Butter Christmas cookies

Butter Christmas cookies

Yes, there are still several weeks left for Christmas, but seeing the shopping centers full of nougat, decorations and toys already invites us to think about how we will celebrate these holidays. And what better way to do it than with something sweet. These butter Christmas cookies are ideal to prepare with the kids during the holidays or to surprise your loved ones with a gift made by you.

As you will see in the images, I made the mass of these cookies with the Thermo mix. I think that it is not the ideal kitchen robot to make them, since it is a little uncomfortable for the dough to be stuck by the blades. However, they were fine. They can also be made with an electric rod whisk, even by hand.

In this post I will explain in detail how to make butter cookies and then you can decorate them the way you like.

Utensils needed to make Christmas cookies

• Kneading or electric rod whisk
• Christmas forms cutter
• Baking paper
• Roller to stretch the dough
• Guides to level the thickness of the dough

Ingredients to make butter cookies

• 250 g of butter
• 250 g of white sugar
• 1 egg M
• 500 g of confectionery flour
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence, vanilla paste or vanilla sugar
• 1 splash of milk (optional)

How to make butter Christmas cookies

Preparation of cookie dough

• The first thing we will do is sift the flour and reserve it.
• Next, beat the butter and sugar until you get a mixture of pale yellow and slightly fluffy.
• Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until the ingredients are well mixed. If necessary, we stop the blender from time to time and collect the dough that remains stuck to the walls. This way we make sure that the mixture is completely homogeneous.
• Next, add the sifted flour and gently mix all the ingredients. The ideal is to incorporate the flour to spoonfuls, little by little, while we beat the dough at slow speed. As we add flour, we will see that the dough becomes more dry and compact.
• When we have added all the flour, if we see that the dough is very crumbly, add the splash of milk. The amount will be just enough for the mass to be linked. This ingredient is optional because you will need to add or not depending on the humidity, the type of flour you use using ... If the climate of your city is very humid it is possible that the mass is linked without problems and you do not need that amount of liquid extra. Try not to overwork the dough, because if we knead it in excess the cookies will not be crispy.
• Once we have the mass ready, we form two balls with it. We flatten them a bit, to facilitate the subsequent lamination, cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for about 15 minutes or so. We divide the dough into two portions to make it more manageable and we can work more comfortably.

Shaping biscuits

• Now it's time to stretch the cookie dough. With the help of guides like the ones you see in the image and a roller we stretch the dough until it is about 4 or 5 mm thick, depending on whether you like them more or less finite. Stretch the dough on a sheet of vegetable paper, this way you will avoid having to flour the work table and add more flour than necessary.
• Once the sheets of cookie dough are stretched, wrap them in plastic wrap and let them rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. If you can leave a little more, better. The cold will harden the dough and allow us to cut the cookies more easily. In addition, it will prevent them from becoming deformed when baking them.
• After the cooling time, cut the dough with the pastes that we want. If you do not have it, you can shape it with a turned glass, for example.
• It is advisable to give another cold hit to the cookies once cut, especially if the ambient temperature is high. On this occasion, with 10 minutes of fridge would be enough.

Baking cookies

• We preheat the oven to 180ºC, with heat up and down.
• We place a sheet of vegetable paper on the oven tray.
• We have the butter cookies on the tray leaving a small space between them, as they grow a little with the heat.
• Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes or until we see that the edges begin to brown a little. We are looking for some cookies by throwing whites, so it is important to watch the oven.
• Once ready, we remove the cookies from the oven and move them to a rack to cool completely. To avoid breaking unwanted cookies, we will use a spatula or similar utensil that allows us to lift them from the oven tray.
• We wait until the cookies are completely cold before storing or decorating them.

Tips for making butter cookies

• The remaining dough cuts after cutting the cookies can be re-kneaded, stretched and chilled to get more cookies. Of course, you have to keep in mind that depending on how you are handling the dough, the cookies will have a less crunchy and somewhat leathery texture.
• The baking time is indicative. It will depend on the power of the oven and the size and thickness of the cookies. It is best to be guided by its color.
• To make the baking of the cookies uniform, try to make cookies of similar size. When we bake big and small cookies together, we run the risk of the small ones getting burned or the big ones getting raw.
• If you are going to make several batches of cookies, the ideal is to have two baking trays. If you do not have them, remember that you must allow the oven tray to cool completely between batch and batch. To accelerate this process you can refresh them under the tap. This step is important, because if we place the cookie dough on the hot tray, the butter will begin to melt before time and they will lose their shape a bit.
• The cookie dough dries easily. Try to cover it with baking paper or plastic wrap when it is in the refrigerator.

Decorate butter Christmas cookies

• As you can see in the images, these cookies are decorated with royal icing. In this post I explain everything you need to know about the development and use of royal glaze.
• You can also decorate them with fondant, of course. In fact, this decorative technique is much more accessible for children.
• If you do not want to mess with decorations, you can sprinkle some sugar mixed with cinnamon on each cookie before baking them.
• And how about a touch of chocolate? Melt a little white chocolate, milk or black, whichever you like, and decorate each cookie with chocolate threads.