Silver Bells — A Carol Box Off-Season Bake

Mid-February. Married two months. Dustin’s low-carb shift is at three weeks. The household has been on the small steady Sunday-cooking rhythm that February has produced.

Sunday I made silver bells because Mama and Kathy had been comparing notes on holiday-cookie recipes during the Sunday-after-Thanksgiving phone call, and Kathy had asked Mama for Carol’s silver-bell recipe, and Mama had mailed Kathy a copy on a fresh recipe card last week. Mama had also mailed me a copy. The card was on my counter Wednesday. Saturday I had pulled the ingredients.

Silver bells are Carol’s 1973 brown-sugar shortbread cookies cut into bell shapes and dusted with silver sanding sugar. The cookies are normally a Christmas-cookie but Carol had made them at the rental house in March 1985 (per Mama’s memory) as a small spring-into-holiday-mood gesture, and the off-season-bake is the kind of thing Mama and Carol had passed between them across the years. The cookies: brown sugar, butter, vanilla, flour, salt, baking powder, rolled, chilled, cut, dusted with silver sanding sugar, baked. Three dozen cookies. Twelve for Mama (drove over Sunday afternoon), six for Kathy (mailed Monday), eighteen for the apartment counter.

Dustin had a short week at the shop. The small auto-shop rhythm continues to be the small steady-income-source the small family-of-three-soon-to-be-three has built around. Bobby is reasonable. The shifts are predictable. The work is the work.

Aunt Linda came over Tuesday for the small two-hour visit. She held Brayden (or in earlier weeks, sat with me while I prepped). She brought a small Aunt-Linda-thing — a small handmade card, a small jar of preserves from her late-summer-garden, a small pressed-flower bookmark. The visits have become the small Tuesday-rhythm that has held the year together.

Silver Bells

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 32 minutes (plus chilling) | Servings: About 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for rolling
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)
• Silver or white sparkling sugar, for finishing

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar. Beat softened butter and powdered sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
2. Add extracts. Mix in vanilla and almond extracts until combined.
3. Add dry ingredients. With the mixer on low, gradually add flour and salt, mixing just until the dough comes together. Fold in chopped walnuts if using. The dough will be soft.
4. Chill the dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until firm enough to handle.
5. Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Shape the cookies. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Gently press the top of each ball slightly flat, or leave round for a dome shape. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar.
7. Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the bottoms are just barely golden and the tops look set but not browned. Do not overbake — they should stay pale.
8. Cool and finish. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. While still slightly warm, dust with additional powdered sugar if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 78 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 8g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 14mg