The most glorious magazines every year are the Thanksgiving and Christmas issues. There are also separate cookie issues (sometimes), and those are keepers. As always, this year, they did not disappoint, and given the chance to do some Christmas desserts, naturally this is where I went.
I wanted to make some tiny little cookies - just little bites, so people can belly up to the bar and try a bunch of different things without feeling like you're about to explode. I was already getting a platter of 3 dozen cookies from one of the local moms who has a home business making adorable cookies and cakes, so there were about 5 different selections of cookies and truffles there. I decided to add on 3 more - my go-to every year chocolate espresso snow caps [OH! I just had this idea about a different post with favorite recipes, so I'll tell you all about these later!], then these Cream-Cheese Jam Ice Diamonds,and then another meringue cookie that I'll do a separate post about. I chose the jam diamonds because I could make them small, and I've made Linzer cookies before, which I love, so I figured this should be pretty easy.
The original recipe yields 80 cookies. Yeah, I'm not making 80 cookies; I'll halve the recipe. And in the interest of time, I make the dough, and put it in the fridge to make the cookies the next day (Christmas Eve). Yay for me! Time management that I normally never use when preparing for any holiday or other event, and I'm doing it!
Fast forward to Christmas Eve, and I'm looking at this and thinking "sandwich cookie - make cookies, sandwich jam in-between". But no - this is Martha. Martha does nothing easily; it's part of the fun of doing Martha-things - a challenge! So I realize that this recipe goes through a series of dough rolling and chilling and freezing and filling and cutting and ... you get the idea. Ugh. Ok, whatever, I can do it.
First, make dough,divide in half, wrap and chill up to two days. Check. Second, roll out each half into rectangles and freeze 30 min. Check. Third, preheat oven, and take out your frozen rectangles, slather your jam on one, slap the other on top. Ok. Let it warm up enough to be firm, but able to cut. Yeah, here's where we have a problem. Now when I go to cut it, the dough slabs are sliding all over the place thanks to the jam slick between the two pieces, but I persist and come out with about 10 perfect diamonds, 20 vaguely symmetrical shapes, and some weird stuff that I like to call the "cook's pieces" because I do not want anyone respectable to see these, but I'm also not going to waste any food so I'll cook them. Oh but wait! I have to freeze them again until firm for 10 minutes. Check. Transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet and space 1" apart. Check. Freeze until firm 10 more minutes - wait, what? Seriously? Screw it - if they've gone from firm to not firm by simply removing them from the freezer and putting them on a baking sheet, then screw it. I'm putting them in the damn oven which has been on and ready to cook these stupid cookies for like half an hour now.
Baking goes fine, cookies are done and yummy, they just look horrifying, but nothing that displaying them in a pile, putting the prettiest ones on top, and sprinkling generously (read: coating until unrecognizable) with confectioner's sugar can't help.
Here's what they're supposed to look like:
Yeah, but they didn't. Oh well. Next time I would just use a Linzer cookie recipe. I have one from Rosie's Bakery, but here's one from Ina Garten who happens to be an FoM (long-time Friend of Martha). For the kind of cookie they are they are just way too time-consuming for me.
Next up: 2013 Christmas cookie (winner!) #2
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