Today’s Cooking Demonstration group got to practice decorating with colored decorating chocolate that comes in tubes. You put the tube in a glass of hot (not boiling) water and once it melts, you can use it to decorate cookies or cakes.
Before we got into decorating, we did a quick demonstration on how to ice Christmas cookies using royal icing.
Royal icing can me made at home but it’s really easy to buy a packet of mix here at the store all all you do is add water. Getting the consistency right for the outline and the flooding isn’t difficult and once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be set for every Christmas to come.
Christmas cookie dough is quite soft and can be very soft on a warm day. I suggest rolling out your dough and place it on baking paper and then on a baking tray and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes, then cut out your cookies. They’ll retain their shape much better that way.
Here’s a great recipe for Christmas Cookies!
| Christmas Cookies |
- 225 grams butter
- 140 grams caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp orange juice or orange liqueur
- Grated rind of 1 orange
- 280 grams plain flour
- Cream butter and sugar til white and fluffy
- Add egg yolk and orange juice or liqueur and beat well
- Fold in orange rind
- Fold in flour to make a firm dough
- Wrap in cling film and leave to cook in the fridge for at least 15 minutes
- Remove from fridge and cut dough in half
- Roll out half of the dough to required thickness and return to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Cut out the biscuit shapes
- Repeat with the remainder of the dough
- Bake at 180C for 12 to 15 minutes
- Cool on racks before icing
Here is a photo of some of the cookies decorated today. Remember that nobody knew they were going to do this today and nobody had any practice before starting their cookie. Everyone had a great time.
Okay, so some of these aren’t the most creative but there was no instruction and no time to design and execute a pattern. It was just for fun.
If you’re available on a Wednesday or Friday morning at 10am, we’d love to have you come along for our weekly Cooking Demonstration. There’s always something to learn, new friends to make and great coffee and pastry for only $10. You don’t need to register, just come in before 10am.
