Christmas Butter Cookies Rolled in Festive Sugar
These holiday butter cookies are refrigerator cookies that are rolled in festive colored sugar, sliced into coins and baked. They're super easy to make since they don't require rolling out with a rolling pin, and are perfect for dessert trays and gifts. This recipe comes from the Family Around the Table blog. The cook time includes 2 hours of chill time in the refrigerator.
Servings: 72 cookies (6 dozen)
Calories: 41.3kcal
Equipment
- Kitchen scale with the whisk attachment
- Whisk
- Chef's knife
- cookie sheet
Ingredients
- 9 ounces all-purpose flour (2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 4 tablespoons decorator sugar, any color or combination of colors
Instructions
- Weigh the flour if you have a kitchen scale, and whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl.
- In the bowl of the standing mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the sugar until fluffy, about 3 - 4 minutes. Add the yolks, vanilla extract and orange zest, and continue to beat until completely absorbed.
- Stir in flour mixture using a rubber spatula until dough comes together. Divide dough into quarters.Pro tip: I divide the dough by weighing it, and then dividing it into 4 equal pieces using a kitchen scale.
- Cover 3 parts of the dough with plastic, and roll the 4th piece of dough into a cigar shaped log that's about 1½ inches in diameter. My cookie dough logs were about 7 ½ inches long. Spread the decorator sugar in a square that's larger than the length of the rolled dough by at least 1 inch. Place the cookie dough log at one edge of the decorator sugar, and slowly roll it over the sugar. Pro tip: If there are areas of the log that are bare, sprinkle the sugar over those areas and gently press it in. You want as much decorator sugar as possible on the outside surface of the log, as some will naturally fall off when wrapping and unwrapping the dough, cutting it, and arranging it on the cookie sheet.
- Wrap the cookie dough log in plastic wrap and set it aside. Repeat this with the other 3 pieces of cookie dough, always keeping the dough you're not working with covered in plastic. Otherwise the dough can begin to form a dry crust on the surface from the flour.When all four logs are wrapped, place them in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.
- Preheat the oven to 350˚F, and remove the logs from the refrigerator. Unwrap only one of the logs, and place it on a cutting board. Slice it into coins of equal thickness. Note: I sliced mine about ⅓" thick, and got around 18 - 20 coin shaped cookies from each log.
- Arrange the cookie dough coins on an un-greased cookie sheet. They won't spread very much, so you can space them 1 ½ inches from each other. Continue to slice the logs until you fill the cookie sheet, always keeping the ones you're not working with wrapped in plastic.
- Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are a very pale golden color. Immediately transfer them to a plate or cooling rack. This will take a few batches to cook all of the cookies.Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
🎯 Baking Tips
- Weigh your flour for a consistent result. It makes a difference.
- Bring the butter to room temperature before whipping it in the mixer. If you're in a hurry, and forgot to do this, here's a quick way to warm your butter a bit. Slice the butter into ½ tablespoon pats. Heat a bowl of water in the microwave oven. Empty the water out, dry the bowl, and turn it upside down over the butter for 5 minutes.
- Try not to overwork the flour when mixing it into the butter and sugar, and when creating the cookie rolls. Overworking flour can make the cookies tougher.
- My cookie rolls were 7 ½ inches long, and 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter. I got 18 cookies from each roll. You can roll them as thick as you want, of course, but the baking time and yield will change.
- Make sure the cookie rolls are smooth and even, to get evenly shaped cookies that will bake up in the same length of time.
- The dough must chill in order to slice it into round coins. Chilling also helps them hold their shape (and size) during baking.
- Roll the dough lengths in the decorator sugar so that it's completely covered. If necessary, sprinkle additional sugar over bare spots and gently press.
- Wrap each cookie roll individually in plastic.
- Bake only until the edges of the cookies begin to turn a pale golden color. It will be subtle.
Nutrition
Calories: 41.3kcal | Carbohydrates: 5.3g | Protein: 0.5g | Fat: 2.1g | Saturated Fat: 1.2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.5g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 10.1mg | Sodium: 32.9mg | Potassium: 5.1mg | Fiber: 0.1g | Sugar: 2.6g | Vitamin A: 65.2IU | Vitamin C: 0.04mg | Calcium: 1.8mg | Iron: 0.2mg