Tuesdays with Dorie: Christmas Sugar Cookies

After the fun of baking with my mom last week, it was a bit of a letdown to go back to solo baking. However, the fabulous sugar cookie recipe this week and the resulting cookies I scarfed went a long way toward consoling me.

So, folks. Sugar cookies. Not too exciting, right? A basic component of the holiday cookie platter, but rarely the star. Too often, sugar cookies are dry and floury, with hard royal icing on top. Not tasty! These cookies, however, were awesome. They were everything all sugar cookies aspire to be. Soft, but crisp on the edges. Buttery and flavorful. (I added the zest of half and orange and just a sprinkling of cinnamon to get them in the holiday spirit.) So good, I had to stop myself from eating all the unbaked dough.

The little guy on the lower right is my favorite

As many people noted, the dough did get soft very quickly. To counter this problem, I used a trick I learned several years ago: immediately after making the dough, I rolled it out to proper baking thickness between two sheets of parchment paper and stuck it in the fridge on a baking sheet. This helps it chill much faster, so I didn't have to wait the full two hours before beginning to cut the cookies. This also means I didn't have to flour the dough as I rolled it out, so they didn't get too floury or tough.

I did roll my dough a little thicker than the recommended 1/4", so I ended up with some fatty bo-batties. Which was no problem, since I love a good chunky cookie any day.


I finished the cookies off with a simple powdered-sugar based icing. They were the hit of Jason's holiday party! I was a bit bummed to not get a few more cookies out of the batch, but it was also a blessing since the decorating took way too long as it was, and I need all the beauty sleep I can get.

And finally, to make up for the lack of my adorable mom in this post, I give you this instead. Any guesses as to what it might be? Answer tomorrow!