Butter spice cookies and the English Tea
It is now Tuesday and I am almost recovered from the English Tea. The event itself was, of course, almost flawless. A few missteps, but nothing we couldn’t recover from. It was the last few days leading up to the tea that almost did me in. Have I mentioned previously that I am not renowned for my baking skills?
So we had a medical emergency with one of our sweets bakers. And as the food chairman, it is my responsibility to always have a Plan B and to adopt it with all due speed when necessary. And I thought I had a nifty Plan B. Did I tell you already that I’m not a very good baker?
Butter spice cookies. A Williams Sonoma recipe that came with my cookie press. I will just pop out 300 butter spice cookies shaped like Christmas trees and we’ll move along with our day.
As you can see, these do NOT look like Christmas trees. Thanks goodness, I haven’t told anyone on the food committee that they’re supposed to. As Julia Child said about kitchen mistakes, “Who’s to know?” Except everyone will know now. Blabber mouth. But they’ll have 361 days to forget.
So the good news is they taste great. Uncommonly good. And when I presented them in the kitchen on the day of the tea, someone asked, “How did you get those so thin?” Who’s to know. Or, in my case, who knows?
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a medium bowl.
- Using a stand mixer with the flat paddle attachment, beat together the butter, brown sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low, add the flour mixture and continue to combine until blended well.
- Form the dough into 4-5 logs on waxed paper. Roll uniformly and refrigerate for one hour.
- Cut the logs into discs about ¼ inch thick and place on an ungreased or Silpat-lined cookie sheet two inches apart.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown with the edges of each cookie slightly browner.
- Cool on a wire rack.
They look great to me! Is it too late to get any?