Holiday Baking and Our Christmas Cookies
I've joined a group of ladies (@nicolearegan, @natalie_catalina, @noemeirowsky, and @bungalowblue} on instagram and this week to share our holiday decorating and entertaining ideas. We're each sharing a topic from cocktail recipes, to floral arrangements, mantle decor, and a tabletop setting. I have a highlight on my profile if you want to take a look at each of our categories. Anyway, today is my day and my topic is holiday baking.
It's that time of year, and if you haven't started on your Christmas cookies now is the time to start. We like having an assortment of cookies to enjoy throughout December and also gift to neighbors and friends. However, with the pandemic, I don't think I'll be gifting them this year.
To prep for the holidays each year, I make my dough in advance. I'll pick a weekend in October/November and make each dough. As weekends come, I'll take the dough out, thaw it, and start making cookies. I do this until the dough is done, and then I freeze the cookies. The ones that require icing are left undecorated until we're ready to enjoy them.
Years ago, I used to host a holiday cookie exchange party around this time of year and I haven't done it in a quite some years. I miss it and I was hoping this year would be the year to bring back this exchange party, but pandemic happened.
Our assortment of homemade cookies for Christmas usually include gingerbread, vanillekipferl, apricot pinwheels, classic sugar cookies, and sometimes spitzbuben. My absolute favorite cookie are the Apricot Pinwheels. It's not overly sweet, and has that vintage holiday look, but they're very time consuming. However, totally worth it! Find the recipes below.
Happy Holidays!
GINGERBREAD MEN
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup molasses
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.
2. Stir together baking soda and 1/4 cup water until dissolved; stir in molasses.
3. combine flour and next 4 ingredients. Add to butter mixture alternately with molasses mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Shaper mixture into 3 discs; cover dough and chill 1 hour.
4. Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut gingerbread men. Place 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool completely.
6. Spoon royal icing {recipe follows} into a small ziplock bag. Snip 1 corner of bag to make a small hole. Decorate as you wish. You can pipe eyes, mouth, and buttons onto cookies. Top buttons with cinnamon candies {optional}.
ROYAL ICING
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 egg whites
Mix until smooth.
VANILLEKIPFERL (Almond Cresents)
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup ground almonds or walnuts
1/3 cup sugar
1 package vanilla sugar or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup cold butter
Topping:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 package vanilla sugar (optional)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Blend flour, sugar, almonds, and vanilla. Cut in cold butter and work quickly into a smooth dough. Shape into small balls about 1 inch in diameter or into crescents. Bake for 20 – 23 minutes. Adjust the baking time depending on size of cookie. Let cool completely and roll into topping.
APRICOT PINWHEELS
1 cup unsalted butter
1 package cream cheese
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Apricot Filling: 1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/2 cup dried apricots
2 Tbsp. white sugar crystals (optional)
Prepare Cream Cheese Dough:
1. In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
2. Beat in granulated sugar and salt until mixed. Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in flour until blended.
Divide dough into 3 equal pieces; flatten each into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight until dough is firm enough to roll. (Or, place dough in freezer 1 hour.)
Prepare Apricot Filling:
If preserves have any large pieces of fruit, finely chop. Finely chop dried apricots. In small bowl, combine preserves and apricots.
SUGAR COOKIES
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color.
3. Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
4. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Sprinkle surface with powdered sugar. Remove one wrapped dough and sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar.
8. Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cut into desired shape.
9. Place at least 1-inch apart on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
10. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through.
11. Let sit on baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
12. Cool completely and decorate* if desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.
*Use Royal Icing recipe above to decorate.
SPTIZBUBEN
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup + 1 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups ground hazelnuts
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
Raspberry jam
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Combine all dry ingredients together.
3. Whisk your egg and add to dry ingredients along with butter.
4. Mix with your electric mixer. Divide dough in 3 batches and chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
5. Flour your surface and roll out your dough and cut out your cookies using a cookie cutter.
6. Place them on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees F for approx. 9 min or until slightly golden at the edges.
7. Let cool for 5 minutes or so and spread jam on one cookie and top it with another one to make a sandwich.
8. Finish off with a simple coating of powder sugar.