No More Mr. Nice Pie
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pies About Town
  • Pie-Ku
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE COOKIE-MAS

12/22/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Oh by gosh, by golly. Not only is it post-solstice-pre-Christmas, it is also time to rummage through the drawers in the dining room, foraging for a box of Chanukah candles. If my search proves fruitless, I will venture to the local supermarket, pausing in the same aisle that offers candied red and green cherries alongside tubes of ready to pipe cookie icing.
 
The bakery teeters on excess; in cookies, in gluten freeness, in cupcakes and coffeecakes. One might think my rolling pin would have crossed over to the dark side of sugar cookie dough this month, but the reality is there are more than enough pies and tarts ordered for the holiday weekend. Additionally, tube pans call to me requiring pounds of spicy gingerbread cake batter. Thank goodness I was able to scratch the ugly Christmas sweater cookie itch earlier this month.
 
Following the ‘pie for all and all for pie’ that defines Thanksgiving, the weeks leading up to December 25th are filled with dozens, no hundreds, no actually thousands of cookies. Many are diminutive, modestly adorned with a dip or a dab of chocolate or a dusting of powdered sugar, then tucked into boxes. But the showstoppers, the raison d’etre for children to meltdown in front of the display case, for caffeinated grown-ups to gesticulate wildly, and for bakers round the bench to get slightly testy, hands cramping in carpal tunnel syndrome, is the decorated sugar cookie. There are small, medium and large cookies, some with just a hint of sparkly sugar, others painstakingly elaborate. By elaborate I’m not saying Sistine Chapel ceiling details, but not far removed. Which is why I am constantly in awe of the cookie artists wielding icing bags in the bakery. 
 
Christmas cookies do not arrive without their share of drama. In the sheer volume of cookies pumped out of a modest kitchen, it is not uncommon for a snowman’s eye to smudge like  mascara in the rain or Santa’s hat to prove non-colorfast, red royal icing bleeding into the white cuff.
 
Sugar cookies are an entity unto themselves requiring agonizing conversations about colors, outlines, Sprinkle King adornments. No longer gussied up for the season in simple candied cherries or a squiggle of royal icing, today’s cookies are destined for bright holiday lights and tabletop scene stealing. They are intricately iced, in colors as eclectic as a Pantone color chart.  How did we get here? How did this happen?
 
The history of holiday cookies dates way, way back stretching around the globe to places that celebrated early winter solstice festivals.  At some point during the Middle Ages, Christmas celebrations began to overshadow the solstice.  Fortunately for anyone wielding a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl, wintry spices and dried fruits were becoming more widely available. Unlike larger cakes and pies, cookies were slightly less expensive and less cumbersome to bake and exchange, encouraging sweet gift giving.
 
With the advent of tin cookie cutters, it was just a matter of time and travel before immigrants brought cookie recipes and cookie cutters to the United States. Both recipes and cutters were handed down from one generation to the next. Cookie tins and jars quaked in anticipation as butter and vanilla extract permeated kitchens. And then in a word, something changed sugar cookies forever.
 
The word? Pinterest. Developed in December 2009 and launched in March 2010, Pinterest dubs itself the ‘world’s catalog of ideas.’  Its aim is to inspire, prompting viewers to peruse thousands of photographs. Dazzling, yes. Dizzying? More so. Oh-so frustrating to log onto? Guilty.
 
Pinterest has taken the humble cookie and elevated it to pop culture status. One needn’t have a single original idea in their head; just click, peruse and ‘repin’ from other users. Is it an exchange of ideas? Certainly. Does it allow you to borrow freely, often without giving credit where credit is due? As sure as there are sprinkles in a box of Sprinkle King.
 
I am spreading my fair share of royal icing around this holiday, particularly to those on my designated Nice list. For anyone deemed Naughty, not to worry. Pinterest dedicates hundreds of ideas for cookies decorated with screaming red and green candied cherries. Happy Everything.
 


Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    Ellen Gray

    Professional Pie-isms & Seasonal Sarcasm

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Artwork by Retsu Takahashi
© Ellen Gray All Rights Reserved 2014
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pies About Town
  • Pie-Ku
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index