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The Ultimate Christmas Cookie Guide

November 27, 2017

Thanksgiving was only a few days ago. Heck, it’s not even December!!  But I have wasted no time getting into the holiday spirit. My Christmas tree is up! I have already checked a couple people off of my Christmas list, and I have done lots and lots of holiday baking (already!).

Actually, the holiday baking I have been doing has been recipe testing for my brand new Christmas Cookie Guide. Last year, I put together a very intensive post on how to decorate the perfect Christmas cookie. This year I wanted to create all-new recipes that will make your Christmas cookies stand out from the crowd!

For this guide, I created 12 brand new sugar cookie recipes (in addition to 3 of my classics). It includes recipes like golden chai-spiced, pistachio, Christmas spice, peppermint mocha, and Mexican chocolate.

Oh yeah…they are good.

In addition to that, I have added some flavor alternatives to the basic vanilla royal icing. These flavors will pair perfectly with all of the cookie recipes included in the guide. In fact, I tell you exactly how I would pair each flavor and cookie!

So really, you are getting over 50 Christmas cookie combinations for the low low price of $1.99. Okay, that may be stretching it a bit. But I still think 15 cookies recipes for less than $2 is a steal!

Now you will have everything you need to make amazing Christmas cookies that will blow your friends and family away. 

Stay tuned throughout December to see all the various ways I decorate these cookies!

 

 

/ Filed In: Cookie Decorating 101, Cookies New, Decorated Cookies, Eat
Tagged: christmas cookies, cookies, sugar cookies

Mexican Wedding Cookies

May 4, 2017

These little sugar coated Mexican Wedding cookies may be more closely associated with Christmas, but cookies are pretty much good year-round in my book! Especially these cookies. They are like little pecan packed shortbread cookies dusted in powdered sugar. Yum, right?!

I’m not sure what took me so long to make Mexican Wedding Cookies. They are so much easier to make than I originally thought. Like I said above, they are almost identical to a shortbread recipe – butter, sugar, and flour – with just the added ingredient if pecans.


First cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Then mix in the flour until you have a pretty dry dough. Something that looks kinda dry, but when pressed together forms a ball.

Next add in the nuts. You can use either walnuts or pecans. I actually used a mix of both because I was just short of pecans.

I ground up my nuts into a course meal, where some of the nuts were finely ground, and some were still in chunk form. I also measured my nuts after they were ground. So I had one and a half cups of ground nuts, not one and a half cups of whole nuts.


Next, because this dough is fairly dry, I recommend that you let it chill for at least 30 minutes so that all the moisture from the butter gets soaked into the flour and all the flavors meld together.

It will also be a bit easier to roll into balls once its chilled. I used my little cookie scooper to get evenly sized cookies.


Finally, its time to roll them in some sugar! This part is fun! Also, very messy. Your kitchen will look a little questionable when all is said and done. 

I dropped let my cookies cool off a bit before I dropped them into the powdered sugar. The hot cookies will form a gummy sugary coating. I wanted a light powdery coating,  so I let them cool until they were warm, but not to hot to handle.

And if thats not enough sugar for you, you can sprinkle even more on top. As you can see, that’s what I did. I love me some sugar.

But don’t worry about these being overly sweet. They are perfectly sweet. The cookies themselves actually have very little sugar in them. You bite in and have the initial taste of sugar, but the interior cookie is nutty and buttery!

Plus they are just so pretty! It’s like they are the perfect cookie for a wedding. Who knew? 

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:157]

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/ Filed In: Cookies, Cookies New, Eat
Tagged: christmas cookies, cookies, Mexican, pecans, powdered sugar

Peppermint Brownie Cookies

December 9, 2016

Peppermint Brownie Cookies

I feel like there are two kinds of people in this world: those that love the brownie edge, and those that love the brownie center. Guess which one I am. I’m team brownie edge all the way. I love the crunchy, caramelized corners and sides of the brownie. Sometimes when I make a batch of brownies, I will cut off the scraggly edges and tell myself I am just making them look prettier and more uniform. But if I am being honest with myself, it’s so that I can eat all the edges. 

