Holidays the perfect time to bake cookies
From gingerbread to chocolate chip, holidays are meant for cookies.
As far back as baker Jen Musty can remember, the days leading up to Christmas have always been “a wonderful zoo” filled with sugar, butter and flour.
When she was old enough to stand on a chair, Musty joined her mother in their Tucson, Ariz., kitchen to bake batch after batch of gingerbread men. She even remembers her first cookie-decorating party with the ladies. She was 3.
“Holiday cookies were always a big part of our family,” recalls Musty, owner and head baker of San Francisco’s Batter Bakery. “Now I always say it’s a marathon sprint when I cross the Thanksgiving threshold into holiday cookies.”
While there will be fewer parties and exchanges this year, you can still count on an abundance of nostalgic cookies, whether you’re picking up Batter’s Snowballs and Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies or baking Easy as Pie Bars and Cinnamon Butterscotch Cookies from Christinia Tosi’s new cookbook, “Milk Bar: Kids Only” (Clarkson Potter, $23), the title of which is deceiving — it’s actually for everyone. If your definition of holiday cookie is shortbread and icing, take comfort: There’s a pandemic kit for that.
Batter is offering decorating kits in half dozen ($25) or dozen ($45) sets of gingerbread and shortbread cookies, with royal icing, sprinkles, piping bags and
more. They can be shipped and paired with either a Zoom decorating class or access to a recorded cookie demo video.
Warm up some cocoa, invite your crew, and call it this year’s tree-trimming party.
“It’s fun for kids, but it’s also really, really therapeutic for adults,” says Musty, who says even her corporate clients are buying up cookie kits and Zoom classes for their employees. “It’s a way for everyone to be togeth
er, relax and be creative.”
Musty covers a lot in her demo, from edging, flooding and marbling to tips on Instagramworthy sprinkles. The Zoom class will go more in depth, covering the do’s and don’ts of royal icing, and how to mix it to achieve different effects.
If you’re a home baker and all you can think about these days is chocolate, find your cookie inspiration by flipping through the pages of Sabine Venier’s new
cookbook, “The Chocolate Addict’s Baking Book (Page Street; $23).
In it, Venier, the blogger behind Also the Crumbs Please, unveils 75 choco-riffic treats for home bakers, including several cookies, from Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Cookies with Sea Salt to Super Chewy Chocolate Snickerdoodles. Rolled in an extra helping of cocoa powder and cinnamon, they are perfect for these pandemic days.