Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies #Christmas #Cookies

"Roll-and-cut" sugar cookies are made with the aid of flattening dough with a rolling pin, then slicing out shapes. The dough recipe right here is good: durable sufficient to resist rolling and rerolling, yet tender sufficient to cut well.

The cookies themselves are extraordinarily versatile. They can be genuinely sprinkled with sugar and baked; or, after they're baked, they may be adorned with royal icing or sandwiched with jam and sprinkled with confectioners' sugar.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-reason flour 
• three/4 cup sugar 
• 1/four teaspoon salt
•  2 sticks cold unsalted butter, reduce into 
• 1/2-inch portions 2 huge egg yolks 
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• three/four cup seedless raspberry or apricot jam (for jam-stuffed cookies) 
• Royal Icing, sprinkles, sparkles and dragées, for adorning

How To Make

Step 1    
within the bowl of a status electric powered mixer fitted with the paddle, blend the flour with the sugar and salt. upload the butter and mix at low velocity until the butter is broken up into small portions, approximately 2 minutes. increase the velocity to medium and blend until the flour and butter shape small clumps, approximately 1 minute. add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix at low speed till the dough comes collectively in some large clumps. Pat the cookie dough into two 1/2-inch-thick disks, wrap them in plastic and refrigerate until chilled however no longer firm, approximately 30 minutes.

Step 2    

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line 2 big rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. On a gently floured surface, running with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough 1/eight inch thick. the usage of 3- to 4-inch cookie cutters, reduce the dough into shapes and switch to the prepared baking sheets. Reroll the scraps and cut out greater cookies. (as an alternative, reduce the dough into three- to four-inch shapes and, using a smaller cutter, stamp out the center of half of of the cookies.) Refrigerate the cutout cookies till chilled, approximately half-hour.

Step 3

Bake the cookies for about 13 mins, until they're lightly golden round the rims; shift the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through for even baking. let the sugar cookies cool on the baking sheets for approximately 5 mins, then, the usage of a steel spatula, cautiously switch them to a rack to cool absolutely, about 20 mins.

Step 4    

For sandwich cookies, spread a skinny layer of raspberry or apricot jam at the strong cookies and top with the corresponding cutout cookies to expose the jam. in any other case, decorate as preferred with the Royal Icing, sprinkles, flickers and dragées.

Make beforehand

The decorated and/or jam-crammed cookies can be saved in an hermetic container for up to at least one week.