No matter what your go-to cookie is for the holidays, these two are classics with tons of potential.
Oh, cookie baking.
Back in the day, my mom would try to do the whole cookie baking thing with me, but truth be told, she was never much for the patient process of rolling, cutting, re-rolling, re-cutting, and then baking all that cookie dough. No, as we got older, it soon became me who wanted to make the cookies, and Mom who was content to do other things (and thankfully, do a good deal of the clean-up after). That's fine, though, because that's the way I like engaging with this stuff, too: let me make the cookies, and let someone else take care of the clean-up.
Still, it was fun. I have lots of good memories of those classic, golden brown sugar cookies in all those holiday shapes. We only really ever did sugar cookies. And it was this year that I decided, hey, what the hell—why not try out another classic, too? In sugar cookies, with the sugar, vanilla, flour, egg, and butter, and in gingerbread cookies, with the molasses, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, there is a ton of potential to activate some really nice magic, and to have some festive fun in the kitchen.
This month, we're putting two recipes in one blog, and wishing you a big old happy holidays along with it. So let's take a look with a couple recipes from Sugar Spun Run and Sally's Baking Recipes!
Magic in Sugar Cookies
So, with a recipe so basic, there aren't many places you can go to draw the magic from in terms of ingredients. However, while we're used to looking at herbs and spices for magic, now's a good time to once again remind you that if a food is made out of more than air, there's magic in there waiting to be drawn out. (Hell, air alone is magical, so... ay!) But when it comes to sugar cookies specifically, we know that vanilla and sugar together are a baller combination for all things love and sweetness, while butter and flour have long been symbols of fertility, bounty, and abundance. And of course, the mysterious egg remains a great tool for rebirth, protection, and purification.
And remember: memories create magic, too! When I think of sugar cookies, I think of all those fun childhood memories: hanging out with mom, the Christmas music we'd play while baking, the many different shapes we'd cut out, and that warm, buttery flavor that reminded me of Christmas cheer. That is just as magical as any ingredient you put into the dough.
With the influences of Venus, Pluto, and the Moon, and a lot of water and earth energy, this is actually a really good cookie to invite lots of empathetic, grounding, and transformative energy into your holiday season. It's a combination that brings beauty, softness, and comfort, while also preparing you for the inevitable cycle of endings and new beginnings we're observing this time of year. Turns out that when you look a little deeper, the humble sugar cookie actually has a lot of potential for magic revolving around love, connection, and sweetened dispositions!
Magic in Gingerbread Cookies
This is where we get a little more traditional in where we're looking for our magic. We've talked about these spices many times, and the capabilities they bring to the table. After all, spices like cinnamon, ginger, clove, and allspice are sharp, fiery, and plenty protective, along with lucky and abundant. But adding molasses into the mix, which is just the byproduct left behind after processing things like sugarcane or sugar beet, you can also get a little transformative and economical in your magic, too. Taking a waste product and transforming it into the statement ingredient of a cookie, after all (as it's not gingerbread without molasses), hearkens back to the times of alchemy, where masters once sought to turn something common and near-useless like wood into a prize like gold. You, too, are turning a waste product into gold, and that transformation can be used to empower you in transforming other things in your life that you've outgrown, too.
Also consider that the shapes you use can do a lot. After all, the gingerbread man is in the shape of a man—a person. Sympathetic magic is extremely possible here, as you can make a gingerbread man that represents a person you'd like to bless, or create a little army of people if you're looking to manifest new friends into your life.
With the influences of the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Pluto, as well as raw fire energy with only a touch of water, this is your war-cry cookie. Classic, yet festive. Delicious, yet spicy! If you were looking to amp up your spirits for one last hurrah and create a fire that'll become the forge of your future, helping you smelt down the old and shape it into the new. That little touch of water will help you keep in tune with your emotional, intuitive side, giving you a directional force to point all this creative and powerful energy, and that little wink of Pluto among all this Sun and Mars will inspire the courage to level any restrictive structures and rebuild from the rubble.
Sugar Cookie Recipe (from Sugar Spun Run)
Prep time: 2.5 hrs
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Makes about 40 cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon table salt
(Optional) Replace 50g of sugar with 1 packet of vanilla sugar!
Directions:
Beat butter and sugar together, then add the rest of your wet ingredients and beat until smooth.
Whisk dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet until you have a fully blended dough.
Once you have a cohesive ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 2 hours.
Once the dough is firm (but not rock hard and impossible to roll out), preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Roll out the dough afterwards to either 1/4th an inch (if you like them soft) or 1/8th an inch (if you like them crispy).
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
Let cool and, if you have an icing you want to use, wait for them to cool completely before decorating. (I personally detest decorating them because I always end up sticky and with goofy looking cookies.)
Gingerbread Cookie Recipe (from Sally's Baking Recipes)
Prep time: 2.5 hrs
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Makes about 25 cookies
Ingredients:
3 and 1/2 cups (440g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
10 Tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
2/3 cup (160ml; about 200g) unsulphured or dark molasses
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Deadass? It's the same instructions as the sugar cookie. They are basically both the same type of cookie, but one has some extra zest in it. Enjoy!
Christmas cookie baking is something I have so much fun with. I usually love making Linzer Plaetzchen, an Austrian cookie sandwich full of delicious raspberry jam and with those iconic cut outs in the middle. There's also Medenjaki, a Slovenian take on a gingerbread type cookie that's actually full of honey and orange zest (hence the name, as med means honey). No matter what cookie you bake, though, remember—the magic is in the love you put into baking them, no matter what ingredients you put inside. ♥
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Sara Raztresen is a Slovene-American writer, screenwriter, and Christian witch. Her fantasy works draw heavily on the wisdom she gathers from her own personal and spiritual experience, and her spiritual practice borrows much of the whimsy and wonder that modern society has relegated to fairy-and-folktale. Her goal is to help people regain their spiritual footing and discover God through a new (yet old) lens of mysticism.
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