They look like something out of a Gourmet Magazine December cookie special photo shoot. Lined up on a diagonal are some 6 or 7 different cookies, as festive as the 200 year old, and massively heavy silver butler’s tray is stunning. And yes, you will often find this selection of cookies at Sister’s home during the holidays. She often bakes several hundred (over a thousand this year I hear) that she places in beautiful tins and sends to friends with fabulous apartments with kitchens larger than most New York City studios, but who wouldn’t dare mess up the carrara marble with flour and butter. Or other friends and relatives from around the U.S. that hope Sister is in a baking mood that year or else it’s Chips Ahoy to Bing Crosby on the CD player… Heeheehee, I jest of course. But imagine my incredible surprise and shock when sister sent several of her favorite cookie recipes and these wonderful photos (her son had to come over to take them, and please note, the different tablecloths, silverware, etc. from her vast collection) and said she was sharing them with all of Marketmanila’s readers! So Merry Christmas everyone from Sister in New York, she writes:
Cookies For Christmas
If you had to choose only one thing to bake for the holidays, choose a cookie. some years I make 13 different kinds for the Apostles, still including Judas, and other years I can barely manage one. So here are some of my recipes, tested through the years. My children’s favorite is the Ischler cookies, those we save for Christmas Eve, but the quintessential holiday cookie is of cours the sugar cookie, merry with colored sprinkles and shapes bound to delight the child in every one of us. Happy Baking!
From my kitchen to yours,
Sister
She continues with some tips for successful cookies:
DO:
Have at least three cookie sheets. Chill dough in the fridge. Have at least 2 cookie racks. Line with parchment paper or thin foil, can be re-used, but limit to one kind of cookie, then change. Use butter which should be still cool and malleable, but not spreadable or oily. Get unsalted if possible. Purchase the finest ingredients you can find, particularly butter (sister uses Plugra). Acquire several sized cookie scoops, 1″ and 1 1/4″ are the most useful-they will speed up cookie production and you will have the same sized cookies for even baking. Store cookies, each kind separately so flavors don’t migrate, in cans or plastic containers. Make cookies with children, they will long remember it. Follow cookie instructions (or Sister will show up at your door and thwack you silly)! Always make a test cookie before you chill the dough-take a tbsp of dough and flatten to 1/4″ and bake at 350F. Cool and taste. If it spreads too much add a couple more tbsp of flour to the dough. It it’s not sweet enough add a little sugar. If it’s too hard add a couple of tbsp. of softened butter. This is your chance to adjust the dough before you bake the rest of it.
DON’T:
Use margarine, it has an artificial taste. Be impatient, the chilling periods allow the flour to absorb the moisture. Add too much flour – cookies will be hard. Ask me about drop cookies for the holidays, those are for the lazy (can you tell MM and Sister possess the same genes?) even my chocolate chip cookies are portioned out with a scoop. Make cookies if you are rushed, choose a leisurely afternoon.
Let the cookie recipes begin…
48 Responses
galing! you two definitely are peas of the same pod..
the presentation was tastefully done. happy holidays everyone!
whoa! those were great tips! I can’t wait for the recipes! Will also have a bit of baking marathon this holiday, am eagerly looking forward to trying at least one of your sister’s recipes!
Can you feature the sugar cookies first? Please! We were supposed to give out cookies to friends for the holidays, and so my wife made a sample batch from a recipe in the Cookie Craft book. It didn’t turn out good. So we’re thinking of just buying cookies and bars at Classic Confections. But who knows? Your sister’s sugar cookie recipe might change her mind. Thanks!
A big, big thank you to Sister (now ours as well, not only MM’s)! I’m sure the recipes will be better than most because they have been tested over the years and the cookies look fabulous. Maligayang Pasko.
And thank you MM, for sharing Sister with us.
i’ll try your recipes…
thank you sister… from New York to Manila to Brunei.. The world is definitely getting smaller!!
a big thank you to sister. Can’t wait to read and actually use those recipes.
I love baking cookies! Merry Christmas to you, your family and your readers. And many thanks to Sister for generously sharing her cookie recipes. I can’t wait!
This is the best recipe tips that I ever, ever got, so far. :)
Sister & MarketMan, you guys rock!!!
I hope that 2008 has been a year of good health and great happiness for you all. I wish that your New Year will be filled with love, success and satisfaction in all that you do.
A Very Merry Christmas to your and your families!
God bless.
Eagerly awaiting the recipes. Thank you Sister! God bless you for your generosity (seems to run through the genes). Merry Christmas to the MM Clan!
sister,can i send you my address?he,he,he.those cookies are sooooo yummy.thank you vey much for the tips.don`t know if ican bake some kasi be working christmas week.MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!
thank you. merry xmas!
Ooooo… those cookies look scrumptious! I can’t wait to see the recipes.. I might add some of those cookies to the gifts I’m planning to give to friends… if I can pull it off! Thank you very much for sharing!
Happy Christmas to you and your families MM and sister!
Do I spy rugelach on that tray… my all-time, hands down favorite cookie!?!
If so, I can’t wait to see sister’s recipe and process, mine come out a little more delicate than I would like.. if not, am still “with face pressed against screen” waiting for the other recipes!
thanks so much for sharing. Indeed Christmas is all about giving… God Bless You.
beautiful sweets on a beautiful tray.
how sweet. As I am reading this entry and taking a break, I am baking Gingerbread cookies which should be out in a few minutes. It inspires me to bake more!
“Make cookies with children, they will long remember it” — this is the best cookie tip ever! thanks sister! i will bake with my nieces this Christmas : )
daghang salamat for sharing. the presentation looks so cool!
sweet :)
Hi,MM and Sister!
