Babushka Cookies
♥Ingredients♥
4 eggs
14 oz (400g) sugar
22 oz (625g) all purpose flour
12 oz (340g) softened butter
1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
1/3 oz (9g) baking powder
1/5 oz (6g) salt
1. Cream until smooth the sugar and butter.
2. Mix in vanilla and eggs.
3. Add the salt, baking powder, and flour. Stir really well.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough between 1 hour and overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Flour work surface and roll out dough approximately ¼ to ½ inch thick.
6. If you don’t already have a babushka cookie cutter (who does?), have no fear! Download and print this template, roll out the dough, place the pattern on top, and cut around it with a knife. Gently lift and place on baking tray. If you are planning to make hundreds of cookies, build a cookie cutter out of an aluminium foil tray.
7. Bake cookies for 5 to 8 minutes depending on the power of your stove. I seem to have an old super stove, so baking time is always less.
8. Allow cookies to cool. (If using a tray and making multiple batches, go wild and slide the cookies off the pan as soon as it comes out of the oven or better yet, use greaseproof paper and just lift them off the tray. Reline the tray with more paper and you’re ready for another batch.)
♥Decoration♥
Toothpick
Sugar paste
Gel food colors
Silver balls
Small paint brush
Wilton’s floral garland cutter/ejector set
9. Now for the really, really fun part, you will need to make colored sugar paste to embellish the babushka. We suggest using gel food colours (rather than liquid) because they do not change the consistency of the sugar paste.
10. Visualize how you would like to decorate your cookies and knead color into sugar paste. Be careful not to mix a huge batch of yellow paste and then realize you only need that for the centers of a few flowers. While you’re working, keep paste in a seal tight box or under plastic so it doesn’t dry out.
11. I like to cut hair first. To do this, I locate something in my kitchen with a round bottom (no, not your boyfriend) that is the right size for the babushka face. I used the bottom of a cupcake sprinkles container.
12. Roll out paste (hair color) approximately ¼ inch thick, position container on top, cut around the circle with a knife, then cut so hair appears to be in a sweeping parting (see photo).
13. Roll out different colored paste and cut with a knife around the babushka headscarf pattern. Size pattern to cookie first as cookie may have expanded. If it has, just cut the headscarf a little bigger. Use the same bottom of the container you used to cut the hair and cut out a hole for the head.
14. Position hair and headscarf over it. Hair should fit exactly in the opening of the scarf.
15. Cut from sugar paste the bottom of her dress. Remember to measure pattern to cookie before cutting because you may need to cut a larger piece.
16. Dip a toothpick in a dark gel color and paint face directly onto the cookie.
17. For the flower embellishment around her hair and dress, we used Wilton’s floral garland cutter/ejector set to quickly stamp out the flowers, bows, and doves from sugar paste. Use a small paint brush to add a drop of water, corn starch, or Royal icing to the back of the flower and stick it to the cookie.
18. Add silver sugar balls to the center of each embellishment with a bit of water or Royal icing.
Please Note...
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Contents
Letters from London
History of Russian Dolls
Babushka Christmas Stocking
Christmas Bloom Stocking
A Rebel Christmas Stocking