St. Nicholas’ Feast Day!

Today is St. Nicholas’ Feast Day, and we celebrated by reading books about the saint and making spiced cookies using my wooden cookie mold. I bought this cookie mold from an Amazon Artisan last year and love it so much it has been hanging on my kitchen wall year-round reminding me to be generous like St. Nicholas was. Tomorrow, I will post a couple of children’s books that mention St. Nicholas, but today I wanted to share cookie recipe with you in case you wanted to whip up a batch of your own. You can use cookie cutters to make these into delicious cutout cookies, if you would like, and I’ve included both options. Now to the yummy recipe!

Spiced Cookies

Yield: 16 medium (3″) or 10 large (5″) cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 c. light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cover two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer or a large bowl, beat the butter, 1/2 c. flour, and brown sugar until fluffy, about 8 min.

3. Add the heavy cream, extracts, and egg yolks and beat until combined, about 3 min.

4. In a large bowl, mix the remaining 2 1/2 c. flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder, and salt. Stir this into the batter mixture until a soft dough forms.

5. If making cutout cookies, flour the counter surface and roll dough to 1/4″ thickness. Then, cut the cookies out using the cookie cutters and lay them spaced apart and not touch on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Then, skip to Step 8. If using a cookie mold, generously flour the mold so that the dough will come out easily. (I loved watching the features of the mold “pop” out once I coated them in flour!)

6. Take the dough and push it into the mold little pieces at a time. Children will love this part because it is like playing with great smelling, playdough and also good for strengthening their fingers and hands.

7. Once the carved portion of the mold is completely covered, press down on the back so all the pieces come together. Then, holding the mold over the parchment covered backing sheet, flip it over. If you have floured your mold well, the dough should come right out. If it doesn’t give it a tap or two on the back. Dust off any excess flour and re-flour your mold for the next cookie. Continue until all dough is used.

8. Bake large cookies for 14 minutes and medium-sized cookies for 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be a golden brown when fully cooked.

9. Place cookies on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled cookies can be iced. We left some plain and iced others and received rave reviews for both!

Check out my blog post on two picture books that will go perfectly with these cookies: https://hideawayhearts.com/2023/12/08/two-tales-of-st-nicholas/ . If you make these cookies as an extension activity, be sure to surprise a friend with them or share them with a neighbor. I left a couple on our neighbors porch table as a surprise treat on this St. Nicholas Day; I wonder if they have discovered them yet!