HOLIDAY CUTOUTS

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Holiday Cutouts image

Categories     Cookies     Bake     Christmas     Winter     Gourmet

Yield Makes 7 to 8 dozen cookies

Number Of Ingredients 6

Ingredients for basic butter cookies
Decorating icing (optional)
Food coloring in various colors (optional)
Garnish: edible glitter and nonpareils (see cooks' note, below)
Special Equipment
1 1/2- to 2-inch holiday cookie cutters*; several small heavy-duty sealable plastic bags (not pleated)

Steps:

  • Follow recipe for basic butter cookies, forming dough into 2 balls (instead of a log) and flattening each into a 6-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
  • While oven preheats, roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining dough chilled) into a 9-inch round (slightly less than 1/4 inch thick) on a well-floured surface with a well-floured rolling pin. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on a baking sheet until firm.) Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cutters and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging cookies about 1 inch apart. If garnishing, sprinkle cookies with glitter or nonpareils.
  • Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, 8 to 10 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely.
  • Gather scraps and chill until firm enough to reroll, 10 to 15 minutes. Make more cookies with remaining dough and scraps (reroll only once) and bake on cooled sheets.
  • If coloring icing, transfer 1/4 cup icing to a small bowl for each color and tint with food coloring (if using plain white icing, spoon into 1 bag). Spoon each color icing into a bag, pressing out excess air, and snip an 1/8-inch opening in 1 corner of each bag. Twist each bag firmly just above icing, then decoratively pipe icing onto cookies. Let icing dry completely (about 1 hour, depending on humidity) before storing cookies.
  • *Available at New York Cake & Baking Distributor (800-942-2539).

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