I am eagerly awaiting those recipes. Can you include some recipes that can be done in the toaster oven? Our oven is on the fritz, so I can’t use it. Thanks!!! For those of you who can’t bake as well, try making polvoron instead to give away.
Happy Holidays to all!!!!
whoaa! you are mrs. claus personified, sister! that’s a major baking career you have there!
many thanks for sharing, and merry christmas to you and your family, sister!
Sister, Thank You so much for the Christmas Gift! I will try them out as soon as MM has posted them. Wishing you a cozy, warm and toasty holiday! From here in sunny Singapore.
thank you so much mm and mm’s sister! looking forward to trying out the cookies…
re: baking with kids, it’s true! i have fond memories of baking cookies with my cousins during the many sleepovers we had while growing up.
What a coincidence. I had just read this article in The New York Times about the crucial role butter plays in cookie-making. I once used melted butter and, predictably, the results were disastrous. Here’s the article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/dining/17bake.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&em
I miss my cousin who cooks cookies.. T___T she’s working in Dubai now…
I will just buy cookies from the store…
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of MM’s readers. Thank you for all your good wishes and kind comments. It is very heartwarming to be part of a community of foodies.
Yes, Alicia, there’s rugulach on the platter, I’ll send the recipe to MM. We’re the only ones in a building with 30 tenants who puts up a Christmas tree- we just wrestled a ten foot Fraser fir into the apt. last night. Over the years my rugulach has been taste tested and approved by a panel of very discerning neighbors who shop in the best stores and I definitely think it deserves a spot on the cookie list.
Alan, get that oven fixed, a toaster oven eats up a huge amount of electricity. You can bake any of the cookie recipes in a toaster oven but you could be doing it forever as you probably can only bake 6 cookies on a toaster tray. Good luck. Cut the recipes in half.
Happy Baking!
I salute your parents for raising fine children like you…you definitely come from the same pod. Good trees bear good fruit!!
I look forward to your wonderful cookie recipes. You are to me—wonderful family!! God bless you dearly!!!
You make us so happy just by sharing your talents in cooking and baking. Sigh..
Out of topic. BTW,got my little brown book MM yesterday!! Thanks for the heads up!
What else I can say? Thank you sister for passing the generation of goodies to us. We wish you and your family Good health and happiness for many many years to come!!!!
Yummy!!!…MM & Sis, thanks for the tips!!! I’m imagining if the there’s a 3D computer where I can put my fingers inside the computer and get the chance to taste the cookies…hehehe Yultide Cheers and God Bless!!!
From one New Yorker to another- thanks Sister! Very much looking forward to trying your cookie recipes. :)
This is very exciting. I’m always on the lookout for great cookies but I can not test every recipe that I like else I’d be like the Pilsbury doughboy. Sister’s are kitchen- and neighbour-tested which means we know they have been perfected. Thank you for sharing. =) I am still on my quest for the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie that I can make.
To Marketman, Mrs MM, Teen and Crew,
Maligayang Pasko at Manigong Bagong Taon. May you all have good health and energy so that you can all continue to enjoy God’s gift to mankind….Which is nature, good life and FOOD!!!
these are all too beautiful to eat :) thank you for sharing :) Merry Christmas to you, MM and family!
Very much appreciated, Sister! How I really wish you were my Ate, too!
Mga Mrs. you know how you can end up with 10 different kinds cookies to taste…though you only made 1 kind? After you have mastered making one kind of cookie, call 10 of your friends and have a COOKIE EXCHANGE PARTY! Each lady brings 1 kind ..now dependiing on how many shows up, can be up to 6 dozens cookies she’ll bring. So the more people show up, the more different kinds of cookies you can bring home to eat ! Of course, you have to let each other know what cookie they will bring or you might end up with 10 dozens Spritz Cookie!
Hey Jun…did you receive my e-mail? I think i got the address right for it did not bounce back!
Beautiful! and I love the presentation–so elegant! Thank you to Sister and MM and Happy Holidays!
Now i really have to get that oven pronto!!! Yummy cookies . . . sigh . . .
Sister, your cookie plating is just remarkable. Thank you so much for your unselfish sharing of your recipes. I consider myself a permanent resident of this quarter – where we all share the same passion and intuitiveness for food and all good stuff existing on the face of the earth. You, Bettyq, MM and my peers never-ending input contributes to the great success of this blog becomes an integral part of my life. This is the joy of blogging is all about. Thank you, thank you to each and everyone.
thank you sister and thank you mm for sharing your family and friends to your blog fans. it means a lot to us.
thank you sister for sharing your recipes….i will try them today.hope it turns out ok.thank you, thank you! merry merry christmas.
Thank you Sister for your generosity. This is a wonderful Christmas gift! Happy Holidays!
hi betty q, Thank you very much and merry christmas!!!! Wishing you and your family the best. I got 3 weeks of vacation so you and sister’s recipe will be my holiday task together with my wife and daughter. It will be fun !!!
Once again thanks MM, Betty Q and Sister for feeding us all the good stuff!
Dear Sister, MM & family,
Maraming salamat po for your kind graciousness, sharing family recipes with open hearts. The world is a better place because of you. Maligayang Pasko at manigong bagong taon sa inyo. Peace, joy, health, good jobs, safety, and God’s graces and blessings to you and all.
Wow…like all the others…I can not wait to see the recipes and try them out…rugelach is my favorite, too. Thank you so so much!
Zena…I am assuming you have tried the chocolate chip recipe MM posted, no?
What texture are you looking for?…taste? appearance? Have you tried the one using finely ground oatmeal together with the flour?…Let me know if you don’t have it. I will go look in my Tupperware…