Food: Nutmeg Cookies

Nutmeg cookies are a Christmas tradition I started 3 years ago, after having bought a giant book of Christmas cookie recipes.  They are simply a sugar cookie dough with 2 tsp of nutmeg added.  (For copyright concerns, I will not be including the actual recipe here.)  The cookies themselves are flavorful, crumbly, tender, and delicious.  The dough smells amazing as you handle it.  The house smells amazing as you bake them.  And the recipe makes one veritable ton of cookies.  You can get the book here and bake nutmeg cookies to your heart's content.  They call them "Nutmeg Bells" but I didn't have a bell-shaped cookie cutter, so I used my favorite star cookie cutter instead.

Yesterday I made the dough.  Today I rolled it out, cut the cookies out, and baked them.  Then I frosted them after dinner.  Here is a small sampling of them.  I couldn't bring myself to frost stars in any color other than yellow, and I am a lazy cookie decorator, so they get just a simple icing of corn syrup, confectioners sugar, milk, and almond extract.

The icing recipe?  Easy:

• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp milk
• corn syrup, enough to make it icing-y (I'd guess a scant quarter cup)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• food coloring of your choice - a few drops

Stir together until it turns into icing.  Use immediately.  It dries hard and shiny, but takes at least overnight to dry.  The color stays bright too.