This article makes me so happy - what fun these bakers are having!
But how do they taste?
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@Linda I can't speak for everyone who decorated cookies...but my cookies taste like brownies with a soft candy icing!
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What a brilliant article to wake up to this morning!
Joyful and filled with inspiration.
And to the naysayers ... don't dismiss the connection between designing with your hands and brain development. No matter if it's a cookie, calligraphy, or painting like Rembrandt. They're varying faces of forms of art.
Healthy for the mind, body and soul.
Three cheers for the cookie artists!
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I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this article. I love reporting on ‘real’ people following their passions. I could relate to this more than I don’t know anything I read in NYT. We nerd bakers need to stick together.
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Seems to take all the fun out of it. Why must people be so competitive in every facet of life these days, ughhh.
Why cant good enough be good enough in this country?
They don't seem like folks I would want to hang out with.
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Great article including many talented cookiers well known among the cookie community.
Glad light is finally being shed on this group of sugar artist and this form of sugar art.
The cookier community has grown exponentially the past 5 years worldwide and the level of creativity has reached outstanding levels.
Thanks again for such a marvelous read.
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Thank you Tina for the support! If it wasn't for cookies, I would never have met someone like you halfway across the world from Greece. I truly believe this passion brings people together. Xoxo
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This was a pleasure to read. I bake a lot. I think I’m pretty good at it. But these guys are like the Metropolitan Museum of Art compared to my home boy graffiti. Wow!
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Just a fabulous article.
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Learned how to decorate sugar cookies from Martha Stewart years ago! Love this and had no idea this was going on. I favor cakes now but have some inspiration to pick up my cookie cutters again.
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I’m on a keto diet but my weakness is the cookies at the holidays. Bring them on! Come sugar, chocolate, and gingerbread! Mine all mine!!!
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Wasteful and unhealthy. Artificial colourings, crazy amounts of sugar, and a good amount of corn syrup. It may be art, but it shouldn't be food.
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@Marie ....We make them at our bakery in Saugerties. No corn syrup. Butter, sugar, eggs, flour, powdered sugar, and food coloring in the icing.
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Great stuff. Reminds me of an obituary here of some great character actor who had been through a traumatic life before acting. I remember him being quoted "a lot of previous life is worked out in acting", and fortunately, on the top of cookies too.
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For many, working with one's hands is a deeply calming and even meditative experience, as this story illustrates. Its importance is often trivalized, which is part of why finding one's "crafter" community is heartening (in times gone by, "sewing circles" addressed this desire).
I note that the "need" to do physical activity--eg, to run, play sports--is well respected, while doing handwork is seen as cutesy. I see them as similar--one for the whole body, one for the hands.
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I struggle with the painful reality of raising a disabled child. Often I have trouble even leaving the house. I've learned how to make and decorate cookies on the internet and it has been good on many levels. To be able to think of something else, because decorating demands concentration, and to be able to see a finished product that I've been successful at. And my son is proud of our cookies and it makes him happy to take them to school and share them. It's one of the rare happy things in our days.
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@Daisy - it's wonderful that you're doing something for yourself. We all need to refill the well so it doesn't run empty, and appreciate our own talents and interests. I'm guilty of not doing that often enough myself, but I applaud and feel truly inspired by you. All the best with your son, and best wishes for warm holidays.
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I make over a 100 sugar cookies and have co-workers and their kids come over to decorate them. The ones that they don't take home with them and taken into work for people to eat. I grew up decorating cookies with my mother and siblings, but most of my co-workers didn't experience this. One engineer said that he finds decorating cookies to be a soothing task.
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@West coast Mom - I LOVE THIS!!!
Check out Baking Memories 4 Kids
https://bakingmemories4kids.com/about-us/
Why vanilla as the favored cookie flavor/canvas? What about gingerbread?!
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@betsy: it's classic and delicious, but sugar cut-out cookies can be any flavor. When we used to bake, we made all kinds.
One women here mentioned her chocolate cookie basic cookie, which sounds fantastic! we did those -- we did gingerbread -- we did honey-sweetened cookie. Today I am sure we'd do red velvet and maybe a carrot-cake flavor! and saffron would be amazing.
NOTE: to do cookies this elaborate, requires a very thick stiff cookies or it will shatter. The most delicious cut-outs are (IMHO) made from rather delicate cookies that shatter easily -- no worries, you can eat the failures -- but won't stand up to frosting THIS elaborate.
In our house we went with simpler designs, just washes of white, pink or green royal icing -- red or green sugars (or blue for Hanukkah) -- silver dragee balls or similar on top of that.
The artistry is lovely but sometimes people take things to the extreme. It's a cookie, after all, you are supposed to eat it -- not frame it!
NOTE: the best recipes for cut-out cookies is in the 1952 Edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook -- my bible.
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It is a wonderful thing to have an interest in life.
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I bet her kitchen is perfect.
Just look at the photograph!
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Uneatable and look like cheap plastic.
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@Tracy Perez: I truly appreciate the time, artistry and devotion of these bakers -- because I have baked, made cut-out holiday cookies by the zillions and I love cookies. I also deeply value the cultural component of such devoted homemaking.
BUT....as I have eaten a lot of cookies in my day, and some of this type...going back eons to the early Martha Stewart days (she is not credited, but she did a lot to promote this type of cookie AS WELL AS elaborate cooking/baking styles)....I can tell you that THICK cookies with HEAVY shiny glazes are almost inedible.
As they are "too pretty to eat"...they are often used for display which means sitting out for far too long and getting stale.
Even fresh, they are thick and not delicate like normal sugar cookie cut-outs.
Royal icing -- the kind that "pools" -- is not tasty, and almost the consistency of shellac.
