Hanukkah Frosted Cookie Cutouts Food

HANUKKAH COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in egg and extract. Gradually beat flour into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk; cover and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, 2 hours., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with floured 3-in. cookie cutters. Place cutouts 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until set (do not brown), 10-12 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. For frosting, in a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, water and meringue powder; beat on low speed just until combined. Beat on high 4 minutes or until soft peaks form. Cover frosting with damp paper towels between uses., Pipe icing on cookies as desired. Let stand until set. Store in an airtight container.

CHOCOLATE-STUFFED DREIDEL COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half; shape each into a disk. Cover and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, at least 1 hour., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 4-in. dreidel cutter. Place half the cutouts 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets; top with candy bar pieces. Top with remaining cutouts, pinching edges to seal., Bake until bottoms are light brown, 10-12 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely., Tint 2/3 cup frosting light blue. Spread remaining white frosting over cookies. Pipe 1 Hebrew letter on each cookie.

HANUKKAH CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• For cookies:
• Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in large bowl until light. Beat in egg, lemon juice, lemon peel and vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl. Add to butter mixture and stir until well combined. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Flatten each into disk. Wrap each in plastic and chill 2 hours or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out 1 dough piece on lightly floured surface to thickness of 1/8 inch. Using Hanukkah cookie cutters dipped into flour, cut out cookies. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheets, spacing evenly. Gather scraps, reroll and cut out additional cookies, chilling dough if necessary. Bake until cookie edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough pieces in batches.
• For icing
• Place sugar in bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons milk and lemon juice. Add more milk if icing is too thick to pipe. Transfer half of icing to another bowl. Mix food coloring into half of icing.
• Spoon plain and colored icings into separate pastry bags fitted with small round tips or into parchment cones. Pipe icings decoratively onto cookies. Let stand until icing sets, about 2 hours. (Can be made 1 week ahead. Store cookies in single layers in airtight containers.)

HANUKKAH FROSTED COOKIE CUTOUTS

Steps:

• 1. To make the dough: Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then lightly whisk and set aside.2. In a stand mixer set on low speed, beat the butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. On medium speed, beat in the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well blended, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla until blended. Add half of the flour mixture, then the buttermilk, then the remaining flour, beating until it is combined and forms a dough.3. Using lightly floured hands, gather the sticky dough into a ball. Divide the ball in half and flatten each into a 6- to 8-inch disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or until firm.4. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or leave ungreased, and set aside. 5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and, if needed, soften slightly for easier handling. Roll the dough out 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured board, between 2 sheets of parchment paper or heavy-duty plastic wrap, or on a pastry cloth with a cloth-covered rolling pin. 6. Lightly dip a 3- or 31/2-inch Hanukkah-themed cookie cutter in flour, then firmly press it straight down into the dough. Repeat, cutting the cookies close together to avoid rerolling. Using a spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to the baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart.7. Bake until golden, about 14 minutes. Cool slightly on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.8. To make the icing: In a medium bowl, beat together the powdered sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, and lemon extract until blended. It will be lumpy. Stir in the milk until it reaches a spreading consistency. If desired, divide the icing in half and add blue food coloring to one half, mixing until the color is uniform. Using a small spatula, spread the blue icing over the cooled cookies. Place the white icing in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe designs, or spread the white icing over the cooled cookies and decorate as desired.Note: Baker's or superfine sugar is available in supermarket baking sections. For a quick substitute, whirl 1 cup of granulated sugar at a time in a food processor or blender until fine, about 20 seconds.VariationAdd glitter to your Hanukkah table with Razzle-Dazzle Dreidels. Follow the main recipe, using a dreidel cookie cutter. Before baking, use a clean watercolor brush to paint the cookies with an egg-white wash (1 egg white lightly beaten with 2 teaspoons water). Cover the painted areas with blue-colored sugar. Continue as directed.From Holiday Baking. Text copyright © 2005 by Sara Perry. Photographs copyright © 2005 by Leigh Beisch. All rights reserved. First published by Chronicle Books LLC, San Francisco, California.

FROSTED HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla, then beat in egg.
• Add flour mixture and beat until just combined. Divide the dough in half, pat into flat rectangles, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.
• Divide each dough parcel in half, and roll out to 1/8-inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough. Chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line four cookie sheets with parchment paper, sprinkling with a little flour if the dough seems sticky. Cut out shapes from the rolled and chilled dough and place on prepared sheets 1-inch apart. Bake until golden around the edges, 8 to 13 minutes. Let cool.
• Meanwhile, prepare the royal icing: in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Whisk until stiff and glossy.
• To tint the frosting, divide into small bowls. Cover the ones you aren't using with plastic wrap; the frosting dries out very quickly. Use a rubber spatula to stir in desired food coloring. Though not necessary, it makes life easier if you make two versions of each color - one that is thick to pipe the outline on the cookie, and one that is thinned out slightly with a little water to flood the outline. Transfer frosting to piping bags fitted with very small round tips (sizes 1 to 2 work best).
• Pipe frosting onto cooled cookies and let set, at least 2 hours. Or use a pastry of paint brush to decorate cookies with the frosting.

CUTOUT COOKIE DECORATOR ICING

Steps:

• Place sugar into mixing bowl.
• Combine milk, corn syrup and vanilla, and blend.
• Add liquid mixture to powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.
• Add softened butter and blend until thoroughly incorporated.
• Divide frosting into several cups, and add food coloring to each. If using liquid coloring, add a little more powdered sugar until it reaches good spreading consistency.
• Spread onto cookie with knife, or place in zip-loc sandwith bags with the corner nipped off 1/16" to pipe onto cookies.
• Decorate with sprinkles or colored sugars.
• Once cookies are decorated, place on flat surface to allow frosting to dry. Store cookies in covered container.
• NOTE: Differences in humidity may require more or less liquids to make a good consistency frosting. Sugar can be added or milk lessened to achieve the best consistency.