The holiday season is here again! I always wonder what to do for my friends during this time. It seems that everyone I know celebrates something different and that can make things tricky when it comes to gift giving. Traditionally I make cookies for everyone I know as an easy way to give gifts without breaking the bank. I tend to shy away from cut out cookies because this requires picking a shape and I want to make sure that I don't accidentally give someone cookies in the shape of a holiday they don't celebrate. This year I hit on a great idea for cut out shapes that I know all of my friends will enjoy! I decided to make some classic Mario cookies that any gamer would love. The following is a guide on how to make the red and green mushrooms from Mario as well as the super star.

Here is the basic cookie recipe I used to make the dough:

4 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 lb. softened butter
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. milk

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add butter, eggs, vanilla and milk, mix well. Turn on to floured board or pastry sheet. Roll out with rolling pin and cut with your favorite shape cookie cutter. You will need to flour board occasionally. Place on un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees until lightly browned. Find the original recipe here.

The dough will be very hard to mix at the end as it needs to be a very dry and smooth dough. Make sure to get all the dry ingredients mixed in well. If you have to use your (washed and clean) hands to finish mixing the dough. To make it easier to work with put the dough in the fridge covered in saran wrap for about an hour.

You will want to put some flour down on the surface you are going to roll the dough out on so it doesn't stick. You will have flour everywhere by the time you are done so don't worry about the mess just now. You don't want the dough to be sticky at all. It should be very smooth. If it is sticky (mine was the first time I made it) sprinkle some additional flour on the dough and kneed it in. Now its time to roll out the dough!

Take about half the dough and place on counter (or whatever you are rolling it out on). Using your rolling pin roll the dough out so its about a quarter of an inch thick. The important thing is to try and keep the thickness even across the dough. To make the stars I used a basic star shaped cookie cutter. To make the mushrooms I had to get a little more creative. I am sure there is a mushroom shaped cookie cutter out there but I couldn't find it when I went shopping so I made the mushroom shapes by hand.



Take a drinking glass (or round cookie cutter) and cut out the circle shape. Then you will cut a rectangular strip which you will use for the stem. Cut the circle in half and attach to half circle (see picture). Rub the edges together so the stem and top stay together. Round the edges of the shape until it looks like the Mario mushroom. Repeat until you have cut out a bunch. Now your ready to bake!



Place the cookies on your un-greased cookie sheet. I recommend the air bake type sheets (seen in picture) as they are much less likely to burn your cookies. Make sure your oven is at the right temperature! If you are like me and have a fussy oven you will want to invest in an oven thermometer. This way you will know how hot your oven really is. Put the cookies in the oven and bake! They do not take long to bake, I would say 8-10 minutes. I don't recommend setting a timer and walking away though! Watch these cookies and when the edges are just brown take them out to cool. Let them sit for a minute on the sheet before using a spatula to move them to a counter (or even better a cooling rack) to cool off. Let the baking sheet cool for a minute before putting more cookies on. If its too hot the dough will deform a bit and your shape wont hold as well.





Now its time to frost them! Make sure the cookies are completely cool before frosting! I used Pillsbury light and fluffy frosting which worked well but took a long time to harden. I would recommend making your own frosting using 10X baking sugar. How to make the frosting is on the back of the bag. Use food coloring to make your colors. Remember the food coloring is a dye and will stain things! Mix up some red, green and yellow frosting. I did the red and green tops first on the mushrooms, waited for it to harden, and then added the white stems and spots. Obviously frost the stars yellow. I did not add the faces onto the cookies but this can easily be done with a tube of black decorating frosting.





Now comes the best part! Admiring your beautiful creations before they are eaten! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!