It’s hard to create an old-fashioned holiday in a 2006 calendar without delicious Christmas cookies. From brightly colored Christmas trees to sparkly silver bells and dainty angels, these treats make the holidays special.
In fact, homemade cookies are wonderful. However, they can be time-consuming to prepare, especially when using complicated recipes that require hours in the refrigerator before they can be cut, baked, and frozen.
Just in time for the holidays, we bring you this easy recipe straight from Austin’s own Penny McConnell of Penny’s Pastries. This dough does not need refrigeration before rolling and cutting; it handles like a dream and produces buttery, great tasting cookies.
You’ll find this and 18 other delicious cookie recipes in the recently published Cookie Stories: Life Moments and the Cookies that Inspired Them (Falling Star Press, 2005), written by Penny McConnell and Kathy Sutton.
Penny’s Roll & Cut Cookies
The recipe can be made as large as the capacity of your stand mixer and the finished dough can be kept in your freezer for up to a month. When you’re ready to use, simply bring the dough to room temperature before stretching and baking. Finish cookies with sparkling sugar or spread with tinted royal icing or buttercream.
Yield: 4-6 dozen cookies
Temperature: 325 degrees
Baking time: 8-10 minutes
2 cups of salted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons heavy cream or whole milk
4 tablespoons of pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of almond extract
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare cookie sheets with kitchen parchment.
2. In bowl of electric mixer, cream butter with sugar until smooth. Remember to only incorporate these ingredients, do not beat until light.
3. Add all liquid ingredients to mixer bowl and process.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder.
5. Add dry ingredients to mixer bowl and process until thick dough forms. This dough does not need refrigeration before rolling and cutting.
6. To prepare the dough for rolling and cutting, separate the finished dough into two large balls. Work with one ball of dough at a time.
7. Flour a work surface. Knead the dough several times to smooth it out before rolling it out.
8. Re-flour surface if necessary. Sprinkle a light layer of flour directly onto the surface of the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a disk until dough is about ¼” thick. (Roll dough thicker if you prefer a more cake-like texture for finished cookies.) Place on work surface and turn it so it doesn’t stick.
9. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. The leftover dough can be used multiple times.
10. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, rotating pans once during bake cycle. Cookies are perfect when the bottom is golden and the top is light blonde.
11. Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.
You’ll want frosting for these cookies, so here’s a standard recipe for Royal Frosting.
royal icing
12 tablespoons of warm water
6 tablespoons of meringue powder
7 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons flavoring such as almond extract
Instructions:
1. For warm water in the bowl of the electric mixer. Add all other ingredients.
2. On low speed, mix ingredients until they form a thick frosting.
3. When frosting is smooth, turn mixer to highest setting and process until frosting goes from shiny to opaque, has doubled in volume, and holds in stiff peaks.
4. Use as desired to decorate cookies