King Arthur Flour and Some Holiday Cookie Cutter Cookies For You

W ell this year I continued in what just may become an annual Christmas Eve ritual and I made butter cookie cutter cookies. Last year was the first year I did this, I thought it would be complicated—like you had to be Martha Stewart or a professional baker to pull this off. But it was easier then I thought. I was encouraged after making homemade biscotti which was not difficult either. The recipe was easy to follow and I was able to complete it in one day. However, the dough has to sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours and then it has to sit out for about 30 to 45 minutes to become soft enough to work with, so start early. The recipe says to “quickly” add the flour to the butter mixture, but there was nothing quick about it. It took me about twenty minutes to do this. They also say to not over work the dough in this final step as it can make the dough greasy and brittle. Last year I did not leave the butter out before I started, and yup I didn’t have time to do it this year either, so I popped the butter in the microwave for about 20 seconds, this definitely made the second step much easier. The final step before popping the cookies into the oven is brushing them with egg yolk for shine. Personally though, I did not like how the cookies looked with the egg yolk on them, so I skipped that step this time. I think they look fine with a matte finish and I thought the egg yolk was too noticeable when I tried this last year.

The options are endless as far as how to decorate the cookies. I love chocolate so I dipped the cookies in chocolate, but you can also ice them, or use sprinkles, it is up to you, and what you fancy. I actually made icing this year and iced some of the cookies, but this does take some expertise. I was not super happy with how the icing looked so I doused the cookies in powdered sugar to offset my less then spectacular efforts. You can follow this recipe from King Arthur Flour, it is almost exactly the same as the one I used—except for one thing. The King Arthur Flour recipe calls for a quarter teaspoon of extract or flavor of your choice, but the recipe I used called for the rind of one lemon, and I think it is this secret ingredient that made these cookies absolutely de-lish. So if you are feeling adventures go on and give it a whirl, I think you will be super proud with the results.

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