FOOD FUN: Burns Night Cookies

[1] Gingerbread men are not just for Christmas. Dress them up for other occasions, like Burns Night (photo courtesy Fancy Flours).

[2] Find a cartoon kilt online and print out copies for your cookies (photo courtesy Getty Images).

Burns Night is celebrated on January 25th in Scotland—and elsewhere by those of us who love to celebrate anything related to food.

It’s the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796). Family and friends gather for Burns Night, an evening of good food and company.

A traditional Burns’ Supper (Scottish supper) can consist of beef pie, cock-a-leekie soup, colcannon, haggis, nettles and tatties, smoked haddock and more.

But instead of the dinner, this year we’re celebrating with a Scotch tasting and these fun cookies, made with a gingerbread man cookie cutter and outfitted in paper kilts.

We’ll also read a poem or two; Burns’ most famous is Auld Lang Syne.

 
MAKE THE COOKIES

What you need:

 
Cookie Recipes

You can use any type of rolled cookie recipe (also called cutout cookies—(the different types of cookies).

Rolled cookies are those that are made from a stiffer dough that is chilled, rolled out and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Gingerbread and shortbread are two examples. Some recipes:

1. FIND a cartoon kilt image (like these). Copy and paste as many as you need onto a Microsoft Word (or similar) page; then print and cut out.

2. BAKE the cookies. Cool and use icing to make the face.

3. AFFIX the kilt to the cookie with a bit of icing or decorator gel.