Christmas Cookie Decorating 101

Many bakers ask for tips and manual on decorating cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as galore route to decorate cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and full-fledged bakers alike to help you generate your own ideas for cookery decorating.

DECORATING COOKIES BEFORE BAKING

Cookies can be adorned before baking with materials that withstand the heat of baking. Several things that you can place on your cookies before baking are:

colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar

jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and another sprinkles

raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries

balmy

These items can be placed on top of about any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a much gala appearance.

Paint a masterpiece

You can besides paint your cookies before baking them. Do an edible food paint out of an egg vitellus mixed with a few drops of food coloring and paint the cookies with a clear paintbrush. The paint will dry piece baking and give the cookie a colorful, glazed appearance. This is a fun activity for kids!

A bit of trompe l’oeil

The peoples at Better Homes and Gardens have a creative formula for Colored Cream Dough ( http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=2&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11429.xml&catref=SC1407 ) which is a dough of icing consistency that can be piped onto cookies with a pastry bag fitted with a writing or star tip, and then baked. The result is a cookie that looks like it has been opaque but the icing is baked on and hard.

DECORATING COOKIES AFTER BAKING

Decorating cookies after baking them requires that you apply several kind of liquid-based substance that will adhere to the baked cookie, or that will act as a glue to attach another items. Usually, this takes the form of frosting, icing, or dissolved chocolate.

Frosting vs. Icing

There is a big difference between icing and icing. Icing is thick and holds shapes like rosettes and shells like those you see piped about the edges of a birthday cake. It remains soft to the touch and has a creamy texture, and most folk think it tastes better because of the creamy buttery flavor.

Icing, on the another hand, is a thinner, much liquid substance, and as it dries it thins out, becomes really smooth across the surface of your cookie, and hardens. This is the icing to use for the most beautiful, professional results.

Working with frosting

You can use icing in two ways. One way is to just use a knife or rubber spatula to spread the icing across the whole surface of your cookie. The another way is to place the icing in a pastry or decorating bag fitted with a small tip and piping out thin lines or rosettes of icing onto the cookie.

Either way, once the icing has been applied to the cookie you can then further embellish it by exploitation colored sugars, non-pareils, or any of the decorating items mentioned in the Decorating Before Baking section above. Christmas-Cookies.com has a delicious formula for Buttercream Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=306. See elaborate manual on piping icing from Better Homes and Gardens at http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=3&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11430.xml&catref=SC1407

Working with icing

Icing is a little much difficult to activity with but its smooth surface produces the most beautiful results! Icing should always be piped onto a cookie because it will run off the edges if spread with a knife. Once iced you can apply silver dragées, or another sprinkles just as mentioned with the icing above, before it hardens. Christmas-Cookies.com has an first-class formula for Royal Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=42. Better Homes and Gardens besides a formula for Powdery Sugar Icing ( http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=288 ) that dries less hard than Royal Icing and has a shiny surface. Martha Stewart's website features an first-class article on how to pipe icing onto cookies for professional-looking results ( http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel172011&catid=cat258 ).

Melted chocolate

Just just about any cookie can be embellished just by dipping it in chocolate or descending chocolate over it. You can even as dress up the everyday chocolate chip cookie for gift-giving or serving at parties. Melting chocolate is a simple process, but a few rules must be followed in order to do it a success. For Easter, try exploitation white chocolate tinted in pastel shades with food coloring. Use the gel, paste or powdery kind of food color, because the liquid drops may do the chocolate seize up.

What you need

You can either use chocolate chips or baking chocolate (the kind that comes in 1-ounce squares) and the same process applies whether you use dark chocolate or white chocolate. A small figure of shortening should be accessorial at the magnitude relation of 2 tablespoons shortening for 1 cup of chocolate chips or shredded up baking chocolate.

Double boiler

Place chocolate and shortening in the top half of a double boiler or in a metal bowl that has been placed on top of a pan filled with hot water. The water must be really hot, but not boiling, because the steam generated by boiling water could get wet into the melting chocolate which does it curdle.

Allow the chocolate to melt over the hot water and stir it on occasion until it has achieved a liquid consistency.

Microwave

Place your chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue microwaving 20 seconds, stir again. Support doing this until the chocolate is about melted. Move out it from the microwave and stir it until wholly melted.

Dipping

Dip one end of your cookie, or half the cookie, or even as the whole cookie into the dissolved chocolate. Set the cookie on a wire rack to let the chocolate harden. If you wish, you can sprinkle shredded nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over the dissolved chocolate before it hardens.

Drizzling

Scrape dissolved chocolate into a ziplock baggie. With a sharp scissors, snip off a really small corner of the baggie. Drizzle top of cookies with zig-zags of dissolved chocolate. Cool until chocolate is set.

Using these simple techniques will help you produce a variety of beautiful-looking cookies at Christmas and throughout the year.

Copyright 2004 Mimi Cummins. All Rights Reserved.

Mimi Cummins is co-author of the book "Christmas Cookies Are for Giving: Recipes, Stories, and Tips for Devising Heartwarming Gifts." This book, "enthusiastically recommended" by Geographic area Book Review, is full of baking tips and hints, including nearly 50 recipes each with a full-color photo. For much information visit http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/ or order from your favorite online bookstore.

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