The Inside Scoop: Master Class with Emily Hutchinson
The kitchen was truly transformed into a winter wonderland last week with Emily Hutchinson from The Hutch Oven visited DŌ HQ how to bake and decorate Christmas cookies!
Emily was in NYC (all the way from Seattle) on her book tour for Creative Cookie Decorating which just came out in October. We picked a few of her favorite recipes from the book and made the dreamiest holiday cookies.
We started by making Emily’s Classic Sugar Cookie Recipe and she shared a time-saving tip – throw everything except the flour in the mixer and mix well! Yes, ALL THE INGREDIENTS AT ONCE! So simple!
Then, while our cookie dough was chilling, we started on her Crusting American Buttercream, which is incredibly important to Emily’s (and your) cookie-decorating success. Her recipe uses a mixture of butter and shortening, so it dries onto the cookies and your intricate designs won’t smear or smudge. Emily taught us all how to properly dye your icing (hint: use gel food coloring), and a magical little trick to get frosting into a piping bag without getting the inside of the piping bag dirty – a baker’s miracle!
Next, it was time for everyone to go to town on rolling and cutting out their cookies! We had a huge bucket of cookie cutters, but no surprise, most people stuck with the Christmas-themed ones like gingerbread men, Christmas trees, and snowflakes. Then we popped the cookies in the oven for a quick six minute bake.
While the cookies baked and cooled, Emily showed us her cookie decorating skills we’ve all seen on her Instagram account @the_hutch_oven! She knew all the tips both the piping kind and the actual advice to make sure our cookies looked holiday party ready. We decorated poinsettias, holly, mistletoe, mittens, wreaths, Christmas trees and more, all using techniques from Emily’s new book. After the buttercream, it was time to cover the cookies in sanding sugar, sprinkles, and shimmering gold balls, oh my!
We sipped on wine, laughed, nibbled on cookies, and of course Emily signed copies of her book for everyone in the class.
Now, in order for you to truly get the whole Emily Hutchinson experience, GO BUY HER BOOK!
And check back for our next masterclass in January – we’ll be announcing our host very soon!
PS – a portion of proceeds from each ticket were donated to Emily’s charity of choice: Seattle Children’s Hospital.
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