My Twelves Days of Christmas Cookies (Martha Stewart)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Twelve Drummers Drumming
Eleven11 Pipers Piping
Ten Lords-a-Leaping
Nine Ladies Dancing
Eight Maids-a-Milking
Seven Swans-a-Swimming
Six Geese-a-Laying
Five Gold Rings
Four Colly Birds
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

This is another Christmas song that I like to sing while doing my Christmas baking.  With too much of this song, I think that I'm having difficulties getting this out of my head... HELP! Strangely, I'm baking a part of this music now. LOL!

Originally, I was thinking of using the Christmas tags that I bought from Esty (A Touch of Gray) as stencils to decorate my cookies but ended tracing the designs onto the cookies with royal icing. We love these Christmas-y cookies and again... we can't stop singing this song while eating our cookies.

My family and I will be going to Sydney for small break and will be back again in early January 2013 for more baking and cooking.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

This is me baking with a little Christmas music...

Making the cookie dough

The messy me baking these cookies

Now, I need to decorate these cookies.

Sad to see my yucky stencil cookies!

These look better...

Merry Christmas, everybody!!!

Here's the recipe from Martha Stewart
(with my notes and modification in blue)

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup ground cinnamon 
(1/2 cup! I reckon this is an error and have used 1/2 tsp instead of 1/2 cup)
Salt
3 sticks unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract 
royal icing
confectioners' sugar or luster dust

Sift flour, cocoa, cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt into a large bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, and beat until combined. Divide dough in half, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hr. 

Preheat oven to 350°F . Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out cookies in desired shapes using cookie cutters, and transfer to baking sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 mins. (I skipped this step and proceed on baking after cutting)

Bake until crisp, but not dark, 8 to 10 min. Transfer cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.

Note: Using half of the recipe, I have cut 48 cookies with a 58mm fluted round cutter and baked them at 160°C fan forced for 8 mins.

Punch desired shape out of stiff paper using a craft punch. Hold stencil over 1 cookie, and brush a thin layer of icing over exposed surface using a small food-safe paintbrush. Holding stencil in place, gently sift confectioners' sugar over cookie through a fine sieve to evenly coat exposed surface. Lift stencil, and return cookie to wire rack. Repeat with remaining cookies. Let dry.  

Note: I tried the stencil decorating method but reckon that my stencil cookies look really yucky. And so, I drew the shape of Twelves days of Christmas characters with royal icing and decorated them with some Christmas sprinkles.

Happy Baking and Merry Christmas
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