Everybody eats: Mailing Christmas cookies is tricky work

I don't mail cookies, or any homemade treats, that often.

I've been known to deliver plates of food to friends and neighbors, or pack a container of something sweet when visiting someone, but if I mail a food package, the items are store-bought. The reason for this is I want the treats to look pretty, even if I didn't make them.

Yes, that's odd, but we all have our quirks. I am, after all, the same woman who accidentally dumped a graham cracker pie shell into the garbage because I not-so-brilliantly decided to brush away the loose crumbs before I filled it with pudding.

(That moment is definitely on my Top 10 Kitchen Disasters List, but the sugar cookies my full-size Samoyeds used as chew toys remains No. 1.)

Recently, though, I received a tin of cookies from an old friend I'd reconnected with earlier this year. The act was so unexpected that I immediately started researching cookie recipes that stood the best chance of remaining intact on the trek to Minnesota. Chocolate Chip was the top choice, but I wanted something different. Then I remembered this recipe for Cornmeal Cookies.

I love recipes with variations that allow you to create several kinds of cookies with one batch. For my friend, I made the original recipe and the orange zest version. I packaged them in a sturdy box with plenty of bubble tape and sent them on their way, fingers crossed.

I included some candy - just in case.

CORNMEAL COOKIES

¾ cup salted butter, at room temperature

½ cup sugar

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Dried rosemary (optional)

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat well. Mix in the vanilla.

Stir together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add them a third at a time to the butter mixture and beat until incorporated. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and stick in the fridge until firm, about 1 hour.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured board to ¼-inch thick. Cut out cookies (any cookie cutter works; I went with a simple flower cookies cutter) and place them an inch apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle each top with a few pieces of rosemary, lightly pressing the herb to adhere.

Bake at 350 degrees until the edges start to turn golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. (Less if you use a small cookie cutter shape. I also did miniature Christmas trees and they were ready in about 8 to 10 minutes.)

You can add a citrus twist to these cookies in several ways:

Orange: Add the grated zest of one orange into the butter while mixing. The rosemary is optional. (I chose this option and the result is crisp, light cookie; perfect with tea.)

Lemon: Add the grated zest of ½ a lemon into the butter while mixing.

Lime: Add the grated zest of ½ a lime into the butter while mixing, and skip the rosemary garnish.

Source: The Cookiepedia: Mixing Baking, and Reinventing the Classics by Stacy Adimando (Quirk Books; Sept. 2011)