Open the cookie jar because we are about to fill it with colorful Christmas cookies and a bit shiny made by Flavia and Chiara (that is, my daughter and my niece)! Yes, for the last recipe of the year for Light and Tasty I recruited two helpers! 💪😊

After the Christmas cookies from a few years ago, decorated by a meticulous thirteen-year-old Flavia, and after those in two versions last year, these new Christmas cookies are the result of an afternoon a few weeks ago, when Christmas wasn’t yet very close. It was around the end of October, but Flavia wanted us to start feeling the holiday spirit, she wanted the Christmas spirit at all costs!
And so she arranged with Chiara to spend an afternoon together and get their hands into dough (shortcrust), and the result was a super production of delicious cookies decorated with plenty of colorful icing.

Don’t expect perfectly precise cookies with precise decoration (a nonexistent word in this house 😄), also because the goal was not to show the cookies to the world or make Christmas gifts, but just to fill the house with the scent of ginger and cinnamon to breathe in the Christmas air.
And especially to have a snack right after baking them. 😃

Then, looking at the cookies again (that is, the survivors post-snack) I noticed that in the window light… they sparkled!!
Wow!
But how did you make such a glaze???
Answer:
Ahhhh yes… we used… the wrong sugar!!

And at that moment I decided these had to be the right Christmas cookies for this year’s Christmas! 🤩

〰️ 〰️ 〰️

shiny Christmas cookies by Flavia and Chiara

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Cheap
Rest time: 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Christmas

Ingredients

👉 Flavia and Chiara made a double batch of spiced shortcrust pastry with ginger and cinnamon using a block of classic shortcrust for the first of the three following recipes + a block of oil-based shortcrust for the second recipe.
For those looking for a vegan alternative, I’ll leave you the link to the semi-wholemeal vegan shortcrust, which can also be spiced as desired. All three pastries turn out great. 😉

classic shortcrust pastry
shortcrust pastry without butter
vegan shortcrust pastry
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
granulated sugar
water
food coloring

Tools

Cookie Cutters for cookies
Baking Tray or baking sheet
Cooling Rack
Rolling Pin
Small Bowls

Preparation

Prepare the shortcrust pastry following your preferred recipe.

Add half a teaspoon (or more, if you like) of ground ginger and half of ground cinnamon to the dough.

Once you’ve formed the dough, place it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Roll out the dough. The thickness is up to preference, I usually go for half a centimeter (about 1/5 inch).

Cut the dough using cookie cutters, preferably Christmas-themed, but it’s not essential.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake them at 350°F (180°C) for about 15 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack.

At this point, prepare the icing:

The starting recipe is the basic water glaze (very simple and immediate, it’s the one we repeat most often) but compared to the recipe, Flavia and Chiara used granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar.

It was a distraction error that the girls realized when they noticed the sugar wasn’t dissolving as quickly as powdered sugar does. (But who cares, you can’t throw away a half-prepared glaze, right? we care about reducing waste! 😃).

Divide the glaze into several small bowls depending on how many colors you want to get.
Add a few drops of food coloring (in vials) to each bowl, mixing the colors as desired using the primary colors red, yellow, and blue (or better, cyan).

Apply the glaze to the cookies as you like.
The glaze with granulated sugar is coarser and becomes beautifully crunchy, and also a bit shiny. 😊

☝️ For the glaze, I didn’t give you the quantities of the ingredients because I really don’t know how much my girls made. But the water glaze is so simple and quick to prepare that it can be replenished in progress just as it runs out.
With this recipe, the Light and Tasty Team concludes the cycle of autumn recipes and takes a tiny break, as every year, for the Christmas holidays.
I wish Happy Holidays to all my colleagues in the Team, and on this occasion, I greet and hug Mary, from the blog An American Among the Bears, who with today’s recipe leaves the group (I hope only temporarily!) 💚

Below are all the Light and Tasty recipes for today, and see you on January 10th with the first Team recipe for 2022.
Carla: Artichoke Fillet
Daniela: Whole Wheat Orange Cookies
Elena: Christmas Candle Place Holder (Christmas finger food)
Franca: Holiday Dishes: Orange Pork Roast
Mary: Perch Terrine with Vegetables
Milena: Spiced Star Cake with Carrots and Walnuts
Serena: Quick Decorated Cookies
Merry Christmas to everyone!! 🎄🎄🎄