Christmas Cookie: Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies a la Alton Brown*.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.
Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

* I "heart" Alton Brown.

Christmas Cookie: Chocolate Chip

This recipe is from Anna Olson's book Sugar.

3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz. chocolate chips or dark chocolate chopped into chunks

Preaheat your oevn to 350'f.
Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
Cream together butter and sugars.
Add the egg and vanilla and stir to combine.
Stir in dry ingredients until dough forms.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto lined baking sheet and bake 8 - 10 minutes until the edges of the cookie have darkened to a golden brown colour.

Including the cornstarch in this recipe will give you cookies that remain chewy eve after they have cooled. Leave out the cornstarch for crunchy cookies.

Christmas Cookie: Viennese Crescents

This is another recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

1/2 pound butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup ground almonds (or walnuts)
2 cups flour

Position oven rack in upper third of oven.
Preheat oven to 350' f.
Cream butter.
Beat in powdered sugar until well combined.
Stir in Vanilla and ground nuts.
Sift in Flour while stirring.
Knead dough until well blended.
Pull off 1 tablespoon sized pieces, roll into short ropes and shape into crescents (refrigerate dough if it is too soft to work with).
Place crescents 1 1/2" apart on lined baking sheet and bake 13 - 16 minutes until lightly browned.
Sift Powdered sugar over cooled cookies.

Christmas Cookie: Spice Cookies

These are from The Joy of Cooking (the most indispensable cook book ever). It is one of the variations of the "Fourteen In One" They're not as dense or rich as gingerbread, but they definitely have enough spice to taste Christmasy.

Spice Cookies

Makes about 5 dozen.

1/2 pound butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. all spice
1/8 tsp. ground cloves

Have all ingredients at room temperature.
Beat butter, sugar and salt until fluffy.
Beat in egg yolk until well blended.
Beat in vanilla and remaining egg until well combined.
Add the spices to the flour.
Slowly add the flour to wet ingredients, while mixing on a low speed.
Continue to mix ingredients until well combined.
Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic.
Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

To form cookies, either:

Scoop the cookie dough into 1 tablespoon balls and roll between hand until soft. Place the dough balls onto parchment lined cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Flatten each ball to about 1/8 inch thick using the bottom of a well floured glass.

Or:

Lightly flour your work surface. Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes. Place the dough shapes on parchment lined cookie sheets, spacing about 1/2 apart. Get as many dough shapes out of each sheet, since though dough should only be rolled out twice. Discard the remaining dough, or form the remaining dough into balls and flatten as above.

Bake sheets 2 at a time, in a 375 degree oven for 6-8 minutes, turning the sheets half way through baking for even browning. Immediately transfer the baked cookies to racks* to cool to room temperature. Decorate, if desired, and store in an airtight container.

* I don't own any cooling racks. A tip that I found online is to use a folded sheet of aluminum foil instead.

Christmas Ornaments

A while back I lamented a little about being bored. I needed something to do in my spare time. I needed a project.
Well here it is, my solution to my need to be crafty, I made Christmas ornaments to go along with all of the baking I'm giving away.

They are all hand sewed felt ornaments made from my own designs, with buttons and ribbons for added detail. Next year I think I may start sewing these earlier and make a bunch to sell on etsy.com.

Christmas Cookie: Shortbread

This year I'm doing a TON of Christmas baking to give away as gifts. The first round of which is several batches of shortbread. This is my absolute favourite recipe for making shortbread. It's ridiculously easy to make and comes out perfect every time. So where did I get this recipe? Is it an old family recipe passed down from generation to generation?
Nope. It's from the back of the "Canada" brand corn starch box.

Shortbread

Makes about 24 cookies

1/2 cup corn starch
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 cup butter (unsalted, room temperature)

Sift together the corn starch, icing sugar and flour.
With a wooden spoon, blend in butter until a soft smooth dough forms.
Chill dough 30 - 60 minutes.
Shape dough into 1" balls and place 1 1/2" apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake in 300 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, just until the edges start to change colour.
Transfer to a rack and cool.

Just shaping the dough into balls and then baking will give you a half sphere shaped cookie (I think they look like snowballs). You can also flatten the balls, or roll out the dough and cut it into shapes (or use cookie cutters). I have even shaped the dough into large squares and rounds about six" across and 1" thick, and marked them with a knife so that they can be cut into wedges and rectangles after baking (more like the traditional Scottish style).

