In pursuit of the perfect decorated cookie …
For years I pursued the perfect, beautifully decorated cut-out cookie. I perused magazines, studied cookbooks, absorbed information and directions… tried to replicate the looks so I could move to the next stage with my own designs.
Somehow I never got beyond square one – the cookie itself.
Well, to be honest, I only pursued these elusive cookies once annually when my dear friend (and partner in chocolate) and I threw a fabulous high-concept, themed dessert party. For The Painted Dessert party, which featured sweets and treats named for or inspired by artists, such as ”Fifteen Minutes”, by Candy Warhol (a triptych of chocolate nut tortes), I envisioned huge colorful numeral cookies, aptly labeled “Paint by Numbers.”
Another year the decorated cut-out cookies were “Stellar Sweets”– shooting stars and crescent moons for the All Star Desserts party. After testing several cookie recipes and spending way too many hours mixing, rolling, cutting, and baking, I still didn’t have perfectly shaped cookies suitable for decorating. I went back to a tried and true shortbread cookie—seemed like a good idea; the cookies looked flawless. Too bad I only had about one and a half hours left to make icing and decorate them. Also too bad the delicious shortbread cookies were just too fragile both for their size and to withstand the extra handling while being decorated. Well, the perfectly beautiful, perfectly plain cookies looked perfectly, plainly beautiful on the dessert buffet.
Okay, back to square one (or Numeral One or Star or Moon)—the cookie itself.
This didn’t really sound so difficult – not nearly as tricky as precariously stacked cakes (this was pre-Ace of Cakes and other TV pastry wizards), spears, daggers, and shards of glass-like caramelized sugar, ethereal spun sugar nests and mirror- finish chocolate glazes.
My chocolate partner, having two young children, always paced herself and started baking and freezing at least a month in advance. But I, at that time B.C. (before child) and preferring deadline pressure, started only about a week before the dessert extravaganza. So every year, I’d begin with my supposedly easiest job (and also the dessert which would stay fresh for a few days) – the cookies. Ha!…You already know how that turned out. None of my dozens of in- print instructors ever gave an indication of how long it really took to create these fabulous miniature works of edible art.
I remade cookies countless times and always ended up behind schedule. I used recipes from sources I assumed to be reliable – probably would have been but there just wasn’t enough information. So my quest continued.
Once I took the perfect cookie pursuit away from the party deadline pressure, it became much easier to focus on and perfect each little detail which totaled together to achieve my
fabulous cut-out cookie goal (Does this sound like a life lesson, or what?). Just the simple, but rather time consuming step of rechilling the dough throughout the rolling and cutting process eliminated sticky dough and kept the cookies from becoming misshapen.
So I went on to find my favorite cookie recipe, my favorite cookie cutters, my favorite professional weight cookie sheet (love the Vollrath 68085), favorite icing, favorite decorating sugars, favorite… you get the picture!
Have fun in creating your own beautifully decorated cut-out cookies, and happy eating!
Remember, they always taste better when shared!