Technically, this isn't really a Christmas cookie, since it's a recipe that was passed down from Steve's Jewish grandmother and mother, but at our house, we blend the holidays...the more holidays, the merrier. And Steve loves Christmas in a way that only someone who didn't get to celebrate it as a child does. He loves the decorations, and especially, the lights, ah, the lights. No staid Victorian white candles in each window, not for us. In our last house, he would string hundreds of blinking multi-colored lights around the porch and roofline, to the extent that the older boys claimed our house could be identified from aircraft. Our roof is too high now, so we've expanded out into the yard with two lighted penguins, and reindeer that turn their heads (the herd stands at two for now). There was the threat of an inflated Garfield, but I have to draw the tackiness line somewhere. It's not easy finding high quality blinking colored lights (lack of demand? most of them made in China?), but we located a small firm in California that meets our needs.
So, back to the cookies. There's an intrinsic challenge to a cookie that you only make once a year, especially if the recipe is hand written and fairly cryptic to begin with. The aforementioned grandmother used the "a handful of this and a bit more of that" approach to measurement, and Steve's mother wrote down her best guess on amounts, but leaving "a little bit more" for a couple of the estimates. We tried to simplify the technique by doing the cookies in the mixer this year, and while they tasted okay, they weren't as good as either of us remembers. So we made another batch today, which is the recipe that follows.
POPPYSEED COOKIES
2 Tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2"-square pieces
4 Tablespoons shortening, in similar sized pieces
2 1/8 (9 oz) cups sifted flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tablespoons (1 1/2 oz) poppy seeds
1/4 cup milk, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (we used Indonesian)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Place butter and shortening pieces in the refrigerator to firm up.
Sift dry ingredients and whisk in poppy seeds.
Cut in butter and shortening.
Whisk together milk and eggs and add to dry dough. Work liquids lightly into a soft dough. (You should still see pieces of butter in the dough.)
Working on a floured surface, fold the dough over 4 or 5 times, like this:
Roll out to 1/4-inch thick. Keep the surface lightly floured so the wet dough does not stick. Also, lightly flour the top of the dough so the dough does not stick to the pin.
Cut into 2 1/2"-3"rounds with a floured biscuit cutter or glass.
Place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush cookies with milk. Mix sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle generously over cookies.
Place cookie sheets with cookies in a freezer for 8 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes. Notice how the cookies rise, compared to the unbaked ones.
Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
Our experiment today was to vary the fat (1/3 butter, 2/3 shortening), and then to freeze the cookies before baking. These cookies are very biscuit-like, so having some butter in them and freezing it helps them not bake took quickly and facilitates the rise. What we were looking for was a light cookie that was crisp outside, and this particular method seems to work best.
*For the very observant: guess who was baking these cookies today.
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