How To Bake Holiday Cookies!

Melina Makled and Cecilia Barker
December 5, 2022

Cookies are a holiday favorite here are some easy and quick holiday cookies!

These are the ingredients for the cookies:

  • 1 Large egg
  • 1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 ½ cups (12.5 ounces) of all-purpose flour 
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1cup (7ounces) of granulated sugar
  • 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter cut into ½ inch pieces and chilled

These are the ingredients for the frosting:

  • 2 ⅔ cups (10 ⅔ ounces) confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 large egg whites 
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • ⅛ teaspoon of salt
  • Here is how to make the cookies!
  1. For the cookies whisk egg, vanilla, salt, and almond extract together in a small bowl.
  2. Whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda together in another bowl.
  3. Process sugar in a food processor until finely ground, about 30 seconds.
  4. Add butter and process until uniform mass forms and no large pieces of butter are visible, about 30 seconds scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
  5. Add egg mixture and process until smooth and paste-like, about 10 seconds.
  6. Add flour mixture and process until no dry flour remains but the mixture remains crumbly, about 30 seconds, scraping the bowl down as needed.
  7. Turn the dough onto your counter and knead gently by hand until smooth, about 10 seconds.
  8. Divide dough in half. Place 1 piece of dough in the center of a large sheet of parchment paper and press into a 7 by 9-inch oval.
  9. Place a second large parchment paper sheet over the dough and roll dough into a 10-14 inch sheet oval of even ⅛ – inch thickness.
  10. Transfer dough with parchment paper to a rimmed backing sheet. Repeat pressing and rolling the second piece of dough, then stack it on top of the first piece on the sheet.
  11. Refigratate until dough is firm at least 1 ½ hours. 
  12. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position Line rimless cookies sheet with parchment.
  13. Working with 1 piece of rolled dough, gently peel off the top layer of parchment.
  14. Replace parchment, loosely covering dough. (Peeling off parchment and returning it will make cutting and removing cookies easier.)
  15. Turn over the dough and parchment, gently peel them off, and discard the second piece of parchment.
  16. Using a cookie cutter, cut dough into shapes.
  17. Transfer shapes to the prepared cookie sheet, spacing them about ½ inch apart.
  18. Bake until cookies are lightly and evenly browned around the edges, 14 to 17 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking.
  19. Let cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes. Using a wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
  20. Repeat cutting and baking with the remaining dough. (Dough scraps can be patted together, rerolled, and chilled once before cutting and baking.)

Here’s how to make the royal icing!

  1. Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip all ingredients on medium-low until combined for about 1 minute.
  2. Increase to medium-high and whip until glossy, soft peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed.
  3. Then all you need to do is put the icing on your cookies and let them dry for about 1 ½ hours then you can eat them or serve them.

Ours may not look the best, but they were very tasty!