 Welcome to the Tea Room! Late afternoon is the perfect time to take a little break from shopping or wrapping (or working or knitting or chasing small children!), sit and have a cup of tea! These thin, delicate sugar cookies are just the right restorative for afternoon tea.
When we were little, my brother and I loved our Aunt Erna's sugar cookies the best at Christmas (well, it was a close tie with her Spritz
cookies...) As we got a little older, she patiently invited us over to have us "help" make them.
Now when I make them, I always save bits of leftover dough for the dolls' Christmas cookies. If you've made sugar cookies before, you know that the more
you cut a batch out and have leftover dough, and that dough gets rolled again and again...big people cookies made from that rolled and rolled and floured and floured cookie dough can make pretty tough cookies, BUT it makes great cookies for the dolls! I've learned that I can make a little batch out of that leftover dough (which makes a lot of doll cookies), and, when Christmas is over, wrap them well with plastic wrap in a little box, stick them in the freezer and save them for next Christmas!
On Christmas Eve, the dolls put the cookies they've baked on a tiny Christmas plate for Santa...
If you're looking for little cookie cutters to make tiny cookies (you can also use them for making fancy sandwiches), I have quite a few different cookie cutters in my
Marketplace. My special favorite for any size doll is the tiny dress shaped cookie cutter! Some of the cookie cutters make very small cookies (good for all, including Riley, Ginny, Bitty Bethany, 10" Ann Estelle), while others are somewhat larger and would be a better fit for larger (16" and! taller) dolls.
Here's my Aunt Erna's
recipe...
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter*
2 eggs plus 1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
colored sugar for sprinkling
In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the eggs, extract, and milk, mixing well after each addition. In a separate bowl, stir the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl. Mix with mixer or wooden spoon until well combined. Shape dough into a ball. You can use it right away, but I find that it helps make the cookies less sticky if you refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours.
From our house to yours...This is where the dolls like to bake their Christmas cookies...
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheets.
Lightly flour your work surface. Roll 1/4 of the dough at a time, keeping the rest refrigerated. Roll dough paper thin (no thicker than 1/8"). If dough gets sticky, sift a little flour over it.
With floured cookie cutter, cut into shapes. Re-roll trimmings and cut again (this is where you start to put bits aside for the dolls' cookies).
Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheets. Brush lightly with beaten egg white, sprinkle with red, green, or multi-colored sugar. Bake 7-9 minutes or until very light brown. (When you're baking the dolls' cookies, keep a close eye on them. They are so small that they can burn easily.)
Remove cookies from sheets while still hot and cool on paper towels or baking racks. Makes about 6 dozen average sized cookies (actually quantity depends, of course, on the size of your cookie cutters!). Don't forget to save a few for Christmas eve...these are Santa's favorites!
At our house, every Christmas since 18" Eugenia (Heidi Ott) came to us from Holland, the dolls have insisted on everyone putting out their shoes for Sinterklaas...tiny Dutch spice cookies and German chocolates wrapped like presents are a real treat...
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