Let Quickness be the Gift of Cookie Season by Lisa Messinger on Creators.com

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Let Quickness be the Gift of Cookie Season

There are other shortcuts this cookie season beyond the sound of screeching brakes in the parking lot of the supermarket and sprinting in five minutes before a party to buy a tray of store-bought baked goods. When potlucks, cookie-recipe exchange get-togethers and holiday parties come calling throughout the season, consider refrigerated cookie dough and cake mix as your kick starts.

Camilla Saulsbury did, and that's probably why she was able to create almost 750 recipes rather than just the usual fraction of that for her "The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book" (Cumberland House, $24.99). The winner of Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown with her grand-prize exotic spice cookies with ginger, cardamom and rose water — like Sandra Lee, best-selling author of the "Semi-Homemade" series of cookbooks, and "Cake Mix Doctor" series author Anne Byrn — optimistically promotes that half homemade is a measuring cup half full, rather than half empty.

Just scanning through Saulsbury's easy innovations is probably enough to give you ideas to create your own treats from convenience ingredients:

— Adding raisins and cinnamon to refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough takes less than a minute, and yet gives the resulting cookies the homemade advantage.

— Gingerbread men don't have to start from scratch. A package of spice cake mix with some added ground ginger, cinnamon and molasses is all it takes.

— "Stained glass" cookie cutouts begin with refrigerated sugar cookie dough. Before baking, get an easy addition of crushed colored fruit hard candies to make the "panes."

— Other seasonal favorites are just a few bright ideas away, like spiced pecan bourbon balls that begin with ground vanilla wafers, eggnog cookies jump-started with yellow cake mix before the addition of brandy and nutmeg, and these pumpkin pie bars formed on a crust of refrigerated sugar cookie dough.

PUMPKIN PIE BARS

1 (16.5-ounce) roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough, well chilled

2 large eggs

1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin

1 (5-ounce) can (2/3 cup) evaporated milk

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Yields 24 large squares.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Spray a 13-by-9-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray or line with foil.

Cut cookie dough into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices in bottom of the prepared pan. With floured fingers, press dough evenly to form crust.

Bake for 10 to 13 minutes, or until dough is golden brown (dough will appear slightly puffed). Remove from oven.

Mix the eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl with wire whisk until smooth. Pour mixture over the partially baked crust.

Bake for 33 to 37 minutes or until just set. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares. Store in the refrigerator. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Variation: Substitute refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough for sugar cookie dough. Prepare as above except sprinkle pumpkin layer with 1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips just before baking.

CHOCOLATE CHIP RAISIN CINNAMON COOKIES

1 (16.5-ounce) roll refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

1 cup raisins

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Yields 28 cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

Break up the cookie dough into large bowl; let stand for 10 to 15 minutes to soften. Add the raisins and cinnamon; mix well with your fingers, the paddle attachment of an electric stand mixer or a wooden spoon.

Drop dough by kitchen teaspoons, 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until just set and golden at edges. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

— Recipes from "The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book" by Camilla V. Saulsbury (Cumberland House, $24.99).

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.