Don't stress over Pinterest perfection with your Christmas cookies this year! They don't have to be perfect. Great kid-friendly cookie dough and recipe too.
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Refrigeration Time30 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cookies
Servings: 48cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
2 1/2cupsunbleached all-purpose flour
3/4cupsuperfine sugar
1/4teaspoonsalt
2sticks1 cup unsalted butter, softened but not warm
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
2 1/2tablespoonscream cheese
For the Frosting
4cupspowdered sugar
2tablespoonsmeringue powder {affiliate}
5tablespoonswater
Gel food coloring
Instructions
To make the dough:
Make your superfine sugar by pulsing sugar in your food processor for 10-15 seconds.
Mix your dry ingredients (flour, sugar & salt) in a standing mixer. Or in a large mixing bowl if you’re doing it by hand.
Cut each stick of butter into 8-10 pieces. Then, while mixing on low, add the butter 1 piece at a time. Mix until butter is incorporated and mixture is crumbly. This takes about a minute.
Add the vanilla and cream cheese and continue to mix for about a minute. Dough will still seem a little crumbly.
Knead the dough by hand to pull together the crumbles and make sure the cream cheese is evenly distributed.
Divide the dough in half and flatten into a one inch thick disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (about 30 minutes).
To roll & cut the cookies:
Tear off two sheets of parchment paper about 2 ft. wide. Sprinkle one sheet with flour and place a disk of dough in the center. Add a little more flour and another sheet of parchment. Then roll out 1 dough disk to a 1/4″ thickness.
Cut with flour dipped cookie cutters. If dough starts to get sticky while cutting, pop it into the refrigerator for a few minutes.
Place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet. When sheet is full, place in refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking.
Repeat until all the dough is cut.
To bake the cookies:
Preheat the oven to 375º F.
Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet after five minutes. Do not over bake the cookies, they should be just slightly golden brown at the edges but still pale in the center.
Cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
Make the Frosting
In a large mixing bowl or a stand mixer bowl combine powdered sugar and meringue powder. Mix on low (with splash screen on!) for about 30 seconds to break up any clumps. Then add water and mix on medium for about 6-8 minutes, stopping in the middle to scrape the sides of the bowl. The icing should look thick, like paste.
Divide your icing into as many bowls as you want colors.
Next add water to each bowl, small baby spoonful by baby spoonful until icing passes the 10 Second Test. To conduct the 10 Second Test, pick up a little icing on your baby spoon and pour it back into the container. Slowly you will see the drizzle settle into the bowl of icing so that the surface is smooth and you can’t see where the drizzle was anymore. You want to add enough water so that the drizzle disappears in about 10 seconds. If it takes longer than that, it’ll be too thick to spread. Less than that and it’s too runny.
Now add your gel food color until you reach your desired color. Remember that colors will deepen after a few hours so you can stop adding color before you get that perfect shade.
Icing the cookies is as simple as spreading and then sprinkling with toppings like colored sugar or non-pareils. My favorite trick is to ice cookies on a cooling rack on a rimmed baking sheet. This allow extra sprinkles and frosting to drip off the cookies.