Holiday Cookies

I made three different types of cookies from King Arthur Flour website for Christmas 2020. Our favorites in order were Rugelach, Chocolate Crinkles, and Jam Blossoms and Italian Ricotta Cookies (from Cooking Classy website) tied for third. I halved the recipes for all of them since there's only two of us.

 

Rugelach

Notes - I used a dried cranberry, walnut, sugar filling. King Arthur had many other tasty filling options. 

Makes: 36 cookies

Time: 1 hr 45 minutes

Ingredients:

    Crust

        16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

        6 ounces (170g) cream cheese, at room temperature

        1/3 cup (74g) sour cream

        1/2 teaspoon salt

        2 cups (241g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

    Filling

        1/2 cup (106g) brown sugar, packed

        1 cup (113g) walnuts, chopped

        1/2 cup (85g) dried cranberries, raisins, or currants

        1 tablespoon cinnamon

        water, for brushing dough

    Topping

        granulated sugar or coarse sparkling sugar

        milk or cream

Steps:

1. To make the crust using a food processor: Place the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse briefly to combine. Cut the butter and cream cheese into chunks and add to the bowl along with the sour cream. Pulse just until the dough forms chunks, and you can squeeze it together.
2. To make the dough using a mixer: Beat together the butter, cream cheese, sour cream, and salt until smooth. Add the flour, mixing to make a stiff dough.
3. Divide the dough into three equal portions. Press each gently into a disk. Make the disks as round as possible, smoothing their edges; this will allow you to roll the disks into a perfectly round circle, making the resulting rugelach more attractive. Wrap the disks in plastic, and chill the dough for about 1 hour, until it's firm but not rock hard. Or chill longer (up to overnight), then warm for about 45 to 60 minutes at room temperature, until the dough softens enough to roll out without cracking.
4. To make the filling: Process the sugar, walnuts, dried fruit, and cinnamon in a food processor or blender until finely chopped and well combined (but not pasty). Don't have a food processor? Simply stir together the filling ingredients; your filling will be chunky rather than smooth.
5. Working with one piece of dough at a time, place it on a generously floured surface. Roll it into a 10" circle and brush it lightly with water. For a flavorful touch, brush the rolled-out rugelach dough with a thin layer of boiled cider, warmed apple or currant jelly, or puréed fruit preserves, instead of water.
6. Use your fingers to spread about 1/3 of the filling onto the round, going all the way to the edges and gently patting the filling to help anchor it to the dough.
7. Using a pizza cutter, baker's bench knife, or sharp knife, divide the dough into 12 equal wedges. Roll each wedge up, beginning with the wide end and ending with the narrow end. Place the rolls point-side down on a baking sheet; lining the baking sheet with parchment will help with cleanup. Repeat with the remaining two pieces of dough.
8. Brush the rugelach with milk or cream; and sprinkle with granulated or coarse white sparkling sugar.
9. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Refrigerate the rugelach while the oven is preheating.
10. Bake the rugelach for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and cool right on the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.
11. Store leftover rugelach in an airtight container at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.

Chocolate Crinkles

Notes - I used coffee grounds that weren't superfine which added an unwelcome crunch. I didn't put enough confectioners' sugar on the first batch, so I thoroughly coated them after that and they were beautiful. I also overbaked them a tiny bit since chocolate cookies are hard to gauge. 

Makes: 5 dozen 2 1/2" cookies

Time: 2 hr 40 minutes

Ingredients:

    1 1/3 cups (227g) chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips

    8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature

    2/3 cup (135g) granulated sugar

    3 large eggs

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional; for enhanced chocolate flavor

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1 2/3 cups (198g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

    confectioners' sugar, for coating

Steps:

1. To make the dough: Place the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, and heat or microwave until the butter melts. Remove it from the heat, and stir until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, vanilla and espresso powder. Stir in the chocolate mixture, baking powder and salt, then the flour. Chill the dough for 2 to 3 hours, or overnight; it'll firm up considerably.
3. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a couple of baking sheets, or line them with parchment.
4. To shape the cookies: Put about a cup of confectioners' sugar into a shallow bowl. Using a teaspoon cookie scoop, a spoon, or your fingers, scoop out heaping teaspoon-sized portions of the dough; they should be roughly 1 1/4" in diameter. Drop the dough balls into the confectioners' sugar as you go.
5. Once about five or six are in the bowl, shake and toss the bowl to coat the balls with the sugar. (If you try to do this with too many balls at a time, they'll just stick together.) Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2" between them.
6. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, switching the position of the pans (top to bottom, and front to back) midway through the baking time. As the cookies bake, they'll flatten out and acquire their distinctive "streaked" appearance.
7. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool on a rack. Store them at room temperature, well wrapped, for several days; freeze for longer storage.

