I went berzerk and bought a whole bunch of cookie cutters in wonderful shapes because I thought I would lo-o-o-ve to decorate fancy cut-out cookies. I don't know WHAT I was thinking of! I still think making and decorating cut-out cookies is a whole lot of work and not worth the effort. Sure, you get gorgeous cookies and everyone oohs and ahhs. But they seem to be more glitz than flavor, it takes forever and I just can't be bothered. I'm a drop-cookie kind of girl. That said, though, I DO have a recipe for a mocha-flavored cookie that's dipped half in white chocolate and half in dark chocolate. They taste as wonderful as you'd imagine. My problem is getting the chocolate to harden and stay hard. Ganache - in my experience - won't harden up and stay hard. I can't stack the cookies to transport them. Is there some mess-proof way of 'icing' cookies with chocolate so that you get a coating that won't melt if you so much as have a warm thought when you look at them? When I made hand-dipped chocolates, oh-so-many years ago, I didn't have any trouble with my chocolates hardening up properly. But when I dip cookies in chocolate, it seems that no matter how long I wait, if I stack them, I get a gooey mess. Any ideas? Keep them in a single layer, not touching. put parchment on top then another layer of cookies. Are you using ganuche or straight chocolate? The cookies should be room temperature when you dip them. Mary @ KIng Arthur Flour.

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