March of the Penguins

Martha Stewart and I go way back. I send her money and she sends me magazines. It's a dysfunctional relationship that makes me feel totally inadequate. Martha's homes are beautifully decorated and she never burns anything except maybe trimmings from her garden. In short, Martha's perfect. That's why when I received my subscription renewal gift I was pleasantly surprised (and secretly vindicated) when Martha had screwed up. I was supposed to receive a snowflake cookie cutter which would enable me to create fabulous snowflake cookies each delicately and painstakingly iced and decorated. Instead I received a penguin cookie cutter with instructions on how to make penguin cookies. As I about to toss the box in the trash, I noticed a sticker on the side with an apology note stating that the snowflake cookie cutter was no longer available. Damn, she even had the forethought to apologize for running out of a free gift. She is perfect after all.

I looked at the tiny picture of the decorated penguin cookies and thought, "hey, I can do this." The sugar cookie recipe is pretty basic and easy to make. The key is in the decoration.

Sugar Cookies
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Add flour mixture, mix on low until thoroughly combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, separating into two equal size pieces and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to thickness of 1/8th inch. Using cookie cutter, cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets, refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until edges brown slightly. Cool on wire racks. Decorate as desired.

Royal Icing
2 large egg whites
1 pound confectioners' sugar
food coloring and/or sanding sugar

Beat egg whites, sugar, and 2 t water on low speed for 10 minutes. For thicker icing continue to beat 2 or 3 minutes more. Transfer to smaller bowls and add food coloring as desired. If icing is too thick, add a drop or two of water to thin.

I decided to stick with standard penguin colors, black and white. I saw March of the Penguins and know they live a difficult life. Decorating them in bright colors just didn't seem right. I cheated a bit and bought a tube of black icing for creating the penguin eyes.

I filled a plastic sandwich bag with icing and cut a tiny hole in one corner of the bag. Voila, an instant disposable pastry icing bag. The royal icing piped on nicely and didn't run all over the place. I had gotten the thickness just right. I sprinkled some with black sanding sugar, some with white sanding sugar and some I just iced the whole cookie white. I then started to get creative by adding a bow tie, tuxedo buttons, and small flippers to complete the cookies. I propped them up using an empty egg carton flipped over and dusted with confectioners' sugar.

My cookies only vaguely resembled Martha's professionally decorated and photographed cookies but I didn't care. These were my own interpretation and I think they turned out rather well.