Host: It’s time to get those kids entertained for the holidays so grab a few aprons and turn them into mommy’s little helpers. That’s what their new name is going to be called. We’ve got here the mother and daughter duo and authors of the Flour Pot Christmas Cookie Book, Margie Greenberg and Abbey Alpert are both here with some great holiday cookie recipes that your kids are actually going to go crazy for. I’m going crazy for them already so I know the kids will too. Welcome to the show.
Greenbergs: Thank you.
Host: So you guys have been working together for awhile now, mom and daughter right?
Greenbergs: Yes, a little over six years.
Host: Really, but you started a lot earlier with her in the kitchen right?
Margie: I did, Abbey used to pop up on our little counter in the kitchen at Butcher Block and she would be dipping her finger in while the mixer was going.
Abbey: Fingers in the batter, that was my task.
Margie: Lots of sprinkles all over the floor.
Host: So now, you guys have this cookbook out which is called the Flour Pot Christmas Cookie Book. This is your second book right?
Greenbergs: That’s correct.
Host: A lot of good recipes in there.
Margie: We have a chocolate recipe which is really, have you ever had the icebox cookies that come in that long pile? They’re fudgy and I really like those. And then we have our basic sugar cookie here which is very easy to make and ready to go in within an hour.
Abbey: And it freezes really well.
Host: Which is good. A lot of people like that. So they’re going to turn into these.
Margie: And kid friendly.
Host: Now, what the first step is obviously, you’ve baked the cookies, you’ve got the shapes, you use the cookie cutters. You use—I noticed that you don’t use icing. A lot of people do use icing, you use something different.
Margie: We have a product that is called fondant. It’s very much like Play Doh so it’s very kid friendly again. We dye it which is here with a food coloring, it’s a gel paste.
Host: And just roll that out and put it on—
Margie: We roll it out and cut it again with a cookie cutter and it’s ready to go.
Host: Much smoother finish than the icing right?
Margie: Yes, it’s got really smooth edges. You don’t have to worry about it dripping off the side.
Host: Now, let’s talk about some options. Because moms out there need some options. They want to steer away from the same old, same old. In terms of the decorations, what do we have here? What do you guys use?
Abbey: We really love to use all different kinds of accessories, is what we call them. And when we’re talking about working with kids in the kitchen, it’s really fun to use different kinds of candies. We use M&M, Jujubes’.
Margie: Here we’ve used nonpareils.
Abbey: Right nonpareils. We really like to think outside the box when it comes to cookie decorating so it doesn’t—you don’t have to run out and get M&Ms if you don’t have them on hand. Whatever you have in your pantry, it could be Cheerios.
Host: Kids will eat that.
Abbey: Yes, kids will eat anything.
Margie: One for me, one for you.
Abbey: So mom, can you start getting going with the decorating with one of them and—
Margie: I can, shall I start with the snowflake?
Host: Take your pick. And then Abbey, how do you get the kids going with this? How do you keep them entertained and what should they do versus what the adults should be doing?
Abbey: Obviously I think that the parents should do the baking ahead of time. When it comes to the decorating, I think that it’s most fun for the kids to be in charge of the different decorations and figure out what the placement of each candy.
Host: Baking itself can be challenging. Decorating even more challenging. Do you guys have, if you can give one or two secrets to people out there, what would it be?
Abbey: I think you just have to relax with it.
Margie: The dough has to be cold.
Abbey: the dough has to be cold but it’s just a cookie. If you don’t love it, you eat it. You give it away to somebody. So I think that when people have this idea that each cookie has to be exactly perfect, over time with practice, you’ll get to that real nice finished cookie.
Host: It looks good. I’d eat it. I don’t care, that looks fantastic. Thank you both so much for coming.
Greenberg: Thank you very much.
Host: And for other creative and delicious holiday cookie ideas, you can pick up the Flour Pot Christmas Cookie Book or to find the snowflake and the snowman recipes that you saw here, you can also go to our website, bettertv.com and click on the recipe button.