Merry Christmas Cookies
Love, love, love these Merry Christmas Cookies! Easy to make and great fun to decorate! Delicious, not too sweet with crisp sides and just the right amount of crunch. Perfect for this wonderful season of giving.
Servings: 25 cookies (using 3 inch cookie cutters)
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Wet ingredients
- 170g unsalted butter @room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg @ room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of lemon zest
Decorating tools
- Cookie cutters
- Wilton Decorating Candy Pens
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using the paddle whisk on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, ~ 2 minutes.
- Add the wet ingredients and beat on high speed until combined, ~1 minute. To combine well, always scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed.
- On low speed, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Dough will be relatively soft but not sticky. If the dough is still too sticky for rolling, add one to two tbsp more flour and mix again.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4 inch thick. (Note: try to roll out into a large rectangle to get the most cookie cutouts from the dough.)
- Using cookie cutter(s), imprint your favorite cookie shape on the dough. Lightly dust one of the rolled-out imprinted doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Then place the 2nd rolled-out and imprinted dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 175C. Line 2 to 3 large cookie trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it. Using a butter knife, gently remove the cut cookie shapes from the chilled dough and place them onto the lined baking tray. *Use every bit of dough. Re-roll the remaining dough bits and repeat the cookie cutting and chilling process until all is used.
- Arrange cookies on baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake for ~15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. If your oven temperature is not even, rotate the baking sheet halfway through the bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate the cooled cookies with Wilton Candy Pens, anyway you like! Just go with the imagination and have fun. If it’s helpful, decorate the cookies directly on a baking sheet so you can stick the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator to help speed up and set the icing. Enjoy 😊
Video
Notes
TIP#1 - Don’t cut back on chilling time or the dough will be too soft to work with.
TIP#2 - Always roll out the dough and imprint the cookie shapes before chilling. This is because the dough becomes too firm to roll when it is chilled, therefore always roll out the cookie dough into sheets before chilling
I tried chilling the dough first before cutting out the shapes but the weather here in sunny Singapore makes the chilled dough soft too quickly to be able to cut out the shapes properly. Hence I imprint the shapes in the rolled dough before chilling so that the dough is nice and firm when I remove the cookie cutouts.
TIP#3 - Roll out the cookie dough on parchment paper or silicone mats. This makes for easy removal after chilling, especially if the cookies sheets are placed one on top of the other in the refrigerator. (Watch the recipe video to see how I did it.)
TIP#4 - Use room temperature ingredients. The egg and butter should not be too cold. Otherwise it becomes difficult to incorporate properly and often results in a dense and hard cookie.
TIP#5 - We decorated the Sugar Cookies using Wilton Decorating Candy Pens and edible holiday sprinkles. I love these Wilton Candy Pens. The candy icing is not too sweet and they come in tubes which were easy to grip and made it so simple fun to decorate. Saves time too and practical as there is no need to clean up any messy icing.
Follow the instructions to soften the candy pens in hot water to get the candy melted. Once the candy pens are softened to the right consistency, pipe away! If they should thicken after a period (that happens when you are decorating many cookies), soak once more in hot water to get the pens going again.
TIP#6 - I have tried sticking the sprinkles onto the dough and baking them but they melted and it was a utter fail. The sprinkles kept their shape for the first 5-7 minutes but the Sugar Cookies needed at least 15 minutes to bake properly. Otherwise they will be undercooked.
That's why the Wilton Candy Pens were such gems. The Sugar Cookies could bake till golden. The candy icing then stuck on the sprinkles firmly and even allowed for any cookie re-design if creativity decides to change direction!
Once the icing has set, these cookies are great for gifting. Plain or decorated cookies stay soft for ~ 4-5 days when stored air tight at room temperature. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.