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DECEMBER 2007 

A Morning with a Cookie Guru

Updated December 6, 2007

I knew I was in trouble when I read the recipe, 'cookie cutting is something that not a lot of people do today, it takes a lot of time and patience.'  But really - how hard could it be?  Make a cookie dough, roll it out and cut shapes!

I found a cookie recipe that sounded yummy and got the oven warming.  

They suggested that you let the dough sit overnight before attempting to roll it out.  

No time for that...let's roll!  Or should I say - let's scrape the dough off the rolling pin one more time.  Then put the dough in the frig for a bit.  

A few hours later the dough rolls a bit better - well enough to roll out to the recommended depth - and its cutter time!  The cookie guru had given me these great little farm animal cutters about the size of a loonie coin when my daughter was young.  The average rollout of dough yielded several hundred little cats, chickens and horses.  Into the oven!  Get some more dough rolled out and then remove the burned cookies from the oven.  Cookies the size of a loonie take about 4 minutes to cook.  Not the usual 12.  

No problem - the next 100 chickens, dogs and rabbits will be better.  Right?

Hmmm, the second batch is sticking to the counter.  The dough has warmed from the frig and the buttery goo is adhered quite nicely to the surface of the counter.  Or sometimes, just for amusement, the dough just sticks in the cutter.  So when pulling the little dogs and rabbits out of the tiny cutters you pull off their legs and ears.    

Which just got me to thinking - what is wrong with round?  I like round things.  I like the sun and the moon.  I like big happy round faces and oranges and pretty round rocks.  And I really like round cookies.  

Were these cutters just decoration?  Were they given to us as a joke?  

'I didn't know which way to turn...a trip to the cookie cutter guru was my only hope.'

So I packed up the cutters and on one of the coldest days of the year so far - made my way to the home of a world reknowned cookie cutter guru - yes - right here in Jasper.  Strangely enough though - the only time the guru surfaces is in December.  

I dumped my meager array of animal cutters out on her table, they clattered down like used weapons from a crime scene.  She calmly smiled and began to roll - she began to roll dough that had been in the frig overnight.  Beautiful aromatic molasses dough, full of elasticity and supple to the touch.  She rolled it to a perfect depth - no matter what cutter we chose - the dough fell from the cutters onto the cookie sheets almost eagerly.   'How is this possible?  My dough stuck to the board and the cutters!'  

Silently she dusted her cookie board and left a small pile of flour aside for dipping the cutters.  If cookie making could be metaphor'd with ballet I was in the kitchen with Karen Kain. 

She worked at a pace that the camera could barely capture!

Her gingerbread men and her animal creations had all their limbs.  

Some literally rejoiced to be part of this magical day.  

The trays filled, into the oven, she even found time to check on them!  

The kitchen smelled of ginger and molasses.  

Geese, trees, stars, bears, dogs, cats, ponies (I even got her to make some round ones!) slide onto the pans and into the oven...and out to the butter creme icing!

The sun coming through the kitchen windows threw long warm shadows over the small army of cookies.  And just as silently and effortlessly as she had shown me the secrets of the cookie cutter process  - she was gone.  All that was left was the worn cotton apron swaying on the back of a chair. 

I collected my six tiny animal cutters. They no longer felt like the foreign kitchen wares that I had fought with the night before.   They jingled in the bag.  

(a true story - enhanced by sugar and the mystical joy of the season) 

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