And that is what I love about these cookies. It is 90% brownie edge! 

What I also love about these cookies is how easy they were to make! It literally took minutes to mix everything together and pop in the oven. In just about 30 minutes I had warm, fresh peppermint brownie cookies. 


These cookies start with, what else, a bag of brownie mix! To that I mixed in some melted butter and one egg. I did not follow the recipe on the back of the box. 


Once it’s all mixed together, its pretty thick. Not at all like a brownie batter but (shockingly) more like a cookie dough. 

For that peppermint flavor, I mixed in some Andies peppermint chunks because that’s what I found at the grocery store. But if you can get your hands on some peppermint chocolate chips or even other peppermint candy, you can add those in instead. 


Another great thing about these cookies is that don’t take nearly as long to bake as a normal batch of cookies. Within a matter of minutes, the chocolate dough had spread out and crisped up around the edges, but remained a bit soft in the center.

Peppermint Brownie Cookies

For the brownie edge love, like me, these cookies are perfect. The first bite it all crunch. But the center is super soft. 

Peppermint Brownie Crunch

However, for those of you who love the soft gooey center of the brownie and are not willing to give that up. Guess what! You can pretty much make the exact same recipe in brownie form! Just follow the recipe on the back of the box and add the water and oil as necessary. 

I can’t alienate half (maybe more) of the brownie loving population. Everyone deserves a delicious bite of chocolate and peppermint. Especially during the holidays. 

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:105]

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Peppermint Brownie Cookies

/ Filed In: Cookies, Cookies, Cookies New, Desserts, Eat
Tagged: Andies, brownie, brownie mix, Christmas, christmas cookies, cookies, Peppermint

The Perfect Christmas Cookies

November 25, 2016

The Perfect Christmas Cookies

I’m sharing everything you need to know to make the perfect Christmas cookies!

By now it’s probably clear that I like to make cookies. They are my go to treat whenever I have to bring something to a party, especially during the holidays. In the last couple years, I have dedicated more and more time to not just baking cookies but decorating them, too! I even teach classes on cookie decorating through a local Charlotte company, SkillPop. Not only is it fun for me to make them, I get love giving them to other people, knowing that they will be enjoyed!

It’s also clear to me that I am not alone in this. I see a MAJOR uptick in traffic to my cookie and icing recipes this time of year. And because I get so many questions about cookie decorating, I thought I would write down all my tips and tricks for you guys so you can not only make the perfect Christmas cookies, but awesome cookies year round!

Be prepared, I have basically written a novel on cookie decorating. I have broken it down into the basics: the dough, the icing: and the decorating. I have linked to a lot of my recipes and other products that I use and recommend to make your cookie decorating experience a bit easier. Know that my recipes and products are not necessary for delicious and beautiful cookies. But they will help.

The Dough 

Christmas Cookies

The dough is the foundation for the perfect Christmas cookie. For just about all my cookies I use my all time favorite sugar cookie recipe. The reason I love this recipe so much is that the cookies hold their shape perfectly, which means whatever they looked like when you cut them out is pretty much how they will look when they come out of the oven. That is key for decorating cookies, because then you have a better guide for outlining your cookie – you aren’t trying to guess what the original shape was. 

I get a lot of compliments on these this cookie recipe. While they aren’t super soft cookies, they aren’t crispy either. I try not to over bake them – taking them out of the oven at the first signs of browning – which ensures that they stay nice and tender. 


To make sure I have evenly shaped cookies every time I use a nice big rolling pin (I recently bought this rolling pin and absolutely LOVE it) and these rolling pin bands. I absolutely swear these bands and tell all my friends (and cookie decorating students) to get them. They ensure that the dough rolled out to a consistent thickness so that each cookie is exactly the same. And in case you are wondering, I use the largest (blue) band to roll out my cookies.  

