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Holiday Butter Cookies King Arthur Flour Company Yield: 5 dozen 2 inch cookies Cookies 1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar 1 cup + 2 Tbsp. salted butter, at room temperature 1 large egg yolk 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. flavor of your choice 2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour Icing 2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar or glazing sugar 2 Tbsp. light corn syrup 1 1/2 Tbsp. or up to 2 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. milk; enough to make a pourable/spreadable icing. Food coloring, optional 1 cup coarse sugar or colored sugar for decoration, optional Cookies: Combine the sugar, butter, egg yolk, salt, and flavor, beating until smooth. Add the flour, mixing till smooth. The mixture will seem dry at first, but will suddenly become cohesive. If it doesn't, dribble in a Tbsp. of water. Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a flattened disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and let it soften for about 20 to 30 minutes, till it feels soft enough to roll. It should still feel cold, but shouldn't feel rock-hard. Sprinkle your rolling surface with flour, and flour your rolling pin. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it 1/8" to 3/16" thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes. Reroll and cut the dough scraps. Place the cookies on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets. They can be close together; they'll barely spread. Bake the cookies in a preheated 350o oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are set and barely browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, and cool right on the pan. If you've used parchment, you can lift cookies and parchment off the pan, so you can continue to use the pan as the cookies cool. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough, rolling, cutting, and baking cookies. When cookies are completely cool, ice and decorate. Icing: Combine the sugar, milk and corn syrup to make a soft, spreadable icing, adding more milk if necessary. Tint the icing with food color as desired. Spread icing on cookies, using a knife, a spoon, or your finger to spread it all the way to the edges. Sprinkle with colored sugar or other sugar decorations, as desired. Allow the icing to harden before storing the cookies. Note from King Arthur: If you use unsalted butter, increase the amount of salt in the recipe to 1 tsp. To flavor cookies in alternate ways, try 2 tsp. vanilla extract, or 1 tsp. almond extract, or a combination. For extra-strong flavors (eggnog, butter rum, etc.) start with 1/8 tsp. and flavor to taste. To top cookies with colored sugar before baking (no icing necessary), reserve the egg white from the yolk you've used in the dough. Mix the white with 1 Tbsp. water. Lightly paint the cookies with the eggwhite/water, sprinkle with colored sugar and bake. |
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