Clothespin Cookies

Here are my clothespin cookies. I grew up from 10-20 in Northeast Ohio. There were fantastic bakeries there and all of them made these cookies at Christmas time especially. It is an easy dough to make, you just have to follow a few simple steps to make them. I hope you try them; they are yummy and take me right back to my childhood.

First thing, take your clothespins and spray them good with pan spray, set them aside.

• 3 cups flour
• 1 stick softened butter (3 more softened for later, lb. all total)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 cup ice water

With a pastry blender, cut in the 1 stick of butter, then stir in the salt and the egg yolks, now add some of the ice water a little at a time to make a nice dough that is not too sticky. Now on a floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle, then spread a stick of butter over the dough, now fold 1 third of the dough over, then fold the other third over. Now cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Now repeat this process 2 more times till you use all the butter. Now on the final butter/fold step, refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Now take the dough out of the fridge and cut into 4 sections, as shown. Put the other 3 portions back into the fridge, only work 1 dough at a time. Roll out 1 portion, I actually rolled it long and narrow, the sliced the dough into about 1-inch-wide portions. Take a clothespin, a section of dough, gently stretch it as you roll it around the clothespin then set it on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment.

Keep rolling till you have rolled out all 4 sections of dough. when you have 2 trays ready, you can bake them while you roll and cut the rest.

Preheat your oven to 375*

Place the cookies into the hot oven and bake for 12 minutes. Check to see if you need to bake them a minute or 2 more.

When you get them out of the oven, let them cool for a minute or 2 then carefully pull them off the clothespin.

now let the shells cool.

Now it is time to make your filling.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• a few Tablespoons of milk

Place your butter and shortening into your mixer bowl. Whip together with your whisk attachment. Now add the sugar and vanilla. Whip well till light and fluffy. Add milk a little at a time till it is a texture you can pipe, but do not make it loose or it will run out of the shell.

Now put your fluffy filling into a piping bag with a big star tip. Fill the cookie shells by putting the tip into the end of the shell and squeeze. I also turn the little shell around and fill the other side if needed.

Now sprinkle with powdered sugar, I always use a sifter, those are invaluable tools in baking.

Now grab a cup of coffee, a few cookies and enjoy!