One in every of my first reminiscences of Christmas baking is watching my mother lower shapes out of sugar cookie dough, then ball up the scraps to roll out once more. Repeat this course of, and the ball of scraps will get smaller and harder. I didn’t have a lot endurance for it as a child, and now that I’m baking with my personal youngsters, we do issues a little bit in a different way. We contemplate the scraps to be cookies in their very own proper, and we bake them as-is.
The ensuing cookies are what I name “scrappies.” They’re irregularly formed, containing the outlines of gingerbread arms and snowman hats. I don’t ball them up and roll them out once more; I simply lower out the shapes I need (or have the youngsters do this step), and put the whole lot on a baking tray. The good cookies go on one tray, to be rigorously embellished and lovingly cared for till they are often served or gifted; and the scrappies go on the opposite facet, to be smeared with icing and devoured willy-nilly.
Credit score: Beth Skwarecki
The scrappies resolve a handful of minor issues all on the similar time. First, there’s the tedium of re-rolling the scraps right into a smaller and smaller canvas for cookies. This may take eternally, Zeno’s paradox type. If the youngsters are having enjoyable reducing them out, nice, however normally everyone is impatient to get on to the adorning and the consuming.
Second, there’s the truth that re-rolling doesn’t make for excellent cookies. As Allie Chanthorn Reinmann, our meals editor, instructed me, “re-rolling cookie dough greater than as soon as can overwork the combination, leading to stronger gluten growth. A stronger gluten community results in harder cookies, and never as a lot rise.” From a style and texture standpoint, you’re higher off baking the scraps as-is.
After which we get to the extra critical points, like how quickly the youngsters and I can eat the cookies we’re making. Do you simply chow down on an ideal gingerbread man? “By chance” break his head off? Wait till you see another person sneaking a chunk, after which declare that equity insists you get a cookie too? Or make the argument that you just’re not doing all of your due diligence as a chef except you style your creations early and sometimes?
No worries when you might have scrappies. The “good” cookies and the scrappies come out of the oven on the similar time. You’ll be able to break a scrappie to check its doneness. You’ll be able to pattern one to judge its taste and crunch. And, better of all, you might have a free provide of snacking materials and a check canvas for decorations. The 2-year-old desires to squeeze icing throughout one thing? She will squeeze it onto a scrappie. I’ll be doing the identical, making use of a squiggle of the excess onto a cookie that appears like a squiggle itself.
