I am a Butter Cookie Connoisseur. I love them in all of their incarnations, Spritz, Sables, Butter Pretzels and Shortbread. Plain, perfect, simple, crisp and crunchy - the perfect thing to enjoy with a cup of tea or a cold glass of milk. So browsing through the cookbooks at the library, (Does anyone else do this? I've got more than 100 cookbooks at home, surely I could find something to bake) I was excited to find a fun little book called Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse by Kay Hansen and Liv Hansen. It's a fabulous cookbook filled with amazing cookie recipes, including Creamy Christmas Butter Cookies. They are, like all Butter Cookies, a simple recipe of butter, flour and vanilla, but include the inspired addition of cream of tartar. I love cream of tartar in Snickerdoodles, elevating simple Sugar Cookies to something more interesting, slightly mouth-puckering and tangy. These Butter Cookies were also pressed with a fork, giving the colored sanding sugar sprinkled on top some little cookie ruts to nestle in. In the book, all of the sanding sugar was red and green - very Christmasy. I set to baking, already imagining the Christmas colored creations that would emerge from my oven.
As I mixed and sifted and rolled small balls of dough, I called to Lovie to bring a fork and the colored sugar. This is a perfect job for a 6 year old - what could be better that smashing cookie dough and sprinkling sugar? She loves to bake cookies, especially when there are sprinkles involoved. When I looked up again, the Butter Cookies were beautiful - their tiny cookie ruts resplendent in their orange and yellow and teal and purple and blue and pink sugar. Two or three of them did actually have red and green sugar on them, mixed in with the rainbow of colors. Oh well, I guess Christmas doesn't have to be all red and green. I sighed and put them in the oven to bake.
But Lovie must have known what she was doing. When I opened the oven, I was met with a gorgeous array of small, round, sparkling cookies that looked for all the world like Christmas ornaments. And they were delicious - crisp, simple and slightly sweet. Everything a proper Butter Cookie should be. Enjoy!
Creamy Christmas Butter Cookies
from Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 cookie sheets.
In a large bowl of an electric mixer at medium speed, mix just until blended:
8 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Add and mix well:
1 large egg
In a separate bowl, mix together:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teapoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Add to the butter mixture and mix at low speed until well combined.
Shape the dough into 3/4 inch balls. Arrange the balls 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork. (To prevent the dough from sticking to the fork, dip it occasionally in confectioners' sugar) Sprinkle the tops with many colors of sanding sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly colored around the edges. Let the cookies cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 4 dozen cookies.
This is my entry into the Holiday Cookie Baking Event hosted by Sharmi at Neivedyam. Check back after the December 28th to feast your eyes on all of the delicious cookie creations.
These butter cookies are beautiful. We didn't do our normal Christmas baking & I want to do some January baking. These sound wonderful. Happy New Year! Beautiful blog.
Posted by: Dee | January 05, 2009 at 08:42 AM