Full disclosure, this recipe contains no products that can be found growing or produced on Carriage House Farm (though, we do sell local eggs at the on-farm store. . . still a stretch). But our family makes these cookies for Christmas every year.

They’re the kind of cookies that take time—mixing the dough, pinching off nobs, rolling out into snakes and then twisting up and brushing with egg whites before making it into the over. They’re not macarons or anything, but they require that kind of zen sinking into the repetitive motions of making and making and making.

What we love about that is that it’s a time to clear our heads and think. We remember Christmases past. We think about the people in our family who have made these before us and then handed down the tradition. And because these cookies are supposed to evoke the shape of a shepherd’s crook, it also makes us think of our favorite shepherd…

This one’s for you Valerie of Freedom Run Farm.

Ingredients

⅓ cup butter (room temp)
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk (reserve egg white)
1 TBSP lemon zest
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Makes 2 dozen, but doubles nicely for more.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, add egg, egg yolk, lemon zest. Mix flour and salt in a small bowl and then combine with the rest. Finish mixing by working with your hands until it forms a smooth ball. pinch off balls and roll out into snake shapes about 8 inches long and ⅜ inch wide. Then twist together to look like the cookies in the image above.

Cook on a cookie tray lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Brush all cookies thoroughly with egg whites right before placing them in the over. Cook for 8-10 minutes.

These get better with age. A week or two after baking, they’re at their best.

Merry Christmas.