Plant Wars!

*The ruthless peppermint plant.

I started a patio garden during the summer. A small, yet respectable, collection of herbs as well as a couple Thai Chili plants. The plants flourished throughout the summer and I was able to enjoy their freshness (and insane spiciness from the peppers) in my cooking. Then fall started to approach and I was left with a dilemma.

I knew that my plants would not be able to survive life outdoors in the harsh winter that was fast approaching. But I also knew that the amount of light in my apartment wouldn't be enough to sustain them either. So I did some researching and a little hunting and came up with a solution. I brought the light indoors with the help of some cheap Ikea shelving and small flourescent fixtures scavenged from work (previously scavenged from a, now cancelled, game show set).

Now I have a new problem. My plants have been going through a sudden growth spurt and their leaves are now fighting for space among the shelves. My peppermint plant is particularly ruthless. It grows in any direction it can, greedily pushing though the other plants. When I go to harvest some herby goodness I frequently have to untangle plants from each other just to make sure I don't mistakenly put mint in my pasta when I meant to use oregano. The only real solution to the problem is to just keep on hacking away at the plants until spring, when I will be able to repot them into larger containers and let them run wild!

Time to get crafty!

I'm starting to get an itch.
It's one that I've had many times.
I know the symptoms.
I know the cause.
And, luckily, I know the remedy.

During the summer I was steadily working, either full time at my regular job or working on various films. But then the fall rolled around. On set work started to dry up, and my hours at work were reduced for the fall/winter as expected. I've had time to sit back, relax, and do absolutely nothing.

Now here's the problem.

While in high school I always had something to do. I started working at 15 (if you don't count working for family) and never stopped all the way through to graduation. Pile on some extra curriculars and some volunteering and I was a busy person. My life since starting college, however; could be mapped mapped out like a drawing of a sound wave. Full of peeks and valleys in responsibility vs. free time. It's a trend that's continued even after receiving my diploma. So in this cycle I get really busy and have tons of things to do and then suddenly I wont be busy at all. And it's always nice and refreshing.. at first.

Then I start to get bored. All of a sudden I start needing something to do. Something to keep me busy and occupied. I need a goal, a task. Anything to say that I have accomplished something. That is my itch.

Now for the remedy.

In times like these when I am short on things to do, I get crafty. And my itch is scratched.

Woops!

More business and forgetfulness has prevented me from posting. So, long overdue, here are the rest of my quick TIFF film write ups.

Che Parts 1 & 2

This film was long. Four hours of revolutionary ups and downs. Part 1 chronicles Ernesto Che Guevara's experiences during the Cuban revolution and his time speaking in New York at the UN. It's quite fun to watch and ends on a high note.
Part 2 chronicle's Che's time in Bolivia, trying to bring revolution to the country. The film tells a near polar opposite story, with the Bolivian revolution starting out badly and continuing to get worse as time goes on, until the film ends with Guevara's capture and execution by the Bolivian Army.

Good

This film was not good. It wasn't really bad though... I'd say that it just lacked any real emotional weight, despite being about WW2 through the eyes of a German. The film basically glossed over all of the interesting plot points and used character dialogue to catch the audience up on all the juicy bits you never get to see.

El Greco

This film was just terrible. It was like watching a bad TV movie. It was terrible to the point of being both sad and hilarious. It was full of cheesy sight gags and terrible acting. Every time something bad happens to El Greco he would look up, fists clenched and shout "No.. NO.. NOOOOO!!!" towards the sky. This film could end up becoming my record holder for worst festival film of all time.

At The Edge Of The World

A pretty good documentary about a volunteer crew of "pirates" who aim to get in the way (or destroy) as many japanese whaling boats as possible. It's pretty entertaining, but completely one sided as it only follows the crew... although I guess it could be difficult to get a statement from Japanese whaling boats. Anyway, the film includes some amusing moments and great scenery.

Pontypool

A zombie film unlike any other zombie film.

Pontypool mainly takes place at a small town AM radio station following shock jock Grant Mazzy and his crew as they receive reports of strange acts of violence occurring throughout their small town. Even stranger is the growing realization that the virus spreading through town may not be spread through physical means, but through the English language itself.