Cutout Christmas Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the anise extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Mix until just blended. Over-mixing will result in tough cookies.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies at least one inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 12 to 15 minutes or until firm. Cookie will not turn a golden brown. If they do, they're over-done. Turn out onto rack to cool. Wait until cool if frosting.

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill until firm, 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in thickness. Cut out with Christmas cookie cutters of your choice. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks., Decorate cookies with frosting and colored sugars.

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder salt, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll dough, a portion at a time, to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired with frosting or confectioners' sugar., To Make Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days in advance. Wrap in plastic and place in a resealable bag. Store in the refrigerator., Freeze option: Freeze undecorated cookies in freezer containers. To use, thaw in covered containers and decorate as directed.

Steps:

• Sift together flour and baking powder in separate bowl.
• In second bowl, beat together sugar and egg until it becomes lemon-colored.
• Add butter, orange juice and vanilla.
• Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
• Slowly begin adding flour mixture (about 1/2 cup at a time) and blend; continue until all flour is used.
• Form into 2 flattened rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.
• When ready to roll, set oven to 400 deg F.
• Cover baking sheets with parchment paper (can be reused from batch to batch).
• Sprinkle powdered sugar onto rolling surface as you would flour.
• Roll out one rectangle into desired thickness and cut out; place on baking sheet, making sure not to let cookies touch.
• Re-form scraps and roll again (may have to add more powdered sugar for rolling); continue until all dough is used.
• Once baking sheet is full, place into oven and set timer for 6 minutes.
• Depending on cookie thickness, baking time can range from 6-10 minutes, so check at the 6-minute mark to determine whether you need to bake longer.
• When light golden in color, remove cookies from baking sheet and place on cooling racks or flat surface covered with parchment.
• Cool to room temperature and frost with favorite frosting.
• If decorating, I recommend the following frosting (also appears in recipezaar under "Cutout Cookie Decorator Icing":.
• 1 cup confectioners sugar.
• 2 tsp milk.
• 2 tsp light corn syrup.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla.
• food coloring.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll out a portion of cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheets. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minute, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Cool completely on pans about 5 minutes, transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before decorating.
• In a small bowl, mix sugar and water to form a thick, smooth icing. Stir in food coloring to reach desired shade. Drop icing onto cookies using a small teaspoon and smooth with the back of the spoon. Make additional bowls for additional colors.
• Additional multi-colored sprinkles can be added on top of icing before it dries for more decorative cookies, if desired.

Steps:

• For the cookies: Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mix the mint and vanilla extracts with the egg in a small bowl with a fork.
• Beat together the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on low speed until the butter has picked up the sugars, about 30 seconds. (If using an electric hand mixer, beat about 2 minutes.) Increase the speed to medium and beat, stopping halfway to scrape the bowl, until slightly creamy, about 1 minute (about 3 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Reduce the speed to low, slowly add the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture a heaping cup at a time in 2 additions, stopping a few times to scrape the bowl and beaters. (If using a hand mixer, increase the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning.) Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium (higher with a hand mixer) and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 2 minutes (about 5 minutes with a hand mixer).
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide the dough into 2 even pieces, each about 11 ounces. Shape each piece into a 6-inch square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
• Remove one of the dough squares from the refrigerator and let soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust a piece of parchment with flour. Dust the dough square with flour and roll it out on the parchment to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Lift the dough occasionally by sliding a metal spatula or bench scraper underneath to make sure it isn't sticking to the parchment. Cut out Christmas trees with a 2-inch cutter as close together as possible and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between the trees. Gather together the scraps and roll and cut more cookies. Chill the cookies on the baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until the cookies are light golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cookies about 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, remove the second dough square from the refrigerator to soften until just pliable but still cool and firm, about 15 minutes. Repeat the rolling, cutting, chilling and baking procedures with the second dough square.
• For the green royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the frosting thickens. The icing should be pure white and thick but not fluffy and bubbly. (If the frosting is overbeaten, it will get aerated, which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit for a bit to settle, then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the icing.) Add the green and red food coloring and beat until evenly distributed and the color is a deep hunter green. Put the icing in a resealable plastic bag and snip the corner to make a tiny opening (or put the icing in a piping bag with a 1/16-inch tip).
• To decorate: Pipe a dot of icing onto the top point of each tree. Stick a chocolate nonpareil candy on each dot. Pipe the icing onto the cookies in zigzags to make a tree design. Sprinkle white nonpareils around the icing as snow. Let the icing set at room temperature, at least 1 hour.

Steps:

• On a large sheet of parchment paper, lightly flour both sides of 1 disk green dough, cover with more parchment, and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with second disk. Remove top sheets of parchment.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll pieces of red dough into thin snakes. Arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern. (If dough gets too soft to work with, refrigerate 10 minutes before continuing.)
• Roll yellow and plain dough into pea-size balls and arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Top dough with more parchment and gently roll over dough until decorative pieces are flush with green dough.
• Carefully remove top sheets of parchment. With a 4-to-5-inch-tall tree-shaped cutter, cut dough. Transfer dough on parchment to baking sheets and freeze until firm, 15 minutes.
• Remove cutouts from excess dough and transfer to newly lined baking sheets. Bake until set, 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Steps:

• In a mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter until fluffy.
• Add oil, vanilla and eggs.
• Mix well.
• Stir in dry ingredients; mix well.
• Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 375.
• Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness.
• Cut out dough with cookie cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 5-8 minutes or until lightly browned.
• Cool on wire racks.
• Decorate with frosting or sprinkles of your choice.

Steps:

• In large bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, the butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, almond extract and egg until well blended. Stir in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
• Heat oven to 375°F. Divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough 3/16 inch thick. Cut into assorted shapes with cookie cutters, or cut around patterns traced from storybook illustrations. If cookies are to be hung as decorations, make a hole in each 1/4 inch from top with end of plastic straw. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until light brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• In medium bowl, beat all frosting ingredients until smooth and spreadable. Tint with food color if desired. Frost and decorate cookies as desired with frosting and colored sugars.

Steps:

• For cookies; in a large bowl combine butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract; beat using an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
• In another bowl combine the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the butter mixture until well blended.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
• Set oven to 400°F.
• Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (do not grease cookie sheets use parchment paper only).
• On a very lightly floured surface roll out the dough into about 1/4-inch thickness.
• Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters.
• Place cookies 2-inches apart on cookie sheet.
• Bake 4-6 minutes.
• Remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely before icing.
• For the frosting; in a small bowl mix the confectioners sugar with milk (start with 1-2 tablespoons, you will likely need more milk for the perfect spreading consistency).
• Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth and glossy (if the icing is too thick add in a small amount more of corn syrup).
• Divide into as many separate bowls as you wish for different colours.
• Add in food colouring until desired intensity is achieved.
• Paint the icing over the cookies using a brush, or dip edges of cookies into icing.
• Allow to set on waxed paper.

Steps:

• Sift together flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Beat in the vanilla with the last egg. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Cover and refrigerate dough overnight.
• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with Christmas cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. If using cutters that have small appendages, such as reindeer legs, reduce the baking time or they will overcook. Remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Beat the butter and confectioners' sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl, mixture will be stiff. Add the vanilla and slowly mix in the milk a little at a time until a spreading consistency is reached. Stir in food coloring, if desired. Make sure cookies are completely cool before frosting.