Bon Appetit Desserts (163 page)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line heavy large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured surface to ¼-inch thickness, frequently lifting and rotating dough to prevent sticking. Cut out cookies with desired cookie cutters and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Gather dough scraps; reroll and cut out additional cookies.

Sprinkle cookies decoratively with assorted colored sugars or sprinkles. Bake until just golden brown at edges, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough disks and colored sugars.

Stained Glass Lemon Cookies

Ground hard candies melt in the center cutouts of these cookies while they bake, achieving a gorgeous stained glass effect. If you don’t have small cookie cutters (about 1 inch in diameter) to cut the “windows” from the centers, use the wide end of a small pastry bag tip instead. These cookies would make a striking gift displayed in a glass canister tied with a brightly colored ribbon.
Makes about 2½ dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2¼ cups unbleached all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

6 ounces (about) red and/or green hard candies

Additional sugar

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Beat in egg yolk, lemon peel, and vanilla. Add flour and salt and beat until mixture begins to clump together. Divide dough into 3 equal pieces. Flatten each piece into disk; wrap each in plastic and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

DO AHEAD
:
Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before rolling out.

Roll out each dough disk between 2 sheets of parchment paper to ¼-inch thickness. Transfer rolled-out dough disks (still on parchment) to baking sheets and chill 30 minutes.

Finely grind red and/or green hard candies separately in processor. Transfer each color of candy to separate small bowl; cover candies and set aside. Position 1 rack in center and 1 rack in top third of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 heavy large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 rolled-out dough disk at a time, peel off top layer of parchment paper; use 2¼- to 2¾-inch-diameter cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to cut out cookies [1]. Using small (about 1-inch-diameter) cookie cutter, make cutouts in center of each cookie [2].

Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets. Spoon ground hard candies into cookie cutouts [3], filling cutouts completely to same thickness as cookies.
Sprinkle cookies lightly with additional sugar. Return cookies and dough scraps to refrigerator; chill 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough disks, ground hard candies, and additional sugar. Reroll dough scraps and cut out additional cookies. Place on baking sheets; fill with hard candies and sprinkle with additional sugar. Chill filled cookies on baking sheets 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until firm and light golden and ground candies look translucent, 8 to 12 minutes. Cool cookies completely on baking sheets.

DO AHEAD
:
Can be made ahead. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week, or freeze up to 1 month.

Maple Stars

Crisp, buttery, maple-flavored cookies are transformed by a sprinkling of bright white sparkling sugar crystals, which can be found at some supermarkets, cake and candy supply stores, and online at
lacuisineus.com
.
Makes about 6 dozen

2¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

½ cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons maple extract

2¼ cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons whole milk

Bright white sparkling sugar crystals or other white sprinkles

COOKIES
: Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and maple extract. Beat in flour mixture until just blended. Divide dough in half. Flatten each half into disk; wrap disks separately in plastic and chill until firm enough to roll out, about 1 hour.

DO AHEAD
:
Can be made 1 day ahead.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line heavy large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured work surface to 11-inch-diameter round, about ⅓ inch thick. Using 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter dipped into flour, cut out cookies from dough. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Reroll dough scraps on lightly floured surface and cut out additional cookies. Repeat with remaining dough disk.

Bake cookies until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to racks and cool completely.

ICING
: Stir powdered sugar and milk in medium bowl until smooth (icing will be thick). Using small offset spatula or butter knife, spread icing over top of 1 cookie, then sprinkle top with sugar crystals. Repeat with remaining cookies, icing, and sugar crystals. Let cookies stand at room temperature until icing is dry and firm, at least 1 hour.

DO AHEAD
:
Can be made ahead. Store in single layer in airtight containers at room temperature up to 5 days, or freeze up to 2 weeks.

New England Molasses Gingerbread Cookies