Christmas Cookies

I also prefer to use the coated metal cookie cutters (like these, these, and this gift set that I bought mainly for the cookie spatula) because they are easier to clean and don’t rust. But I have cookie cutters of all types in my collection and tend to use whatever has the best shape. A tip to ensure that the cookie cutters don’t stick to the dough and potentially warp the cookie shape is to dip it in a pile of flour first, then cut out the dough. 

I also like to roll out my dough on a sheet of parchment paper. This helps me use less flour so that the dough doesn’t stick to the counter tops and makes it a lot easier to lift off the cut out cookie. 


Why you shouldn’t use store bought dough

A lot of people ask me if they can just use store bought dough. The answer is, of course you can – you can use whatever sugar cookie recipe you like best. HOWEVER, your cookies aren’t going to come out the same. Store bought dough and cookie mixes (as well as some other recipes) contain leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder, etc) in it which make the cookies softer, but they will also lose their shape when baked. See the example below. 


I rolled out a very popular brand of sugar cookie dough the exact same way I cut out the cookies in the first picture in this post (the exact same thickness). Once the cookie came out of the oven, it was almost unrecognizable.  

I know making your own dough can be a lot of work, but I promise you, it is worth it! I tend to make big batches of it and store it in the freezer (wrapped in plastic wrap and then bagged in a zip top freezer bag) this time of the year because I know I will go through lots of it. 

Make the dough your own

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Another added plus to making your own dough is that you can make it whatever flavor (and color) you like by adding various spices and flavorings. During the holidays, I love to add cinnamon and nutmeg to my cookies for that nice holiday spice flavor, or even make chocolate sugar cookies like you see above.

This year I developed 12 new sugar cookie recipes perfect for Christmas, which I published in my Christmas Cookie Guide. 

Making Cookies in Advance

During the holidays, we tend to make LOTS of cookies. Which means, if you are trying to do it all in one day, you will be working for hours! Fortunately, you can make the dough and even bake the cookies well in advance. Here’s what I do:

If I am just making the dough in advance, I wrap it up in plastic wrap and then store in a freezer zip top bag and keep it in the freezer until I am ready to cut out the cookies. I just let the dough sit out on the counter for a couple hours to thaw before rolling it out. The dough will keep in the freezer for a month.

If I am baking the cookies in advance, I will roll out the dough and bake as normal. Then, once they are cooled, I will stack them in a freezer zip-top bag (sometimes 2) and then store them in the freezer until I need them. The cookies will last in the freezer for a couple weeks, if not longer. I like to double bag them if I think they will be in there a while. 

The Icing

The Perfect Christmas Cookies

Okay, so the sugar cookies are probably the part that most of you guys have down. You all have made cookies before so you are pretty much pros! It’s the icing that may be new to you.

I have shared my recipe for my favorite royal icing previously. The main difference between royal icing and your normal icing is the meringue powder (which can also be purchased at your local craft store). It is essentially processed egg whites and when added to powdered sugar and water, it makes the perfect icing for cookie decorating. I forms a nice flat surface on the cookie that hardens perfectly so that the cookies can be stacked and packaged without causing any damage. It can also be made thicker to make more detailed designs, like dots, letters, stripes, flowers, etc.

To color my icing, I prefer to use gel food coloring (here is my favorite brand) because it is super pigmented and won’t water down the icing as much. But no matter what, remember: a little goes a long way! Don’t go overboard with this stuff!

There are two types of icing that I use most often: flood consistency and piping consistency. They are the exact same recipe I linked above, but one uses less water than the other. One other distinction about them is that flood consistency icing takes a few hours to dry completely. Sometimes I like to let them sit overnight. The piping consistency icing will only take about 30 minutes to an hour. Just keep them in mind as you start packing up all your pretty cookies. 

Flood Consistency Icing


The perfect flood consistency icing is icing that settles back into a flat surface within 10 to 15 seconds after you drag a spoon or toothpick across the surface. I use flood consistency icing about 90% of the time. It is what I use to outline and fill (or flood) all my cookies. It is thick enough that it won’t fall over the edges of the cookies, but thin enough that it creates a nice even surface.

