Cookie Dough: Chilled and Drop vs. Roll-out

Tis the season for christmas cookies! My family has a long history of my grandma in the kitchen baking hundreds of cookies for our family christmas, and then to freeze for year-round goodness. Our family favorites aren't the typical oatmeal raisin, peanut butter blossoms and candy canes. The family favorites include Pineapple Cookies, Carrot Cookies, Sand Tarts (roll out cookies you can decorate, but not sugar cookies) and Grandpa's Cookies. These are all recipes from the Mennonite Community Cookbook that my grandma used heavily. While I never baked cookies with my grandma (that I know of), I love the feeling that we are carrying on her legacy each year and I am proud to be able to bring a piece of her to our family christmas each year.

This year, I wanted to take on the responsibility to make the cookies for our family christmas. I have made all of the cookies before at my mom's house in past years, but this was the first year to do it on my own. In the first and last batch of cookies, I ran into a question and was encouraged to experiment! 

My first question: Do I let chilled dough come to room temperature before baking?
Answer: No, but it's okay if I do for this cookie.

For this experiment, I made Grandpa's Cookies. The dough of my first batch that I chilled was soft enough to scoop right away after being in the refrigerator for over 12 hours. But I wanted to do some research into whether it would make a big difference. 



To make a long story short, it only made a difference in how fast it browned, but this may have been an operator's error (I never said I was a perfect cook!). The only other difference was noticed in the presentation of the flattened vs. not flattened pan where the flattened cookies looked more uniform and smooth. Take a look for yourself:

First batch (cold)- Left side: natural; Right side: flattened

Last batch (room temp)- Left side: natural; Right side: flattened

I also found this explanation (from King Arthur Flour) of why it is a good idea to chill cookie dough in the first place. In the comments section, a viewer asks a vary similar question, and the author notes that it is better to cook the dough right away so the fat stays cold. 
"Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread." 

In other words, if you don't want your cookies to spread, it's best to cook them right out of the fridge or freezer.

My second question: Can I use a roll-out recipe to make drop cookies instead?
My answer: Yes.

For this experiment, I made Sand Tart cookies. While I am a big fan of decorating cookies, I didn't have any decorating items such as sprinkles or icing. I was hesitant to buy some because I don't have any space to store it. I have a great cookie recipe for roll-outs, but would it still work if I didn't want to decorate them and make them a drop cookie instead? So I took a small bit of dough and instead of rolling them out, used an ice cream scoop to make some drop cookies.

Finished drop cookies

They took over double the amount of time to cook than the rolled-out ones. I actually forgot about them so they got more brown than I wanted. Because they aren't a sugar cookie, they did taste a little bland. They also expanded and ended up mega-cookie size! 
Moral of the experiment: Maybe test them by making a few as the recipe calls for first to see how much they expand and how long they truly take to bake. Then adjust by making smaller than usual drop cookies if they expand and prepare for them to cook longer because they are thicker. 

Finished roll-out cookies

I did end up buying some sprinkles and icing. I used up both tubes of icing which was perfect so I don't have to store them. Here are the delicious final product of the rolled-out cookies just for show.

If you are making cookies for the holidays, have fun with it! Let your creativity show. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 
    

Hot Cocoa Gift Bags

I absolutely love the holidays and sharing the holiday spirit with others. While I believe we should be kind and loving every day, it seems extra easy during the holidays because it's everywhere. 
Last year, our first Christmas season together as a married couple, I wanted to show my appreciation to some people who may not hear it a lot, or should hear it more. I wanted to give to people in the apartment office and maintenance, mailman, work managers and our neighbor.

Last year's gift bags before I added ribbon and a tag

I also love hot chocolate during the winter. I have tried many different flavors such as white hot chocolate, peppermint, dark chocolate, marshmallows and no marshmallows. I had run across a Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Mix on the Taste of Home website and had the idea to create little bags to hand out. I had so much fun with this and loved blessing others with the bags. Plus I made some extra for myself and thought it was just as good, if not better than the store bought packets, but way cheaper per serving!

This was such a simple and quick gift to put together. You can get as creative as your heart desires, and make it your own.

It's as simple as mixing the ingredients together. I mixed the marshmallows right in the cocoa mixture, but if you wanted to present it differently, you could leave them out and place them on top of the mixture in the bag as in the picture on the Taste of Home page linked above.

I bought adorable bags and used some ribbon to tie it together. This year I decided to include a candy cane as well.  I also wanted to put a little tag on it to let them know it's a thank you/appreciation for all they do. Last year I made a tag, but lost it when my computer crashed. So this year I had to recreate it. I looked online for ideas of what to write, as I couldn't remember in the least what I wrote last year. I could not find any Christmas/thank you sayings or tags that were appropriate, so I want to give you a FREE downloadable tag in case you are in the same boat.

This year's finished gift bags

I hope you have fun blessing others with this fun and easy gift!
I'd love to hear if you come up with variations of this gift.





Cinnamon Hot Chocolate Mix 
1 3/4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Additional Ingredients: 3/4 cup hot milk

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 3 months. 

To prepare 1 serving: Dissolve 3 tablespoons of hot chocolate mix in hot milk. 

Yield: about 3 1/2 cups mix (18 servings)

Christmas Wall Tree

Our first year in the apartment, I realized the small apartment was not good for one thing. Christmas decorations. We already had every surface space covered with picture frames, coasters, books, or plants. We had all the decorations up that we wanted, and did not want to drill more holes just for Christmas that would be vacant the rest of the year. 

I've always loved the Christmas tree at my mom's house, because it was something I put thought into while decorating. I even made a ribbon bow (instead of a star or angel on top) in high school that had strips of ribbon cascading down the sides of the tree, making it elegant, but still very home-y. 

In determination to make our place feel at home and in the Christmas spirit, I found a solution to our 'no room for a tree' problem. I saw this website on pinterest, specifically the light tree, and attempted to replicate it. 

This is now our second year using the light tree, and while a 3-D tree is preferable, I couldn't ask for a better alternative. 

I didn't even think about making this a tutorial until after it was already up, but found a creative way to share how I did it for those who don't want to spend the time figuring out how to do it.

For a reference, My tree is 5 feet tall and 3 feet, 5 inches at its widest. 

Christmas Tree Wall tutorial

The hardest part is honestly my perfectionism to make it look not too fat, have straight lines, and fill empty spaces. But that's just a personal problem! 

When I posted my completed project on Facebook, I also heard an idea for families with children. A mother drew a tree outline on a large piece of paper and had the children color in the ornaments! 

So I hope this helps anyone who loves Christmas decorations, but doesn't have the floor space for a tree. 
Note: I can still pull out the drawers to the drawers you see in the picture, I just have to be careful. And presents fit underneath it!