Description
These Slice and Bake Christmas Cookies are festive, colorful, and perfect for holiday celebrations. Softened butter, combined with sugars and vanilla, creates a tender dough that’s lightly sweetened and easy to shape. The dough is divided into plain and colored portions, frozen in decorative stacks, and then wrapped to create beautiful, multi-colored cookie logs. Sliced thin and baked until just golden, these cookies are ideal for making ahead and serving fresh during the holidays.
Ingredients
Scale
Basic Dough:
- 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (90 grams) confectioners’ sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups (480 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Coloring:
- Gel food coloring (various colors as desired, e.g., green, brown, blue)
Instructions
- Combine Dry Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: In another large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter, confectioners’ sugar, and white sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add Vanilla and Eggs: Add the vanilla extract and eggs to the butter-sugar mixture, then beat again until fully combined and smooth.
- Form Dough: Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until a soft dough forms. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
- Chill Plain Dough: Wrap and refrigerate two-thirds of the plain dough for later use.
- Divide and Color Dough: Divide the remaining one-third of dough into portions according to the number of desired colors. Add gel food coloring to each portion and mix well using a hand mixer or knead by hand with gloves. Wrap each colored dough portion tightly with plastic cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Shape and Freeze Colored Dough: Remove the colored dough from the refrigerator and roll each color out to about 1/2 inch thickness. Use mini cookie cutters to cut out small shapes, then stack identical shapes into tall, firm stacks. Repeat with remaining colored doughs and freeze the stacks for at least 4 hours to harden.
- Soften Plain Dough: After about 3 hours of freezing the colored dough stacks, remove the plain dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour until softened.
- Form Cookie Logs: Remove the frozen shape stacks from the freezer. Press the softened plain dough around each stack to form a log, ensuring the stacked shapes run directly through the center. For shapes with intricate details, press small bits of plain dough into crevices before fully wrapping.
- Smooth and Freeze Logs: Gently roll the logs between your hands to smooth and create an even, round log shape. Wrap tightly in plastic cling wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Prepare Oven and Baking Sheets: Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice Cookies: Remove the frozen logs from the freezer and let them rest for about 20 minutes to soften slightly. Using a sharp knife, slice the logs into 1/4-inch thick cookies.
- Bake Cookies: Place the sliced cookies onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them slightly apart. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until the cookies are set and lightly golden at the edges.
Notes
- Ensure dough is not sticky before dividing and coloring.
- Use gel food coloring rather than liquid to maintain the dough consistency.
- Freezing the cookie stacks and logs is crucial to keep shapes defined when slicing.
- Wrap logs tightly to avoid freezer burn and preserve freshness.
- You can store sliced cookies in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze unbaked slices for later baking.