To get it to just the right consistency, I add a little water at a time using a spray bottle (if I am working in small batches) or a teaspoon (if I am working in big batches). I add enough water until it starts to feel like its getting a little bit runny. Then I start counting. Yes, I still have to count to 15 every time I make icing so I am sure it’s perfect! 

Piping Consistency Icing


Piping consistency icing is a bit thicker that flood consistency icing. It is what I use to add detail to a cookie. Typically I add detail once the first layer of icing has dried enough that I can pipe right on top. I don’t have an exact formula for piping consistency icing, and sometimes I want it thicker or thinner depending on what I am using it for. Generally, it will fall off the back of a spoon into a soft peak or mound, but not settle into a flat surface. In the cookie above, I used piping consistency icing to make the string of lights. I also use it to write letters, make borders, or other precise details.

I also have this handy video of the process I use to make the icing the right consistency. You can see how thick it is when it’s piping consistency (I actually ended up thinning it down even more than what’s in the video, but it’s pretty close), and how thin it is when it’s flood consistency. 


 

Making Icing in Advance

Just like with the cookies, you can make the icing in advance, too. However, not at far in advance. If possible, I like to make my icing the same day I am using it. However, for big projects, that may not easy to do. 

If you want to make the icing days (or even weeks) in advance, I recommend that you make the icing but DO NOT thin it down at all. Spoon the icing in an air tight container than cover the icing with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap should be touching the icing so that no air is between the plastic wrap and the icing. Then cover it with a lid and place in the fridge or freezer. You will have to let this come to room temperature before you thin it down or use it. 


If you want to make the icing just 1 day in advance, you could thin down a big batch of icing to flood consistency and store in a bowl or container the same way I described above. Then, when you are ready to decorate, just give the icing a stir and color as normal. Flood consistency icing does not keep very well because the water will start to separate from the rest of the icing. 

Decorating

Now we have our cookies and our icing, so the fun can begin! 

Outlining and Flooding


The first step in most of my cookies is outlining and filling the cookies. I start by outlining the cookie as close to the edge as I am comfortable, then filling in the outline with the same flood consistency icing. I like to fill in the outline so that there is almost no cookie showing underneath. Then I use a toothpick, or scribe tool, to move the icing around in circular motions to get an even layer of icing. 

Here’s a tip I tell everyone, when you are piping your icing, lift the tip of the piping bag up and just let the icing fall onto the cookie. Don’t drag the icing across the surface (you can watch me here). You won’t get a nice straight line if you do it that way. 

Wet on Wet Piping


One of the techniques I use a lot is called the “wet on wet” techniques. That is when I pipe wet icing directly onto the icing I just piped. By doing so, the “fresh” icing settles into the first layer of icing. For instance, in the picture above, I piped the white snowflake immediately onto the blue icing so that it completely blended into the first layer creating a cohesive surface. 

When you pipe wet icing onto wet icing, it also gives you some freedom to manipulate it a little to get just the right shape. In the picture of the Christmas light cookie, I piped an oval of white icing onto the red, then used my toothpick to drag one edge out to create that tear drop shape. 

I also use this technique to make polka dots (like the cheeks of the gingerbread men, above), stripes, scallops, etc. 

Adding Details


The cookies really start to come together for me when I add the little details. This almost always done using piping consistency icing, described above, because it creates sharp lines, dots, or other texture. 

To add the details, I wait for the first layer of icing to crust over. Usually this takes about an hour. If I am adding lots of detail I will sometimes wait overnight so that I don’t mess up the first layer of icing. Then I just pipe my designs right on top. 

Marbling Technique


I love sharing this technique with people because its looks awesome on the cookie but its actually really easy to pull off. You can see in the purple cookies above, that there is this really pretty swirl effect going on behind the gold ‘M’. It probably looks like it took a lot of time and effort to pull off. Nope, not at all. In fact, it was probably easier than outlining and flooding the cookies. 


