After drawing my 2024 Winter Solstice Countdown calendar I couldn’t stop thinking about the beautiful image of the deer carrying the sun in it’s antlers. I was thinking about all of the Winter Solstice cookies I have made and wondering how I could make one that really is Winter Solstice. Full stop. My Longest Night cookie almost does that, but for the most part they would be perfectly appropriate for a variety of holidays. Generally I like that, we celebrate secular Christmas and Hanukkah too. But I wanted to make one cookie that was unabashedly for the Solstice. Hence the Deer Mother Cookie was born.
First, a little background on the Deer Mother. There has been a deer mother/ winter solstice tale making the rounds lately with most claiming it is an ancient folktale. I have bad news. There isn’t really any scholarship to suggest this. Few cite sources. I know, I know but I’m an academic at heart and I can’t just accept things without research. However, it’s not all bad, there is considerable evidence that there were female deer and reindeer deities, there are early drawings of deer with sun symbols in their antlers, and it is absolutely true that only female reindeer still have antlers in winter. Male deer shed and regrow them around this time. There are absolutely hints that there may have been a tradition like this is scholarship, particularly in Eastern Europe and Siberia in particular. But we are largely talking about a time before the written record, so things are going to be murky. And as far as I know no one has made an effort to connect any of these dots in a scientific way. If you want to know more, Gather Victoria has a solid list of deer/ female deities and sources. (I believe she was also the source of the current deer mother craze!)
All of that said, things don’t have to be ancient to be meaningful, so go ahead and enjoy the deer mother tale for what it is, a beautiful story. Sunbread isn’t any less lovely for having a modern provenance. And these cookies are showstoppers.
Deer Mother Winter Solstice Cookies
You can make these cookies with literally any rolled cookie dough you like, it really doesn’t matter. I used two different doughs, a chocolate dough and a mango dough because I had them in my freezer left over from other projects and because I don’t really like icing. (chocolate dough and mango dough) If I was starting from scratch however, I would have made a gingerbread dough, left the deer cookie color and iced the suns yellow. I’ve linked to the cutters I used in the materials list. but you can use any reindeer cookie cutter you might have, I tried a few and found I liked the ones that were facing forward the best.
Materials:
- rollout cookie dough of your choice (one that doesn’t spread too much)
- deer cookie cutters (I used this one & this one)
- sun cookie cutters (I used this set)
- parchment paper
- baking tray
- sugar or royal icing for decorating
Method:
Roll out the dough as per the recipe’s instructions. (Usually around 1/4 of an inch) Chill. Cut out the deer shapes with your deer or reindeer cookie cutter and arrange them on a parchment lined baking tray leaving plenty of room for suns.
Next cut out the enough suns so that each deer gets one. Carefully nestle them in between the antlers of the deer so that they are touching, but not overlapping substantially. Give them a good push towards each other without mangling the shapes. If you won’t be icing the cookies sprinkle them with a large grain sugar like turbinado.
Chill again with both pieces touching.
Preheat your oven according to the recipe.
Bake according to the recipe’s instructions.
If you are icing the cookies, allow them cool completely and then add icing.
Enjoy and Happy Solstice!
