If your holiday season lives somewhere between Home Alone nostalgia and glossy magazine perfection, Merry & Chic: Your Most Dazzling Christmas Ever by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans might just become your festive bible. It’s a celebration of everything that makes the holidays magical from baking heirloom-worthy recipes like Abraham Lincoln’s gingerbread cookies, decking the halls with effortlessly elegant décor, to crafting thoughtful DIY gifts (like those soap you’ll actually want to keep for yourself). Overflowing with inspiration, playlists, and monthly sanity-saving checklists, Merry & Chic proves that style and spirit can go hand in hand and that the most beautiful traditions are the ones made by you.
We are sharing one incredible Gingerbread Cookie recipe and O’Shea-Evans’ way to make your own soap:
Abraham Lincoln’s Gingerbread
President Lincoln loved gingerbread cookies. He once famously told a story from his childhood about eating some under a tree and giving one to a down-on-his-luck neighbor boy. When the new friend asked for another, Lincoln recalls the boy saying, “Abe, I don’t suppose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better than I do—and gets less of it.”
This recipe was shared by Mary Todd Lincoln in Sarah Hale’s 1841 publication The Good Housekeeper. Although the couple was then estranged (after breaking off their engagement), I think we can assume that President Lincoln later enjoyed the recipe when the duo was married and ensconced in the White House—and that he shared his cookies freely.
Take 1 1/2 pounds flour and rub it into 1/2 pound butter, add 1/2 pound brown sugar and a 1/2 pint of molasses, 2 tablespoons cream, 1 teaspoon pearlash [potassium carbonate], and ginger to the taste. Make it into a stiff paste, and roll it out thin. Put it on buttered tins, and bake in moderate oven.
TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY UPDATE
MAKES 24 COOKIES
5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salted butter, room temperature
1 1/8 cups brown sugar
1 1/4 cups molasses
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Rub the flour into the butter. Add the brown sugar, molasses, cream, baking soda, and ginger. Work the dough into a stiff paste, then wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 2 hours (or overnight) before rolling thin to cut into shapes with your favorite cookie cutters. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
While Lincoln’s recipe doesn’t call for decorating, I’m quite sure that would have been approved by presidential order!
Melt & Pour Soap
Pretty as a frozen pond, clear glycerin soaps are gemlike bathing beauties. They can be tailored to the season with scent (peppermint or orange-cinnamon, for example) and even trinkets suspended within, such as cinnamon sticks and dried orange slices or a miniature deer that emerges from the bar over time.
MAKES ABOUT 10 LARGE (OR 20 SMALL) SOAP BARS
MATERIALS (AVAILABLE AT CRAFT SHOPS )
Glycerin soap base
Isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle (to eliminate bubbles)
Essential oils (optional; stick with something near-universally liked, such as mint or lavender)
OPTIONAL ADD-INS
Soap colorants
Dried herbs or flowers
Earth-friendly glitter
Plastic toy deer
EQUIPMENT
Microwave-safe container
Silicone spoon for stirring
Silicone soap molds (Etsy for custom-made)
Cut the glycerin soap base into small chunks for easier melting and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each burst until melted. Stir in any of your chosen essential oils and colorants. Place dried herbs or flowers, glitter, and/or toy deer into your soap molds, then pour in the melted soap. Lightly spritz the surface of the soap with the alcohol to eradicate any air bubbles. Allow soap to set overnight, then remove from molds. Package prettily.
You can order Merry & Chic: Your Most Dazzling Christmas Ever by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans from Indigo.
Recipes excerpted from Merry & Chic: Your Most Dazzling Christmas Ever by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans. Photograph by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans. Reprinted by permission of Gibbs Smith Books.
