It's Day 3 of The 12 Cookies of Christmas.
My girlfriend, Dotty Wyman, is an interior designer and owns Dotty Wyman Designs. Everything with Dotty has great style, presentation and taste. Dotty has helped with some of the design in my house, helping with fabrics, color and curtains, which she makes herself. When Dotty arrived with her cookies, they were in a 24" clear glass vase. She had put the green cookies at the base, 3/4 of the vase was filled with red cookies and she topped it with a green cookie. I wish I had been taking pictures when people arrived. The presentation was extremely creative and festive.
The glitter ball cookies were perfectly shaped and looked like beautiful ornaments, hence the photography of the cookies in the (artificial) tree. These cookies have ingredients almost identical to Jen's Shortbread Cookies, but in different combinations. The frosting and decorative sugar bring more of an upfront sweetness verses the melt in your mouth flavor of Jen's. I'm always a fan of crunchy cookies, especially those rolled in sugar.
Dotty makes her cookies with a vanilla frosting. I'm interested in trying the ginger frosting which is part of this recipe. We have recently been using fresh ginger in some of our recipes (to be posted after the 12 Cookies of Christmas) and I think this dessert could complement some of the meals and appetizers we have been making. What is a good meal without a great dessert...especially a cookie!
Find some really festive sanding (or decorating) sugar and let's get rolling. We've got glitter balls to make.
Thanks, Dotty.
Dotty found this recipe on Martha Stewart; Glitter Ball Cookies.
Ingredients:
Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
1/2 cup of confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of flour
Sanding sugar, in assorted colors
Creamy Ginger Filling
4 tablespoons of butter, softened
2 teaspoons of finely grated, peeled fresh ginger
1 cup of confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon of honey
Preparation:
Cookies - Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down side of bowl as necessary.
2. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour, and mix just until combined.
3. Shape into 3/4-inch balls (chill dough if too sticky). Place sanding sugar in shallow bowls.
4. Roll each ball in sanding sugar, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.
5. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are lightly golden, 15 to 18 minutes.
6. Let cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Spread 2 cookies with just enough filling to allow them to stick together.
Frosting
1. Beat all ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer on medium high speed until smooth.
2. Filling can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days.
3. This is the official filling for the cookies. I used butter cream frosting with vanilla.
(For vanilla butter cream frosting, use ginger frosting recipe, omit the ginger and honey, replace with 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1-3 teaspoons of milk to get to a frosting consistency.)
