Leaves

The liquid amber trees in our yard are starting to drop leaves and I find great satisfaction in raking them up ... at least at the beginning of the season. I know I’ll grow weary of it in a week or two, but the first signs of autumn always give me joy. These beautiful, messy trees also inspired me to create cutout cookies and multi-colored Autumn Leaves are the result. I had so much fun making them and decorating them. I must admit that when it comes to leaves...baking them is more satisfying than raking them.

Leaves make the most appealing shapes for cutout cookies. And dark chocolate is an autumn-kind of flavor so leaf-shaped chocolate sandwich cookies is a brilliant idea. I filled the sandwich with a simple chocolate ganache and, voilà! ... a beautiful and irresistible cookie. But I warn you: it’s not possible to eat only one.

When the leaves start to change color, I can’t resist making Chocolate Cutout Cookies in the shapes of leaves, pumpkins, and acorns. Sometimes I’ll add a squirrel-shaped cookie to the batch if the squirrels haven’t been too pesty during the summer. If they’ve dug up all my potted plants and terrorized the birds I try to attract into my garden, well, then I refuse to give them any attention when it comes to making fall cookies.