Better Homes and Gardens BH&G Christmas Cookies 2022

MULTILAYER STORAGE Layer unfrosted bars and cookies, sturdy cookies, and cookies with firm-set icing between sheets of parchment paper in an airtight container. Store at room temperature or refrigerate (if directed in the recipe) up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw cookies, if frozen, and decorate as directed in recipes. SINGLE-LAYER STORAGE Place brownies, soft bars, and cookies with sticky toppings or frosting in a single layer in an airtight container. Store at room temperature or in the refrigerator (if directed in the recipe) up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months. REFRIGERATOR STORAGE Refrigerate cookies with these features: • Caramel- and chocolate-base frostings and fillings • Nougat or gooey fillings that benefit from firming • Frostings and fillings containing sour cream, cream cheese, or butter • Custard and cheesecake fillings SKIP THE FREEZER Most…

MEASURE ACCURATELY It’s the first step to creating spectacular cookies. BROWN SUGAR Spoon brown sugar into a dry measuring cup. Use a spoon to pack it into the cup firmly and even with the top of the cup. You can use light or dark brown sugar interchangeably in recipes. FLOUR First, stir the flour in the canister to fluff it.. Spoon the flour into the measuring cup until it’s overflowing, then level the top with a knife. If you pack it into the cup, you’ll end up with too much flour—and dry cookies. LIQUID MEASURING Use a liquid measuring cup to measure liquids. When filling, get down to eye level with the cup and stop when you get to the correct measuring line. For sticky ingredients, such as honey, corn syrup, or molasses, spray the measuring cup…

STACK CAKE STANDS. Stack two or three cake stands—from largest to smallest—on top of each other. If you don’t have a third cake stand to put on top, use a ramekin or straight-sided bowl turned upside down. The size of your cake stands will determine the number of cookies needed. MAKE TEMPLATES. Draw free-form shapes of houses on cardboard to use for the dough cutouts. For height, roofs need to extend at least 1 inch above the cake stands so the cookies can be easily adhered to the stands during assembly. BAKE THE COOKIES. For various shades of brown, prepare one or more batches of Rich Butter Cookie Cutouts, Chocolate Butter Cookie Cutouts, or Gingerbread Cutouts (recipes, page 6), using the templates for cutting out the dough. We selected doughs that will…

SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH HANDS ON 20 minutes 1 cup butter, softened1½ cups sugar1½ tsp. baking powder½ tsp. salt2 eggs1 tsp. vanilla3 cups all-purpose flour In a large bowl beat butter with a mixer on medium to high 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping bowl as needed. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. CHOCOLATE SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH Prepare as directed, except substitute ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder for ¼ cup of the all-purpose flour. CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT SUGAR COOKIE DOUGH Prepare as directed, except substitute ⅓ cup chocolate-hazelnut spread for ⅓ cup of the butter. CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT TASSIES HANDS ON 1 hour BAKE 8 minutes per batch at 350°F COOL 5 minutes 1 recipe Chocolate-Hazelnut Sugar Cookie Dough½ cup granulated sugar¾ cup chocolate-hazelnut spread3…

SOFT EGGNOG SUGAR COOKIES HANDS ON 35 minutes BAKE 10 minutes per batch at 325°F 1 cup unsalted butter, softened1 cup granulated sugar2 tsp. baking powder1 tsp. kosher salt¾ tsp. ground cinnamon½ tsp. ground nutmeg2 egg whites2 Tbsp. eggnog*1 tsp. vanilla½ tsp. rum extract2¾ cups cake flour1 recipe Eggnog Buttercream Frosting 1. Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large bowl beat butter with a mixer on medium to high 30 seconds. Add next five ingredients (through nutmeg). Beat on medium until fluffy, scraping bowl as needed. Add egg whites, eggnog, vanilla, and rum extract; beat until combined. Beat in flour. 2. Drop dough by 2-Tbsp. portions 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are light brown. Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove;…

I am Christmas cookies’ number one Jewish fan. I LOVE Christmas cookies and all of the festivities surrounding them, like going to cookie swaps, decorating cookies with my kiddos, devoting full days to making zillions of cookies, and boxing them up in cute tins to deliver around town (not to mention seeing all of the beautiful cookie tins on Instagram). And of course I love having the excuse of the Christmas season to keep colorful cookies stocked in our kitchen at all times for visitors or … just me! No offense to sufganiyot or latkes, but as the holiday season draws near, I tend to find more creativity and inspiration in the concept of a cookie. So a few years ago I started cultivating a repertoire of Hanukkah cookies for our…