I start with a bowl of flood consistency icing, then I pipe on contrasting color (or 2 or 3) in a haphazard design. Then I dip my cookie onto the surface and lift straight up, letting all the excess icing drip off. I sometimes twist the cookie a bit to make more of a swirled pattern. Then I just set my cookie out to dry. If there are any air bubbles, I will tap the cookie on the surface to get them to pop. 

Easy right? I think these would look really pretty with a mixture of reds and greens for the holidays. Or you can just do red and white to make them look like peppermint!

My preferred supplies

You don’t need anything special for cookie decorating. In fact, most of the time I use plain old zip top bags. Like the cheap, generic brand zip top bags. Every once and a while, if I feel extra fancy I use piping bags (like these or these), which really aren’t fancy at all. If I want to make sure I have perfect lines, dots, or other decorations (like leaves or roses), I use a piping tip. I bought this case years ago, but I tend to use my Wilton #2 and #3 most often. 

So there you have it, pretty much everything I know about decorating cookies. I hope this will help you create your own masterpieces this holiday season!

P.S. In an effort to be fully transparent, some of the links used in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you were to purchase one of the products I listed, I will receive a very small commission. All proceeds from this post will be used to make more cookies. 

/ Filed In: Cookie Decorating 101, Cookies New, Decorated Cookies, Eat
Tagged: Christmas, christmas cookies, cookies, decorating, icing, sugar cookies

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

October 10, 2016

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

We are heading into cookie season. Well, for me it’s always cookie season. But it really picks up with all the holidays coming up. 

I have been wanting to try some other sugar cookie flavors for a while, and have been testing out a chocolate sugar cookie flavor, which I think will come in really handy for Christmas cookies! It is very similar to my classic sugar cookie recipe and creates the perfect cookie for decorating since the edges stay nice and crisp.

Chocolate Sugar Cooke Dough

Really the only difference with this cookie recipe is the addition of cocoa powder and a bit more sugar. I also like adding a little bit of coffee extract (which you can easily make at home by soaking coffee beans in vodka for a couple weeks) in addition to the vanilla because the coffee flavor really enhances the cocoa flavor. 

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

One of the biggest questions I get about my cookie dough recipe is how to know when the dough is the right texture or consistency. Some people find the dough to be too dry then some people will make the exact same recipe and it will be so moist that it sticks to their counters. So, here is what I do:

After the butter, sugar, eggs, and extracts are all mixed together, I mix in the first cup of flour. Then I mix in the next 1/2 cup and test the dough.

I test the dough by pressing it with a finger and if the dough sticks to my finger it’s not ready.

Add 1/2 cup more, then test. 

Add 1/2 cup more, then test.

By this point, the dough should be tacky, but not stick to my fingers. If it does, I keep adding flour 1/4 cup at a time. 

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I hope that helps clarify the recipe. Because you want these cookies to keep their shape when they bake, it’s best for the dough to be pretty dry. They aren’t going to be like Lofthouse-soft sugar cookies. They are going to be more like a shortbread cookie. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a way to get the best of both worlds. 

The great thing about these chocolate sugar cookies is that the cocoa powder has a bit of extra fat in it which makes these cookies a little bit more moist than normal. Almost like a brownie in cookie form….almost. 

Either way, be prepared to see a lot of these chocolate sugar cookies on Instagram and Snapchat in the next couple months. They are going to be my go-to recipe between now and Christmas. 

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Chocolate Sugar Cookies

[amd-yrecipe-recipe:85]

 

 

/ Filed In: Cookies, Cookies New
Tagged: chocolate, christmas cookies, cookies, sugar cookies

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Hey there, I'm Lindsey. I'm a number cruncher by day and a home cook and baker by night. While I love to eat healthy and find fresh and healthy alternatives for my favorite foods, I will never turn down dessert! Life is all about moderation, right?

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