Delicious, beautiful Christmas homemade cookies, which are perfect for a festive New Year’s table or as a gift for friends and your loved ones!
I will use a universal shortbread dough for cookies on the yolks. Shortcrust pastry is very easy to prepare at home. In this case, the baking powder does not even have to be added to the dough. And despite this, the products are friable, crumbly, and just melt in your mouth!
Universal shortbread dough is called “universal” because the range of its use is wide. From it, you can bake and cookies, and tarts, and open pies, and baskets…
I want to note that the classic shortbread dough is prepared without additives – for example, cinnamon, paprika, and other spices. But this does not mean at all that it is impossible to slightly flavor the dough! For flavor, I like to add a coffee spice mix or just a pinch of pure ground ginger to the shortbread dough.
Ingredients
- flour – 300 – 350 gr.,
- icing sugar – 100 gr.,
- oil – 180 gr.,
- yolks – 3 pcs.,
- a pinch of salt,
- a pinch of ground ginger
- a pinch of baking powder (optional)
- vanilla sugar – 1 pack,
- thick jam – 100 gr.,
- icing sugar – for dusting.
Instructions
- Take a bowl and add butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in it. Grind the products to a homogeneous consistency. Do not be too zealous; even one minute is enough.
- Then add the yolks to the dough, one at a time. Also, add a spoon of cold milk or water to the dough.
- Now, add flour, salt, and a pinch of baking powder. Be sure to sift.
- Mix the dough with a spoon. After that, continue kneading the dough on the table with the remaining flour. Again, do not knead the dough for too long. With just a simple folding motion, collect the dough into a lump.
- As the dough is collected in a lump, it needs to be sent to the refrigerator for an hour.
- For further work, divide the dough into two equal parts.
- Wrap every piece of shortcrust pastryin plastic wrap and send it to the refrigerator. After the refrigerator, we do not knead the dough but immediately roll it into a layer.
- Cut out blanks from the rolled dough. There must be an even number of them. It is advisable to use New Year’s theme felling.
- Put the dough pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Christmas cookies are baked in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for 10-15 minutes. The finished cookies are barely ruddy in color. You don’t need to bake it too much!
- Roll out the second piece of dough and make the same blanks, but only with a hole inside.
- Leave the baked Christmas cookies to cool. After that, sprinkle the cookies with a hole with plenty of powdered sugar.
- And on whole livers, in the center, spread 0.5 teaspoon of thick jam. I have blueberry and cherry jam.
- Your cookies are ready. Serve with coffee or tea.
Tips & Tricks
- For the preparation of any shortcrust pastry, I advise you to use powdered sugar, not sugar. Why? Because sugar does not have time to dissolve in the dough during kneading. And during baking, this sugar helps the dough to spread.
- You need to get the butter out of the refrigerator in advance, about 3 hours.
- You can knead shortbread dough using a regular fork. But it will turn out faster if you use a mixer.
- By the way, shortbread cookies can be stored for a week. It then becomes even tastier
Friends, no big words are needed! Believe me, a box of such wonderful cookies will do everything for you! Look at the cookies and jam inside! It does not crumble very much, it tastes sweet, and the sour jam is right on the topic!
If you haven’t visited a friend for a long time or want to make something nice for your family, it’s time to bake such simple, tasty and uncomplicated cookies.
Don’t leave aside the recipe for Christmas cookies! It will brighten up your festive table, and friends and family will be satisfied and even ask for a recipe! Take a look!
Friends, I wish you pleasant, joyful and happy holidays!