Cookies that LOOK good very rarely TASTE good. The best cookies are often simple, irregular drop cookies with no frostings at all.....snickerdoodles, Tollhouse (chocolate chip), oatmeal raisin, peanut butter, etc.
Also simple bar cookies and brownies made in pans.
No mention is made here of SPRITZ cookies -- the kind extruded from a cookie press or gun! those can be very fanciful and elaborate, the molds are a great deal of fun for kids to do! My mom used to make these by the hundreds!
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@Tracy Perez
My cookies are actually like a soft brownie...even with the icing on them. If you're ever in Utah - I'd love to let you try them. :)
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A couple of commenter critics are up early this morning, yikes!
Pursuing a passion and connecting with people is one of the most important things we can do to stay healthy and happy as we grow older. And just as important, the different ethnicities, sexual orientations and professions described in this article show that the cookier community is busting through barriers that need busting.
From this all-thumbs in the kitchen apple eater in Connecticut: Bravo, Brava and Enjoy!
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Keep Instagram away from my cookies! All this gilding and icing ruins a perfectly good sugar cookie. I like my cookies bare and icing free.
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I love reading about how crafts connect people. As a knitter of 13 years, I know how crafting has helped me meet some of my closest friends and given me a needed creative outlet and an opportunity to continue learning new skills as an adult.
It would be interesting to see profiles of other crafting communities. They're interesting stories and a good opportunity to introduce others to a skill they might not know about, and which might interest them. At a time when so many Americans feel isolated and we are so divided by our politicians, it's nice to see people making connections. More please!
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@Andrea - wonderful comment!
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Cookiers? Ick, not a good word. I've been baking cookies and many things since I can remember but anyone who calls me a cookier is not a friend.
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@CJ: what is wrong with "baker"? or "cookie baker"? why must a fancy word be invented for something this simple?
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‘Cookier’ is a term that was coined by a few of us in the cookie industry. It stuck and it’s here to stay.
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@CJ
It started out like most nicknames -- by accident and with love. :)
2
These intricately decorated cookies are beautiful to look at, and like many hobbies ( that sometimes turn into professions) give a lot of joy and solace to their makers. But, achingly sweet, solidly coated in sugar, probably 3 to 5 teaspoonfuls on each, it makes my teeth hurt just thinking of eating them!
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I make very thin butter cookies (dough is rolled out to between 1/16 and 1/8 inch), and the Ann Clark cookie cutters don't work as well for thinly rolled cookie doughs, because they have too much lateral play. For thinly rolled cookie doughs, you'll need cutters that have a "top" side that were popularized in the 1940s like:
https://www.grammascutters.com/
and
http://www.cookiecutters.com/individual-cutters.php
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@Karl Would fondant cutters work better for that thin of a roll?
@Karl I still have my grandmother's and ones made by my grandfather. Each Christmas I use them to make ginger cookies used to decorate my tree.
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@Karl: I imagine that is true. Thick cookies are tough and often stale (because they sit around a long time, to be admired or displayed). Once you bite into them, all that elaborate pooled royal icing will shatter into tough, sharp little bits.
I like mine thin, precisely as you say -- delicate -- BUTTERY -- intensely flavored. Really no icing is necessary -- a bit of colored sugar is plenty enough.
I use the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook (1952 and re-issues up through the 60s, plus you can find most of it online today) -- which has just fabulous photo illustrations in LURID colors! -- look for the one that has a touch of honey in the dough. It is very elastic and bakes like a dream.
These freeze beautifully also, if you wrap them very well -- two plastic bags, or freezer paper.
I use my mom's 1950s era cookie cutters, which are a mix of plain aluminum and "copper" colored, with raised handles, but as a collector, I have added a number of the kind with little wooden knobs -- red or green! -- they are just so charming and come in a vast array of designs. They were so commonplace, there are still zillions out there at estate and rummage sales and in thrift stores, at very modest prices -- average is around 50 cents a piece.
3
These are not cookie makers, they are cookie decorators. And I don't know whether to smirk or bang my head on the table at the thought of NYT using "Cali" for my beloved state. Hip Hop indeed Rules, I suppose.
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@Marilyn Sue Michel
Actually, we Cookiers pride ourselves on *making* our cookies from scratch and then decorating them. And rollouts come in all kinds of really neat flavors. A lot of us participate in cookie exchanges with each other and I’ve received creative flavors, soft cookies, hard cookies, different icings and icing flavors...you name it, Cookiers will try it and make it delicious and cool to look at. :) One of my best sellers are my horchata flavored ones. Sugar Dayne is in Hermosa Beach. Maybe check her out some time!
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Could it be that the abbreviation “cali“ is maybe a typo.? (I’ve noticed a few over the years in the NYT… Surprising) But yes the drivel is somewhat ‘invigorating’ for a person like me
Now that I’ve become mostly immune to all kinds of things…Poison oak, bees stings (meat bees i.e. wasps), and especially my own body‘s production of insulin e.g. Diabedes, I now just gargle with salt when I feel less sore throat and although my throat is ravaged I managed to “kill“ the flu bug… Next thing I’m gonna take on is Ebola... yeah I’m feeling lucky!
So now awls I can do is look in her these pretty pictures of sugar pumped out of pus bags onto cookies, and dream of sugarplums..... You know the rest
1
@Nasty Curmudgeon from: being familiar with diabetes in my family...it is possible to bake sugar-free cookies with substitutes like Equal and Splenda.
It is also possible to just cut down on the amounts of sugar in the dough, and use flavorings like vanilla, ginger, cinnamon.
And most diabetics can (despite the media scolds) eat SOME treats, including cookies -- in moderation -- counting your carbs and making up for it with increased insulin or meds. Ask your endocrinologist for his recommendations.
1