My grandma is the kind of lady who saved sour cream containers and used them to store dinner leftovers. So it makes sense that her most popular holiday recipe was for minimalist shortbread dough that she stretched to create dozens of festive cookies. To this day, no one can figure out how she got thirty-something cookies out of this recipe.
My family and I have continued her tradition, making these cookies every year without fail. When I was a kid, the part where we got to cut out shapes and decorate with green and red icing was a blast; now, I make them because they remind me of Grandma, and of our family traditions.
Welcome to our inaugural Holiday Desserts Issue of Taste.
This year, we have expanded our annual Christmas cookie issue to more kinds of desserts. And we're putting an emphasis on the stories that accompany them, to get as many of your voices in this section as we can.
The goal is to highlight those food-family connections the holidays tend to conjure up. Months ago, we put a call out to readers, asking them to send in their treasured recipes, whether for Christmas or Hanukkah or something more secular. We received many submissions, and the result is this issue, which highlights more than a dozen dessert recipes and the fond stories and memories that accompany them.
I am sharing my grandma's cookie recipe because it's the one that means the most to me, but other readers' meaningful holiday recipes ranged from cakes to candy to pies.
We hope you find something to like, something that can perhaps become a new tradition in your household.
EASY
Grandma's Scotch Shortbread
Ingredients
For the cookies
1 cup butter or shortening
¾ cup confectioners' sugar
2 cups flour
For the icing
½ cup confectioners' sugar
Milk
Food coloring, red and green
Preparation
Cream butter or shortening; add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix to a soft dough. Pat or roll out on lightly floured board to ¼ inch thickness.
Cut with cookie cutters. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar on top of each cookie.
Bake on an ungreased baking sheet in a 325-degree oven for about 20 minutes, until brown.
Allow cookies to cool fully, then top with green and red icing.
To make icing, mix sugar with 1 tablespoon milk, then stir. Icing should be thin but not runny. Add more sugar if it's runny, more milk if it's too thick. Add desired food coloring drops and stir well.
Makes 2 to 3 dozen.
Source: Peggy Stark
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