Simple Christmas Cookies (aka Spiced Sugar Cookies)

 Made these from Bon Apetit for Valentine’s Day. 

A super-easy, no-mixer-needed cookie dough recipe that doesn’t dirty any bowls and leaves plenty of time for the fun stuff—baking, decorating, and eating dough scraps, of course.

Ingredients

MAKES ABOUT 24

1

cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, chilled

½

cup granulated sugar

¼

cup (packed) light brown sugar

2

large egg yolks

2

teaspoons vanilla extract

1

teaspoon kosher salt

2

teaspoons ground cinnamon

2

teaspoons ground ginger

½

teaspoon ground cardamom, cloves, or nutmeg

¼

teaspoon baking powder

2

cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for surface

Colored sanding sugars or royal icing (optional; for decorating)

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

Assorted cookie cutters

Preparation

Step 1

Process butter in a food processor until smooth. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and process until thoroughly blended into butter, about 1 minute. Add egg yolks and vanilla; process until mixture is smooth and looks glossy, about 30 seconds. Add salt, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, baking powder, and 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. flour; pulse until dough comes together around the blade. Turn out onto a work surface and knead a couple of times to incorporate any floury bits. Divide dough in half; pat into two ½"-thick disks. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, 45–60 minutes.

Step 2

Let dough sit 5 minutes at room temperature to soften slightly.

Step 3

Preheat oven to 350°. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼" thick. Punch out cookies with cookie cutters and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing at least 1" apart. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if using, and press in lightly to adhere. Gather up scraps and reroll once. Chill cookies on baking sheets until firm, 5–10 minutes, then bake until edges are golden brown, 12–18 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on baking sheet; transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Step 4

If using royal icing, decorate cooled cookies and let dry 2 hours.

Step 5

Do Ahead: Dough can be made 1 month ahead; freeze instead of chilling. Cookies can be baked 2 weeks ahead (do not decorate with royal icing); place in airtight container and freeze.

My notes: 

1. Used APP with a little whole wheat pastry. I used the large food processor to make the recipe in the manner stated. Obviously added more spices than strictly necessary. 

2. Chilled the dough for several hours. I knew I was going to roll these out and cut out shapes, but next time I’d also consider rolling into a log to slice and bake. The cut cookies held their shape for the most part in the oven, but certainly not the cleanest lines I’ve seen. Took about 11-12 minutes in my oven, depending on thickness of the cookie. 

3. I ended up decorating with ruby red cacao chips that I’ve had for forever, but next time would try royal icing or sanding sugar next time. True frosting would be too sweet for this cookie. 

4. Would make again! Quite yummy.