Holiday cookies taste as good as they look

Traditional treats get delicious makeover just in time for Santa's arrival

By: America's Test Kitchen Posted: 3:00 AM CST Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018

Making holiday cookies — the rolled, cutout, and glazed butter-cookie variety — is everyone’s favourite December activity. Unfortunately, these cookies either look good but taste like cardboard or have buttery, rich flavour but lack visual appeal.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/12/2018 (2847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We wanted a simple recipe that would produce cookies sturdy enough to decorate, yet tender enough to be worth eating. Superfine sugar helped to achieve a delicate texture, and using the reverse-creaming method — beating the butter into the flour-sugar mixture — prevented the formation of air pockets and produced flat cookies that were easy to decorate.

Looking to make our dough a bit more workable without adding more butter — at 250 ml (two sticks or 16 tbsp) we’d maxed out — we landed on the addition of a little cream cheese, which made the dough easy to roll but not too soft. Baking the butter cookies one sheet at a time ensured that they baked evenly. Do not re-roll the scraps more than once; it will cause the cookies to be tough.

This recipe can easily be doubled. You can decorate the cooled cookies with Easy All-Purpose Glaze (recipe follows) for a sweet, festive touch.

Foolproof Holiday Cookies

Servings: 36
Start to finish: 2 hours

625 ml (2½ cups or 12½ ounces) all-purpose flour
180 ml (¾ cup or 5¼ ounces) superfine sugar
1 ml (¼ tsp) salt
250 ml (two sticks or 16 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces and softened
30 ml (1 oz) cream cheese, softened
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract

Using a stand mixer fitted with paddle, mix flour, sugar and salt on low speed until combined. Add butter, 1 piece at a time and mix until dough looks crumbly and slightly wet, one to two minutes. Add cream cheese and vanilla and beat until dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.

Transfer dough to counter; knead just until it forms cohesive mass and divide in half. Form each half into disc, wrap discs tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to two days. (Wrapped dough can be frozen for up to two weeks. Let dough thaw completely in refrigerator before rolling.)

Working with one disc of dough at a time, roll dough 1/8 inch thick between two large sheets of parchment paper.

Slide dough, still between parchment, onto baking sheet and refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 190 C. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Working with one sheet of dough at a time, remove top piece of parchment and cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters. Using thin offset spatula, transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet, spacing them about one inch apart.

Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, until light golden brown, about 10 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet for three minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before serving.

Easy All-Purpose Glaze

Makes about 250 ml (1 cup)

We decorate our Foolproof Holiday Cookies with this easy-to-make glaze, but feel free to use it, dyed or not, on any flat cookie that could use a festive flourish.

The cream cheese in the glaze gives it a slightly thicker consistency that’s good for spreading, and it cuts the sweetness of the glaze with its tang.

500 ml (2 cups or 8 oz) confectioners’ sugar
45 ml (3 tbsp) milk
30 ml (1 oz) cream cheese, softened
Food colouring (optional)

Whisk all ingredients in bowl until smooth.

For more recipes, cooking tips and ingredient and product reviews, visit americastestkitchen.com. Find more recipes like Foolproof Holiday Cookies in The Perfect Cookie cookbook.

— The Associated Press