Roll-Out Cookies for the Holidays

If you didn't see my recipes for roll-out cookies in the December issue of Bon Appetit, you can now find them on Epicurious. 

There are recipes for chocolate, spice and vanilla roll-out cookies, along with a recipe for an easy to scroll, squiggle and curlicue royal icing that dries hard.

I love these cookies - especially the spice cookies, which are gingersnappy and get a little extra zip from dried mustard - for lots of reasons: they are super easy to roll out; they keep their shape when they're baked, so you can cut them in fanciful forms and use them for decorations (if you want to use them as ornaments, make a hole in the cookies before you bake them); and, they're really, really delicious.

I hope you enjoy them!

Comments

[Mandy]

Hi Dorie,

I made the vanilla and chocolate rolled out cookies early this week. Really like the chocolate one as there's melted chocolate in it. So delicious. The initial plan was to make one batch each, cut them with a linzer mold and sandwich some nutella between them. But the chocolate dough spreaded and became slightly bigger than the vanilla ones.I still went ahead with the plan though, by cutting the chocolate cookies with the cutter again after baked. :D

[Dorie]

Lori, I've never made royal icing without lemon juice, but it should be fine without it. If you've got cream of tartar in the house, use a pinch of it in the icing to stablize the whites. And, yes, of course, flavor the icing anyway you'd like. Let me know what you do with the cookies once they're rolled out and baked. Have fun!

[Lori in Pittsburgh]

Hi Dorie,

A question about the royal icing recipe -- is the lemon juice for flavor or is it a necessary part of the recipe? If it's just for flavor, could one could substitute vanilla extract or cinnamon oil (in smaller quantities)?

I have the dough for the vanilla cookies chilling in the fridge right now. Thanks!

[Dorie]

Thank you all! French Tart raises a great question:

Can the dough be frozen? And the answer is YES!

You can make the dough, shape it into disks or rectangles, wrap it really well and freeze it. It will keep for about 2 months. If you have the time, defrost the dough, still in its wrapper, overnight in the refrigerator.

You can also roll out the dough, cut it into cookies and freeze the cut-outs on a lined baking sheet. When the cut-out dough is firm, you can pack the unbaked cookies for the freezer (make sure to separate the layers of cookies with wax paper or parchment). When it's time to bake, just transfer the frozen cookies to a lined baking sheet and slide the sheet into the oven. The cookies will need a couple of minutes more in the oven, so keep an eye on them.

[frenchtart]

wonderful! i've been making gingerbread roll-out cookies for years and decorating my tree with them; but the recipe i use is elaborate and involves a ton of ingredients, so i will try your spice cookie recipe this year. one question, can the dough be frozen? you mention it can be made ahead, which i'm all about - this month, i feel like i'm running on empty already - but i was wondering if you'd ever frozen the dough short-term (like, make this week for rolling out and baking in a week or two). thanks!

[Maria]

The cookies are beautiful! I have been baking all week...I just love this time of year. I am glad I am blessed to have friends, family, and co-workers to share them with too! I don't need that much sugar in my house, but I can't stop baking:) Thanks for always supplying the greatest recipes!

[bea at La tartine gourmande]

Hello Dorie,

I am one of Sheryl Julian's food writers at the Boston Globe, and tonight she kindly gave me a copy of your cookbook, Baking, which she praised so much! I am so looking forward to trying recipes. How appropriate, at this time of year.

[JEP]

I'm in cookie baking mood for sure!

[Karen Noske]

Can't wait to bake these! Am so looking forward to comments about "how good they are"--"what on earth is that flavor?"--and then, oh, the joy of saying "That's MUSTARD in there, my friend!" You reign!

Love, Karen