Christmas Cut Out Cookies

December 2022. Christmas approaching, the house decorated, the cookie rotation underway. Ethan started at the restaurant in November — sous chef position, working five nights a week, coming home smelling like a professional kitchen and full of technical questions that I try to answer and sometimes can't because he's already past what I know about restaurant-scale cooking. I find this delightful. My son has exceeded my technical knowledge and I am his mother and that is exactly how it's supposed to go.

Mason's interest in culinary school has shifted slightly — he came home from the intensive with the sense that he wants to know the business side as well as the cooking side, that opening a restaurant like Ethan's dream requires more than good technique. He's been reading books about restaurant operations. He's fifteen. He has a reading list for a career he won't start for years.

The book has been given as a Christmas gift, I've been told by multiple people. Susan says holiday sales are strong. Someone mentioned it at church and said they'd given three copies to family members and I had the specific experience of being recognized in public in a context that felt genuinely strange and kind simultaneously. The person didn't want anything, just said: "It helped me. I wanted you to know." That's the whole reason.

Christmas Eve beef tenderloin, the good wine, the candles, the family around the table. Ethan home for the evening before going to the restaurant the next day — they're open Christmas Day for families without somewhere to go. He said, "I wanted to cook for people who needed somewhere to be." And I thought: there it is. There's the thing that passes through families like a river, from my grandmother's kitchen to mine and now to his. He's going to feed people who need somewhere to be. He learned it from watching.

Every year the cookie rotation starts before the tenderloin is even ordered, before the good wine is pulled from the rack — and this year, with Ethan home for one evening and Mason deep in his restaurant operations books, I wanted something on the counter that felt like the beginning of everything. These Christmas cut out cookies are what my kitchen smells like in December. They’re what I imagine Ethan will someday make space for in whatever restaurant kitchen he runs, a small nod back to where it all started — not a beef tenderloin, but a cookie cutter and a little flour on the counter and someone watching and learning without knowing they’re learning.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 1 hr 40 min (includes chill time) | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp whole milk
For the icing:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3–4 tbsp whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Food coloring, sprinkles, or sanding sugar for decorating

Instructions

Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Combine. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
Chill the dough. Divide the dough in half, flatten each portion into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Preheat and roll. Preheat oven to 375°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll one disk of dough to about 1/4-inch thickness.
Cut and bake. Cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 8–10 minutes, until edges are just barely golden. Do not overbake — centers should look slightly underdone when you pull them out.
Cool completely. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool completely before icing, at least 20 minutes.
Make the icing. Whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth and pourable. Divide into small bowls and tint with food coloring as desired. Thin with additional milk for flooding; leave thicker for piping borders.
Decorate. Ice cookies and top with sprinkles or sanding sugar. Allow icing to set fully, about 30 minutes, before stacking or storing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Christmas Cut Out Cookies — The Cookie Rotation That Started It All