Snowflake Cookies

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
2. In a large mixing bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the lard, butter, and sugar.
3. Once light and fluffy, mix in the egg and extracts until smooth.
4. Dump in 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix, followed by the two tablespoons of milk.
5. Dump in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix to combine. Switch to a rubber spatula when the dough becomes too thick.
6. Roughly shape the dough into one large mass inside the bowl. Cut it in half down the middle and roll out each half on two separate sheets of parchment paper that have been lightly dusted with flour.
7. Roll to about 1/8 of an inch thick, lightly dusting the surface as you roll to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin.
8. Transfer one rolled cookie sheet to a large baking tray. Very lightly dust the surface with flour and stack the second sheet on top. Wrap the tray with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or until firm.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

1. While the dough chills, make the ganache. Place the chocolate in a heat safe bowl and the cream in a heat safe measuring glass.
2. Microwave the cream for about 1 minute or until bubbling and steaming. Pour over the chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute.
3. Whisk until smooth and then cover with a sheet of plastic wrap, pressing it onto the surface of the ganache. Chill alongside the dough.

Snowflake Cookies

1. Once chilled, remove one sheet from the refrigerator and cut out cookies using a snowflake cookie cutter. Then cut out a hole in the center using a small cookie cutter.
2. Place the cookies on a plate or tray and return to the refrigerator (reserve the scraps). Then remove the second sheet of dough from the fridge and cut out more snowflakes, but do not cut out holes in the center. You should have equal amounts of whole snowflakes and ring snowflakes.
3. Chill all the cut out snowflakes while the oven preheats to 350F.
4. Ball together the scraps and roll out onto a sheet of parchment dusted with flour. Chill again while the first couple batches of cookies bake.
5. When the oven is ready, transfer the snowflake cookies onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, careful not to let the edges brown.
7. Transfer to a cooling rack and continue baking the rest of the cookies. Cut out more cookies from the rolled out scraps and chill the cut outs until they’re ready to bake.
8. Once all cookies are baked and cooled, place the ring snowflakes on one cooling rack and the whole snowflakes on the other. Dust the ring snowflakes with some powdered sugar.
9. By now the ganache should be chilled completely and will have the consistency of thick pudding. Remove the plastic wrap and whip the ganache using a hand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until fluffy and light brown (about 1 minute mixing).
10. Transfer the ganache to a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe the ganache on the underside of the whole snowflakes (see picture in post for reference) and place a ring snowflake on top.
11. Continue for all of the cookies and enjoy!