Peppermint Filled Sugar Cookies

Yesterday we shared Marianne's famous sugar cookie recipe, and included the way she normally decorates them with sanding sugars.  Over Thanksgiving we got fancy while baking some cookies and tried a new technique.  The result was amazing.  Kait took step by step pictures on her phone, but has since gotten a new phone, and the old phone is keeping them hostage.  We have one picture to offer you for now, but will update you with the step by step ones after she gets them off!  If you are looking for a new and easy way to decorate your sugar cookies, we suggest you give this a try.







Ingredients:

• 1 batch of sugar cookie dough
• Crushed up candy canes

Directions:

1. Roll prepared dough out and cut with a large cookie cutter
2. Use a smaller cookie cutter in the same shape and cut out the middle of each cookie
3. Place on a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet
4. Fill the "hole" in each cookie with crushed up candy canes
5. Bake as directed
6. Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the sheet and then transfer to wire baking racks to finish cooling

What are you baking today?  Mari & Kait

Sugar Cookies

Marianne is not only an a big baker around Christmas, but every holiday she makes her FAMOUS sugar cookies for friends and family.  They are such a hit!  It is ridiculous how delicious they are!  Today we are sharing the recipe with you, and instructions on how she typically decorates them, but check back tomorrow to see another festive way to bake and decorate them!











Yield: About 3 dozen depending on size of cookie cuter

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 large egg

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)

• 1/4 tsp salt

• Cookie cutters (shapes of your choice)

• 2 tsp meringue powder

• 2 T water

• Sanding sugars (in colors of your choice)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with electric mixer until fluffy
3. Add egg, beating until blended
4. Combine flour and salt: gradually add to butter mixture, beating just until blended
5. Divide dough into two equal portions; flatten each portion into a disk. Cover and chill for 10 minutes
6. Place one dough disk on heavily floured surface, and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter
7. As you cut, reshape and re-roll the dough as necessary
8. Place 2 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough disk. Note: as dough warms, it will get sticky. Keep dough in the fridge until you need it. If it gets too soft, put it back in the fridge for a few minutes. 
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets for five minutes; transfer to wire racks and let cool completely (about 30 minutes)
10. Whisk together meringue powder and 2 tablespoons water. Brush cookies with mixture or dip cookies in mix. Sprinkle with sanding sugars. If you do not have meringue powder, you can use egg whites.

Tips: Keep dough cold. Also, you may need to prepare additional meringue powder/ water mixture as you decorate. Sanding sugar may also be called "fine" sugar.  Sanding sugars and meringue powder are most likely NOT sold in your grocery store, however you can find them at a specialty craft or food store (we go to our local Sur La Table for supplies).  Also, works best to buy bags of the sugars and spoon over the cookie.  Canisters of sprinkles/sugars do not coat the cookies as well.

Recipe from: Southern Living

What are you baking today?  Mari & Kait

Walnut Rugelach Cookies

Marianne has a new favorite cookie, and spoiler alert: these are the winner.  Kait isn't too mad she found this recipe either.  They are easy to make, and so delicious!  Kait's favorite part is rolling them like crescent rolls.  Marianne's favorite is pulsing everything in the food processor.  Sometimes there are simple joys in life!  Give these a try today, and they will most likely become your favorite too!











Ingredients (for the cookies):

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces cold cream cheese, cbed
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• Powdered sugar

Ingredients (for the filling):

• 2 cups walnuts
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Add the flour and salt to food processor and pulse several times
2. Add cream cheese and butter and pulse 10-12 times, until coarse crumbs form
3. In a small bowl whisk together the vanilla and yolk and then add to the flour mixture.  Run the processor until the dough starts to clump together and form large curd-like pieces
4. Lightly dust your work space with flour
5. Form the dough into a ball and then divide into four equal portions

6. Flatten each into 1 inch thick disks and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days (can also be frozen for up to 3 months, and thawed in the refrigerator before baking)

7. To make filling: In a food processor, pulse the walnuts 25-30 times until you have tiny crumbs.  Combine the ground nuts in a bowl with the butter, honey, sugar, and vanilla.  Divide into 4 equal portions

8. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
9. Generously dust your work space with powdered sugar.  Place dough on surface and dust it with powdered sugar as well.  Roll the dough from the center out into a circle about 1/8-inch thick.  Use more powdered sugar as needed to prevent sticking

10. Spread each portion of dough with a portion of filling in a thin, even layer.  Press the filling gently into the dough

11. Use a pastry cutter or pizza slicer to cut the dough into 16 wedges, like a pizza
12. Roll up each wedge like a crescent roll, beginning with the wide end, and place on the baking sheet.  Make sure the end is tucked underneath

13. Refrigerate cookies on the baking sheet, 20-30 minutes
14. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
15. Bake the cookies one tray at a time until golden-brown, about 18-22 minutes
16. Cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely

Recipe from: Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice

What are you baking today?  Mari & Kait

Peppermint Swirl Sugar Cookies

We try really hard to make these cookies look effortless and hope we're fooling you. This is the first time we've made a recipe using 2 different colors of dough. If you've done something like this before, you probably know what to do. We had a tough time figuring out what to do with the white and red dough and you'll see from the pictures, we just kind of made a creation. But the end result was yummy! Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe. If you don't have one, we provided one for you!  We hope you like the peppermint cookies because we did!  Expect at least one more on the blog in the next week weeks!







