Suckered Again

I love to cook and bake. I love trying new recipes. In fact I make my life difficult when I plan our meals for each month by searching for new recipes, instead of using tried and true favorites.

Which is another reason why I love Christmas; I find new recipes everywhere and I must try as many as possible.

However, as much as I love to cook and bake there are a few recipes I won't try due to the steps involved (too many), expensive ingredients (not sure I could even find caviar here in the Valley), and cookies requiring rolling, chilling, rolling and then assembly.

Dough that requires rolling, before chilling, is usually too sticky to roll out. Thus creating a mess of flour and dough all over me and the kitchen and a not so happy chef. Once it is chilled it is then too stiff to roll out, until it warms up and by then it becomes too sticky again. See the problem?

Well, I hate these type of recipes and usually stay away from them until I saw this picture:

Not only do they look yummy but they were also titled "Shortcut Sweets" in December's Southern Living. Shortcut! And they look good! I'm in.

Yes. I realize the cookies in the picture are not actual cookies but painted resin, or Styrofoam, or cardboard, or some other inedible material. I was making those cookies. I mean just imagine the oohs and ahhs from friends when you present them with a plate of THESE cookies. (I would skip individually wrapping them in cellophane, I am NOT Martha Stewart.)

Yeah well, needless to say all my frustrations arose while making these cookies. The dough was too sticky to roll out. I didn't have the Red Color Paste required to make the red portion of the dough. But I did have red food coloring; which looked very red in the raw dough, but turned pink in the oven. The white dough turned brownish after being baked. Yes, I know the inedible, delicious looking cookies in the picture are painted and that I leave my cookies in the oven way too long.

I was drawn in by the picture. The picture won me over. What can I say, I'm a visual girl and Southern Living suckered me in.

However, after all the headache I must say the cookies were D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. They do taste good, as good as they look in the picture. And, maybe good enough for me to try again.

But, only after I learn a few tricks on how to deal with this kind of dough. So, if anyone has tips for me and my dough (short of purchasing a cooling marble top pastry slab) just leave a comment, please! My husband, my children and myself will thank you. I may even send you a tin of the cookies. If it is a really good tip I might individually wrap each one.

And if you want to try this delicious recipe click over here to Southern Living. Sorry, it's late and I'm too tired to type it out.