Christmas Cookies

It is that time of year, where I take over the kitchen and dining room and make Christmas cookies.  We give them as gifts to friends, teachers, and child watch staff so it has become quite the undertaking.

Every year I tweak what I make and this year discovered a great blog just before I started baking.  I switched from the Martha Stewart royal icing recipe that I've been using for the last four years but has caused me a few issues lately to one courtesy of The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle. For the first time I made two different consistencies of icing (piping and flooding) and it made such a huge difference to how neatly I was able to pipe. . . and for the first time in a while I had no clogs. . . even in my #1 tips.  I'll be using this method again, although I may try to work on getting a glossier finish next time.  I miss that from Martha's recipe.

This is what 250 cookies looks like stacked.

And here's a few of this years cookies.

Hopefully, next year I'll remember to get started in November and maybe make a little less red icing. I have a huge bowl left in my fridge.