Holiday Spice Cookies
I wanted to make some mini holiday cookies. Something tiny and cute and fun to decorate and easy to pack into a cute little gift box. My friend Leanne was kind enough to share her Autumn Spice Cookies recipe with me (which I changed to Holiday Spice because, well, it’s not Autumn anymore), and I had so much fun!
These cookies were a lot of fun to make, and decorate. And they taste so delicious! The icing also hardened perfectly for stacking, so I’ve made up a couple of cute little gift boxes of cookies to give away for the holidays. And making them also made my apartment spell so yummy for the rest of the day!
Holiday Spice Cookies
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon praline candy oil
3 cups all-purpose flour (I substituted my rice flour mix for this)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup International Delight Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer (I used the Caramel Praline flavor instead!) [and for the record, Leanne says you can use heavy cream if you want, instead of this creamer, but it is needed for the proper consistency]
Beat together the butter and the brown sugar in a large bowl. (If using an electric mixer, use medium speed.) Mix until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, praline flavoring, and creamer. Add the flour, cinnamon, salt, allspice, ginger, and cloves. Beat on low or by hand until well-blended.
Roll out dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place them 2 inches apart on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350º for 10 to 15 minutes—the edges should be very lightly browned. Cool completely on wire racks before decorating with colored icing (flavored with more praline oil) and assorted sugars or edible sparkles.
The Royal Icing
I used a slightly different recipe and technique for my icing this time. First, I made the icing thick enough that I could outline the cookies with it and it wouldn’t run everywhere.
1 pound (3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar
5 tbsp meringue powder
1/2 cup warm water
Blend on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
I saved about half of it (put it aside wit ha damp paper towel on top so it doesn’t harden), and divided the other half into 2 bowls, which we (my sister and I) colored with red and green. We put it into icing bags, using #2 tips. We outlined all of the cookies, which took a while.
Then with the rest of the icing, I added about 2 more tbsp of water, and blended again until I had a good consistency for filling the cookies in. Basically the icing should sink back into itself after a couple of seconds, when you lift some up with a spoon. AGain, we divided it into 2 bowls and colored with red and green. Put it into more icing bags with #4 tips, which was pretty perfect for filling in the shapes.
We had some leftover from the outlining, which I used to add soem decoration on top, like the holly berries, stripes on the candy canes, and dots in the middle of some of the stars. We also sprinkled some edible glitter onto some of the stars.
And then… We ate them! And they are so yummy! (Have I said that already?)