Hanukkah Cutout Cookies Recipes

CHANUKAH COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in one egg yolk until completely incorporated. Beat in the other egg yolk along with the orange juice and vanilla. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into desired holiday shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies on prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

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.

SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Wisk together flour and salt. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until pale and fluffy, occasionally scraping down the sides of bowl, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed, scraping sides if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed with fingers.
• Turn out dough, forming into 2 disks; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out 1 disk to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out shapes using desired cookie cutter, and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Reroll scraps. Repeat with remaining disk. Indent cookies with desired stamps. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes. Bake until firm and golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

VEGAN & GLUTEN FREE SUGAR CUT-OUT COOKIES {REFINED SUGAR FREE OPTION}

Steps:

• Place the coconut oil or softened vegan butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and almond extract in a mixing bowl and use a hand mixer to combine on medium low speed until light and fluffy.
• Add the dry ingredients (almond flour, oat flour arrowroot powder and salt) and mix on low speed until combined.
• Divide the dough into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap, then flatten into a disc. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour or overnight.
• When you are ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two half sheet baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Place one disc of dough on a piece of parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper overtop the dough.
• Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 1/2-inch thick. Do not roll too thin or they will not be soft when baked and are difficult to handle when raw.
• Cut the dough into desired shapes. Or if you don't have cookie cutters you can roll into small circles about 2 inches in diameter.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 8 minutes. Be careful not to over-bake smaller shapes or the cookies will be too dry. I like to do 8 minutes for a softer cookie. If you use very large cookie cutters or the dough is thicker than 1/2 inch, the baking time may vary. Check on the cookies toward the end as they can burn easily. You want them to look just slightly golden brown around the edges.
• Remove from oven and allow cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes (this allows them to harden a bit before handling them). I sometimes stick the entire cookie sheet in my freezer on a silicone heat pad.
• Carefully move cookies to a cooling rack to cool fully (they will harden once fully cooled).
• Repeat with the other disc of dough.
• Once the cookies are completely cooled, decorate using my vegan and paleo vanilla icing OR melted coconut manna OR Vegan Vanilla Frosting. Add natural vegan sprinkles if desired before the frosting sets.

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.)