Christmas Cookie Ornaments

I have given in...

It's only November 11th, and in the past week I have caught myself humming Christmas carols, planning holiday cooking, scheming ways to sneakily purchase Christmas gifts, and generally getting into the Christmas spirit nearly a month too early.

Each time I realize I'm doing one of these things I guiltily force myself to stop. I caution myself to enjoy each day (it's been ludicrously warm around here lately, so it hasn't been difficult to do that...but still...), stop and smell the roses, whatever I can to distract myself from Christmasy thoughts.

Well, I officially give up. I've thrown in the towel, I'm waving the white flag -- basically, pick your favorite metaphor for surrendering -- I"m doing it!

I found a recipe at allrecipes.com for a white cookie dough ornament. In the past, I've made gingerbread-looking ornaments with cinnamon, but hadn't found a good recipe for a white flour/bread dough-type ornament....until now.

Yesterday I made a double-batch of the ornament dough and stuck it in the fridge before running errands and going back to work for a couple hours. The dough was simple, came together easily, and has only three (inexpensive) ingredients. Today I had lots of fun cutting out all sorts of shapes using cookie cutters, and even worked on a couple free-form ornaments.

Best of all (or the worst, depending on your perspective), the house smells like baking sugar cookies. It's wonderful for the house to smell so good, but the downside is that the dough isn't meant to be eaten. Let me say again: THIS IS AN INEDIBLE RECIPE!!!

Here's the recipe. I'll be posting pictures of cookies as they are finished.

Christmas Ornament Cookie Dough:
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cup of warm water

Combine flour and salt in a bowl and mix well. Slowly add water, mixing as you go. When all the water has been incorporated, stir well (no need to worry about developing those glutens!). When you've mixed the dough as well as possible in the bowl, dump onto a well-floured board and knead until the dough is smooth and supple. You can either use the dough immediately or refrigerate it until ready to use.

When you are ready to make cookies, you can either pull, squish, and squeeze pleasing shapes from the dough or roll it to about 1/4 inch thick and cut using cookie cutters. Either way works well.

Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about an hour.

*Mine got a little brown after an hour, so for the second batch I cut the cooking time to around 45 minutes. Bottom line: use your best judgment.

For decorating cookie dough ornaments, I have found that using fabric paint (also known as "puffy paint," those of us alive in the '80s probably remember this as the last word in fashionable t-shirts) accurately simulates the look of royal icing on cookies. After that, I raid the local craft store for buttons, beads, etc. -- anything that resembles candies, dragees, and other decorations.