Greetings from Portland, Oregon!

This week, I have the pleasure of meeting my gorgeous new baby niece – Scarlet Lucy.

My whole family is out on the west coast enjoying some pre-Christmas joy and eating some delicious food. Yesterday, a few of us lunched at a little seafood restaurant right on Lake Oswego.

Last night, all 8.5 of us enjoyed a delicious Italian meal at Enzo’s. Enzo is a lovely man who is from the same region in Italy as my family – Puglia – the back side / heel of the “boot” that runs along the Adriatic sea. Many of the menu items are specialties from the area. I had the Pesto di Lecce Orignale, which is penne served with fried potatoes, fresh tomatoes, and a rich pesto that is made with a touch of cream. Yum!

I know, I know – “Get to the cookies, already!”

Before I left the east coast, I wanted to use up the rest of the royal icing from my last batch of cookies.  So I decided to make Sweet Sugarbelle’s brown sugar roll-out cookies and get my Christmas cookie on. Unlike her regular sugar cookies, this recipe does require that the dough be refrigerated for a bit, so plan accordingly. Here goes!

Brown Sugar Roll-Outs (makes 2 1/2 dozen)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 c. dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. milk, half and half, or orange juice (I used almond milk)
• 2 tsp. extract or emulsion (I used orange and vanilla)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• dash ground cloves

Directions:

1. In your standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, extract, and milk/orange juice. Add liquid ingredients to the mixer and mix until fluffy.
3. Sift together dry ingredients and add a cup at a time until all of the dry mixture is incorporated. The dough should be soft but not sticky. If it’s sticky, add flour little by little until it isn’t. I wound up adding a good bit more flour here.
4. Divide dough into three parts, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into shapes, dusting lightly with flour as needed.
6. Bake 375F for 8-10 minutes until tops are not shiny. My oven is freakishly fast, so I wound up baking them only 4-5 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie.

The flavor of these cookies is like a very subtle gingerbread with a dose of orange. I think they’re a really nice complement to the standard sugar cookie, because they’re a little less straight-up-sugary, but they can also be festively decorated.

Confession: I also stole this holly-cookie-out-of-a-maple-leaf-cutter from the one and only Sweet Sugarbelle. Hers look AMAZING! My royal icing was clearly too thin (and therefore not a perfect outline) at that point, so I think they will be better next time with a little adjustment.

I’m super excited to make these again this holiday season! And of course, I brought a bunch of them with me to share with my family after dinner tonight. Enjoy!