Pre-Christmas baking



Coconut cookies

Christmas is still one month away from now, but last week we made some Christmas-like cookies :)

First of all, because the next time that A and I will see each other will be after Christmas and second of all - because the supermarkets have already started selling pre-made cake doughs of different flavours. I know that it's the best to make your own mixture without all the additives and preservatives, but this time I decided not to gamble (my cooking skills are still nothing to boast about) and just enjoy the baking process with the good feeling that the result will not go crazy/melt/burn as soon as I put it in the oven.

First, I played with the coconut dough. As the only currently available cutters in my kitchen were a spider, a caterpillar, a fish, a seal, a shark and a snail - definitely no Christmas-related shapes, I decided to use a tiny little shot glass to cut the circles out of dough. Oh yes, I also used a mug to roll it, because you wouldn't find a rolling pin around here - students' flat, what more do I need to say... (We used to have a bottle of rum for that very purpose at the old place, but that got dumped somehow during the process of moving).

And now the best part comes - based on a magazine suggestion, I used old glasses with 3D bottoms to press shapes into the cookies. It's incredibly simple and the result is wonderful. The only thing you need to keep in your mind is that you need to work as quickly as you can and do the pressing just before putting the cookies in the oven - otherwise the shapes might be less distinct.

Some of the glasses also had the shapes on the sides, so I tried rolling them onto the dough before actually cutting out the cookies and the result was nice as well. There's nothing as old-fashioned as a cookie made with an old-fashioned glass.

A few days later we had a go at the gingerbread dough, this time using the aforementioned cookie cutters. It wasn't nearly as much fun, but the result was nice as well. Moreover, we had some sugar icing in a tube for decorating, so the evening turned into an on-floor cake decorating session : )

Yes, they do look a bit (all right then, a LOT) like they were made by a four-years old, but taste just the same and we blame it on the incredible sticiness of the icing  : -b