Thanksgiving Cookies!

Happy World Kindness Day!  What is a sweeter way to show someone you care than to make them some on theme cookies? Today’s blog is all about Thanksgiving cookies and a special book that is all about kindness (and Thanksgiving).  One of my favorite parts about the holiday season is all the great books that you get to re-read year after year.  In New York, the Strand used to have people from WNYC  stage read the Christmas Carol every December, they even served little cookies and the event was free!   It was then that I realized how central literature is to keeping traditions alive and creating a a shared culture.  After having kids, I can’t imagine Halloween without reading Eve Bunting’s Scary, Scary Halloween (all her holiday books are unexpected and really great!) or Hallo-wiener (yes, it feels like Dav Plikey lives in our house, we have so many of his books on constant rotation).  And Christmas doesn’t start until we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Richard Scarry’s The Night Before the Night Before Christmas (Mr. Frumble might as well live here, too).  But Thanksgiving?  Thanksgiving is meant for The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz! My mom found this instant classic at a grocery store, of all places, when my first son was super little.  The story is so charming, so dramatic, and so sweet that it makes you love and appreciate the ones you are with even more each time you read it with them.  It is the Ugly Duckling for our times, but even better, even more packed with the power of kindness.  These cookies honor the kooky-ness of the book and the smiling faces on all the squash by the end of the book.  I hope everyone has the chance to find their own “patch” in life, and also to remember that sometimes when people fit in too much, they end up in a pie!  If you want to make your own Ugly Pumpkin Cookies, just use a large bone shaped cookie cutter for the main character, or just free cut.  I made his dangly legs using licorice  (stuck on with frosting in the back) and painted on the smiles, the skeleton’s face and the dark outlines found in the book’s illustrations with vodka and gel food coloring.   If you happen to have an apple cookie cutter, please do not throw it at the squash!  They have enough to worry about as it is.  If you have kids, seriously, get this book today and make a new Thanksgiving tradition.  Oh my gosh, it is a good one!

            Also, all over the internets I have been seeing too cute for words pumpkin pie cookie circles.  These could not be easier to make!  Just roll out your sugar cookie dough really big, trace a large plate (or pie plate or big bowl lid) with a knife and then cut that circle into slices with a pizza cutter, but leave the cookie whole and don’t pull them apart.  Bake the cookie for about 12 minutes, or golden, and then slice over your first slice marks while it is still warm out of the oven.  I pulled the cookies apart at this point for them to cool.  Then just frost with orange royal icing (RI) (you can even sprinkle cinnamon over the RI once it has cooled or extra depth and flair).  Add the crust and dollop of whip cream with piped on buttercream tinted beige and left white, respectively.  I used a leaf tip for the crust and a star tip for the whipped cream.  Then stand back and admire your cutie-pie pie cookies! Lots of people add a cookie in the middle that says something sweet like gather, or gobble, gobble or give thanks.  This cookie pie would be a great way to let a friend know you are thankful for their kindness and friendship. 

For an easy way to decorate turkey cookies, turn to feathering (no pun intended!) Have your accent colors ready to pipe with the tiniest of holes cut off the end of the piping bag, flood your turkey with your base color and immediately pipe lines of the accent colors, then immediately drag a toothpick or knife gently through the lines, the colors will pull and feather and end up looking all fancy pants-y,  For the smaller turkey below, I just dragged the lines in opposite directions to get the more zig zagged pattern- but mess around with swirls and pulling drops and just have fun, with this fall palette they all turn out looking festive and welcoming.

            If you are after a real pie for thanksgiving, please check out the bakery button at top and put in an order today for porch pick up at Thanksgiving!  We always regret the pies we didn’t get to gobble up!