mr. Elinoire and I went to a favorite local bookstore and did just that.

My friend Tyee came this close to winning the trivia contest (she was stumped by JK Rowling's middle name (Kathleen) and one of the two significant ways Bartemis Crouch Jr. was similar to Lord Voldemort (she got that they both killed their fathers but missed that they were both named for their fathers), neither of which I could come up with) and I got to tell her the story of the first time my sister Sarache and I tried Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.*



Plus? Now I have the book! Don't expect me to answer the phone or anything in the next couple days.

(There's no fun story about the Harry Potter box. I just brought it home to put jam in, but like all of its ilk, it had to be throroughly inspected once it was in the house.)

* She bought some the first time we saw them and then we went to her car and drove somewhere while we ate them. The candy came with a cheat sheet but we thought it would be more fun to try the flavors one by one.

First, we each bit down on a blue one.
Elinoire: "I think this is just blueberry..."
Sarache: "Yeah, I think so too. Check the sheet."
Elinoire, after checking: "Blueberry. Okay let's try gray."
We each bite down on our gray jelly beans.
Sarache: "Ew, is that pepper?"
Elinoire: "Ugh, I think it must be. It doesn't taste awful but it doesn't taste like anything I want in a jelly bean."
Elinoire checks and confirms that gray = pepper, and then gives Sarache a white jelly bean to match her own. They bite down.
Elinoire: "Huh, that's just coco-"
Sarache: "HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, WHAT IS THAT?! That is the most VILE THING EVER."
Elinoire: "Uh, it's coconut."
Sarache, spitting her jelly bean out into a kleenex and taking a swig of water: "That is NOT coconut. That is EVIL, is what that is."
Elinoire, consulting chart: "Ohhh... I think I got coconut, but the other flavor for white can be sardine.