Jam Blossoms

Notes - I made my own berry jam and bought apricot jam. I didn't make the frosting thin enough, so my frosting lines were a little thick. 

Makes: 26 cookies

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

   Dough

        1/2 cup (57g) confectioners’ sugar

        8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

        1/4 teaspoon salt

        1 teaspoon vanilla extract

        1/4 teaspoon almond extract

        1 cup (120g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

    Topping and Glaze

        2 1/4 cups (255g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

        2 tablespoons (39g) corn syrup

        1 teaspoon vanilla extract

        3 to 4 tablespoons (43g to 57g) milk

        2/3 cup (206g) jam or preserves

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Have on hand a small bottle cap or other flat round object about 1" in diameter (to press wells into the baked cookies).
2. To make the dough: In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, salt, and extracts until smooth. Mix in the flour.
3. Scoop the dough into 1" balls (a teaspoon cookie scoop is just right for this) and place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch of space between each cookie.
4. Grease the flat bottom of a glass or measuring cup and use it to press the balls 1/2" thick. 
5. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, until their edges just begin to brown. Remove from the oven and use the bottle cap to press a circle into the warm cookies to make a well for the jam.
6. To make the glaze: Whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of the milk in a medium bowl; the mixture should be thick. Add more milk a teaspoon at a time until the glaze is the consistency of honey. When dropped into the mixing bowl, it should fall off the spoon in a thick ribbon that disappears back into the glaze after a few seconds.
7. To finish: Fill the indentations in the warm cookies with 1 teaspoon of jam or preserves. Let cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a rack to finish cooling completely. Once cool, drizzle with the glaze.

Italian Ricotta Cookies

Notes - These were just the right amount of sweet and the lemon that came out in the glaze was perfect. Ricotta cookies are more dense in a good way than normal cookies. 

Makes: 48 cookies

Time: 120 minutes

Ingredients:

    3 1/2 cups (495g) all-purpose flour*

    2 1/2 tsp baking powder**

    3/4 tsp salt

    1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened

    1 3/4 cups (370g) granulated sugar

    1 tsp lemon zest

    15 oz ricotta, whole milk or fresh (1 3/4 cups, see notes**)

    1 Tbsp vanilla extract

    2 large eggs

Glaze

        1 Tbsp butter (salted or unsalted), melted

        3 3/4 cups (460g) powdered sugar

        2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice***

        1 tsp vanilla extract

        4 - 6 Tbsp milk

Steps:

1. For the cookies:
2. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt for 20 seconds, set aside. 
3. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment whip together butter, granulated sugar and lemon zest until pale and fluffy (scrape down sides and bottom of bowl occasionally throughout entire mixing process).
4. Mix in ricotta and vanilla extract then blend in eggs one at a time. Set mixer on low speed and slowly add in flour mixture and mix until combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill 2 hours or up to 2 days. Preheat oven to 350 degrees during last 20 minutes of dough chilling.
5. Scoop chilled dough out 1 Tbsp at a time and shape into balls (if it's too sticky just drop onto sheet using two spoons), drop onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (I don't recommend using dark non-stick pans for this recipe since the bottoms will already become pretty golden. Dark pans brown more than uncoated pans do).
6. Bake in preheated oven 12 - 14 minutes until underside of cookies are golden. Cool on baking sheet several minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
7. Once cool dip tops of cookies in glaze and return to wire rack, immediately add sprinkles if using. Allow glaze to set at room temperature. Store in an airtight container in a single layer.
8. For the glaze:
9. In a mixing bowl whisk together powdered sugar, melted butter, lemon juice or almond extract, vanilla and 4 Tbsp milk until smooth, adding in more milk 1 tsp at a time to thin as needed (you don't want it to be very thin, it should be quite a bit thicker than a doughnut glaze).

EAT