Decorated Christmas Cutout Cookies

Christmas. The Mountain View house was packed. The kitchen was loud and bright. Lumpia. Pancit. Lechon kawali. Bibingka. Puto bumbong. The smells were the inheritance. I took a photo of Lourdes at the stove and put it on the blog without caption. None was needed.

Lourdes is 75. She is slower. She still cooks. She still tells me to find a husband even though I have one. Joseph and Suki sent photos of the kids this week.

I made bibingka Sunday. The pandan leaves, the coconut, the salted egg, the cheese on top. The dessert that is also a small church.

I wrote the blog post Friday night at the kitchen table while Reyna napped on the couch. The post was short. The post was honest.

Angela came over Saturday with the kids. We cooked. We argued about pancit proportions — she uses more soy, I use more calamansi. We are both wrong, according to Lourdes.

I sat at the kitchen table Sunday night with the bowl in front of me. The bowl was warm. The bowl was the prayer.

A reader from New Jersey wrote in about her grandmother's adobo, which used pineapple. I had never heard of pineapple in adobo. I tried it. It was strange. It was also good. The strange and the good are not opposites.

Pete and I had a long phone conversation Tuesday. We talked about the family — his and mine. The talking was the keeping.

I taught a Saturday morning Kain Na class on basic adobo proportions for new cooks. Eleven people in the kitchen. Half of them had never cooked Filipino food before. By eleven AM the kitchen smelled the way it should smell. By noon they were all eating. The eating was the lesson landing.

A blog reader sent me a photograph of her grandmother's wooden mortar and pestle, used since 1962. The photograph was holy. I wrote her back. The writing back is the work.

The light was good Saturday morning. I sat on the porch with a cup of coffee and watched the inlet for forty minutes. The watching was the small therapy. The therapy was free.

Lourdes called me twice this week. The first call was about a church event. The second was about a recipe variation she had remembered from her childhood. The remembering was the gift.

I drove the Glenn Highway out to Eklutna on Saturday. The mountains were the mountains. The lake was the lake. The body needed the open road. The open road did its work.

I took a walk on the coastal trail Saturday. The light was good. The body was tired but moving.

I had a long phone call with Dr. Reeves on Wednesday. We talked about pacing and rest and the way the body keeps a log of what it has carried. Dr. Reeves said, "Grace. The body remembers. The mind forgets. The cooking is the bridge." I wrote the line down. The line is now on a sticky note above the kitchen sink.

I read a chapter of a novel before bed each night this week. The novel was about a Filipina nurse in California. The novel was good. The novel was, in some way, my own life adjacent.

The neighbors invited us over for a small dinner Thursday. They are an Iñupiaq family — Aana and her grandson Joe. We ate caribou stew and rice. I brought lumpia. The kitchens of Anchorage have always been the small UN. The food is the proof.

I made tea late at night. The tea was the small comfort. The comfort was the marker.

Bibingka is the dessert that is also a small church — that’s what I wrote, and I meant it. But Christmas at the Mountain View house is never just one thing. It is the lechon and the lumpia and the puto bumbong and, always, something sweet at the end of the table that the kids reach for first. This year I made Decorated Christmas Cutout Cookies alongside the bibingka, and watching Angela’s kids press the cutters into the dough reminded me that the making is the gift — not just the eating. Lourdes approved. That is the only review that matters.

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes (plus 1 hour chilling) | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons whole milk
Royal Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons meringue powder
5–6 tablespoons warm water
Gel food coloring (red, green, and white suggested)
Sprinkles or sanding sugar, for decorating

Instructions

Make the dough. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until a soft dough forms.
Chill. Divide the dough into two discs, wrap each in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. Cold dough holds its shape during baking.
Preheat and roll. Heat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll one disc of dough to 1/4-inch thickness.
Cut the shapes. Press Christmas cookie cutters (stars, trees, snowflakes, or your favorites) firmly into the dough. Transfer cutouts to the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Re-roll scraps and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake. Bake 9–11 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden. Do not overbake — the centers will look slightly underdone when you pull them out. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Make the royal icing. Beat powdered sugar, meringue powder, and 5 tablespoons warm water together until smooth and glossy, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining tablespoon of water a little at a time to reach your desired consistency — thicker for outlining, thinner for flooding. Divide into small bowls and tint with gel food coloring as desired.
Decorate. Pipe or spread icing onto completely cooled cookies. Add sprinkles or sanding sugar while the icing is still wet. Let icing set fully, at least 1 hour at room temperature, before stacking or storing.
Store. Keep decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature, with parchment between layers, for up to 1 week.

Nutrition (per serving)

Decorated Christmas Cutout Cookies — The Sweet Work of Keeping