You Won’t See Cookie-Cutter Conformity Here

You’d be hard-pressed to find a kitchen gadget that blends form and function as delightfully as Christmas cookie-cutters.

Forms range from bells to pot-bellied Santas, and from reindeer to five-pointed stars.

Their function: to produce some of the sweetest calorie-laden morsels short of grandma’s fudge.

During the holidays, H&H; Craft and Floral Display of Mission Viejo sells cookie-cutters in dozens of varieties,

Most of H&H;’s cutters are made of plastic, priced below $10 and in forms that range from gingerbread men to a kit that produces Santa, his sleigh and reindeer, plus a recipe on the box for making either cookies or dough ornaments to hang on the tree.

Santa’s Cookie Wheel, which sells for about $6, is designed for the baker short on time, patience or both. The small plastic contraption looks something like a pizza slicer, but the wheel supports six holiday shapes--Christmas tree, star, bell, snowman, teddy bear, and of course, Santa Claus--that roll over the dough.

For the more aggressive baker, there’s the Spritz Cookie Press, priced about $11, which looks something like a caulking gun. All you do is load the dough and squeeze the trigger; the shape is determined by one of 12 discs screwed onto the barrel.

Piecemakers Country Store’s cookie-cutters, some of which are replicas of Americana heirlooms and made of tin or copper, make bright kitchen displays, said saleswoman Marie Kolasinski.

The bird-in-the-hand style, for instance, is similar to an antique cookie-cutter that sells for close to $100, Kolasinski said. Piecemakers’ version sells for around $7.

Kolasinski notes that these simple kitchen utensils don’t have to be confined to baked goods. Some cooks use them for decorative gelatin molds; others use them to cut air vents in pie crusts.

Among Piecemakers’ cookie cutters are variations on the theme: Some are actually clay molds into which the batter is poured and baked. They’re about $13 each.

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* Piecemakers Country Store

1720 Adams Ave.,

Costa Mesa

(714) 641-3112

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* H&H; Craft and Floral Supply Co.

25310 Marguerite Parkway

Mission Viejo

(714) 770-5001