Ingredients:

• 1 batch of cookie dough (recipe below)
• 1-2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract
• 3 drops red food coloring

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, knead peppermint extract into sugar cookie dough.  We did this with the electric mixer once about 2/3 of the flour had been added
2. Once well combined, place half of the dough into a separate bowl
3. Add red food coloring to one half of the cook dough.  We used the electric mixer to combine together

4. Refrigerate dough for about 45 minutes
5. Divide the dough into halves (you should have 4 pieces, two white and two red)
6. Roll out each piece and stack them on top of each other
7. Break them into sections and roll them into logs.  Put on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate for about 2 hours

8. Remove dough from fridge and slice into 1/4 inch slices
9. Place on baking sheet in a 350 preheated oven, and bake for 8-10 minutes

10. Remove from oven and allow to sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes
11. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool before serving
    

Recipe from: Simple Bites

Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla
3. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt
4. Cover and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight)

What are you baking today? Mari & Kait

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

For the most part we like the same foods, but we both have our quirks.  For example, Marianne cannot stand fruit in anything baked or cooked.  Kait is very particular about the texture of a lot of foods.  I bring this up because today's recipe is one Marianne was excited to bake, but she didn't even try them.  Why?  Because they have fruit in them.  She wouldn't even take the smallest bit while they were cooling and smelling heavenly, but when we shared them with our friends everyone loved them!  Just be sure you do not over bake them.  10-11 minutes is probably best or they will be too hard.  We hope you enjoy them!







Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup dried tart cherries
• 3 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
• Non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk to combine.  Set aside
3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended
4. Add vanilla and egg and beat well
5. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined
6. Fold in cherries and chocolate chips
7. Spray cookie sheet with non-stick spray and then drop dough 2 inches a part onto it (approximately 1 tablespoon in size)
8. Bake for 10-11 minutes, or until just set
9. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes
10. Remove from sheet and let cool completely on wire cooling racks

Recipe from: My Recipes on Yummly

What are you baking today?  Mari & Kait

Walnut Snowball Cookies

The other day while we were on a baking spree we realized we were running low on sugar.  Rather than take a baking break, we sent Kait's husband Adam to the store.  Evidently we were not specific enough because he came back with a package of powdered sugar rather than granulated sugar.  What do these 2 baking birdies do?  Improvise!  We figured out what recipe we could bake that didn't use granulated sugar, but with the ingredients we already had on hand.  With a little Google magic we found the perfect match.  We are so glad Adam made this littler error because it resulted in delicious cookies!







Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds removed
• 2 cups powdered sugar, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside
3. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden, approximately 8 minutes.  Remove from oven, let them cool, the coarsely chop them

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 325
5. Add butter and vanilla bean to the bowl of a stand mixer, and beat until pale, about 2 minutes

6. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Halfway through, scrape down the sides of the bowl
7. Reduce speed to low and add salt
8. Gradually add the flour and walnuts and beat until just combined, scraping the sides of the bowl halfway through
9. Roll dough into balls  in 1 tablespoon size portions
10. Bake the cookies in the upper third of the oven for about 17 minutes until they are lightly browned on the bottom.  Halfway through baking, switch the sheet to the lower third of the oven, and also rotate the cookie sheet
11. Let the cookies firm up on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool slightly
12. Put the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar in a small bowl and roll the warm cookies in the sugar to coat.  Return them to the wire rack to cool completely

13. Roll one final time in the sugar before storing

To Store:  These cookies can be store in an airtight container for up to 5 days

Recipe from: Food & Wine

What are you baking today?  Mari & Kait

5 Cookie Making Mistakes

We recently came across Food & Wine's article about the 5 common cookie mistakes you can make while baking.  Since we are in the middle of the 25 Days of Cookies, we thought we should share them with you too!  When baking your next batch of cookies, be sure to avoid these mistakes:

1. Underbeating the butter & sugar
2. Overbeating the butter & sugar
3. Overmixing the cookie batter
4. Placing the cookies too close together on the baking sheet
5. Overbaking the cookies

To read more about these common cookie mistakes, and how to avoid them, check out the Food & Wine's article here.

Mari & Kait