The Newsy Neighbour Magazine
December Issue #110
By Kathryn Hartwell
CHRISTMAS TREE
COOKIES
Every year I make shortbread cookies for Christmas. I
don’t know why I only make them at Christmas, because they are absolutely the
best cookies of all time. I use my antique Mirro cookie press to make them. Last
year, I scoured the house and spent hours looking for my beloved cookie press,
to no avail. This summer, as I was cleaning out my pantry, lo and behold, there
it was hidden under a stack of dishcloths; I almost cried I was so happy to
find it!
I did a little research to find out how old this baby
really is and as close as I could figure it came out in 1957 (the same year I
was born). I guess lots of really good things happened that year!! So, I will
get around to making my famous shortbread cookies before Christmas. Since it
was such a cold Sunday afternoon yesterday, I thought to myself what a
wonderful day to stay inside and try one of the original recipes out of the
book that came with the press – Christmas Tree Cookies.
A very simple recipe, indeed. I doubled the batch;
after all if you’re going to make cookies, make lots. The recipe called for
shortening but I used butter (same thing, in my mind). Here is the recipe
doubled:
2 cups of real butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
4 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. almond extract
Green food colouring.
I did not have any green left so I used three drops of
blue and three drops of yellow and that worked just fine.
Just a little tip – make sure your butter is pretty
soft (mine wasn’t and there was a little cursing going on under my breath as I
tried to cream the butter and the sugar together). I used my Kitchen Aid mix
master but I still had to stop and scrape the paddle way too many times because
the butter just kept sticking (pain in the you know what). So anyhow, you cream
the shortening (butter), adding the sugar gradually. Once it is soft and creamy,
you add the unbeaten eggs, the flour, salt and baking powder that you have
sifted together, the almond extract and the drops of food colouring and mix
very well.
Now, at this point I got a little worried because the
dough looked a little too thick for my liking but I carried on. Next time I
would use a little less flour. I pushed the dough into my handy dandy cookie
press using the Christmas tree plate (for the shape) and started cranking the
handle, which pushes the dough onto the cookie sheet. As with anything, the
first few didn’t turn out that great but once I got the hang of it they
actually stated to look like cute little Christmas trees. TIP: do not grease or
flour the cookie sheet.
The recipe says you should bake them in a 375°F oven for 10 – 12 minutes, but I baked mine for 9 minutes and they
were absolutely perfect!!
With doubling the batch I ended up with (wait for it)
148 beautiful little Christmas Tree Cookies. So I guess I am off to the store
to buy some pretty little bags and containers. It seems lots of friends and
family will be receiving a little surprise of delicious cookies this year.
I’ve tried the new plastic cookie presses but I have
found there is just no comparison to my old antique Mirro – you can buy them on
eBay and Amazon but you are going to have to pay quite a bit more for one. I laughed
our loud when I saw the price was still on my box of $3.69. Can you imagine? But
I’m thinking back in 1957 that probably wasn’t that cheap! On eBay, they are
going anywhere between $50.00 and $75.00. Who knows, maybe your grandma might
have one hidden in the back of a closet somewhere. It would make a wonderful
hand-me-down Christmas gift. I’m telling you, I would love to have another one
in my house just in case something ever happened to mine!! They just don’t make
things the way they use to!!
Merry Christmas!
Kathryn Hartwell
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