Starting to Look at Christmas Cookies

Perhaps Christmas seems far away to you, but we are one month and a couple of days away from when our daughter and her family will arrive for the holidays, so I'm starting to think about what I'll bake. When you  get older it seems to take much longer to do anything, so planning for Christmas will surely take longer than it used to, too.

I've already started. King Arthur Baking had a refrigerator cookie recipe that I saw recently and then made. It's a slice-and-bake cookie with orange flavors from candied orange peel and orange oil. You roll the dough log in sparkling sugar, which gives some shine and a lot of crunch to the finished cookie. I like them, but I think for Christmas I'll use candied ginger and some powdered ginger instead, plus I'll use red and green sanding sugar to give a bit of Christmas colors to the cookies. One of my family is allergic to orange, so ginger will be a better bet, plus it's a great flavor for winter. If I do try it that way I'll try to post about it, giving the changes. Do note my findings at the bottom of the recipe, about baking time and heat. Every oven is different, so adjust the time and temperature to suit your oven.

These are pretty easy to create. Like most slice-and-bake cookies, the dough can either be chilled before baking or frozen. The latter lets you start early...a bonus when you are getting ready for the holidays! They are also delicious, citrusy cookies, so it's great to bake them right away, just to enjoy.

Orange Sparkle Slice-and-Bake Cookies

Yield: 6 dozen cookies

3/4 cup (75g) Candied Orange Peel
2/3 cup (132g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (76g) confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon Orange Citrus Oil
1 3/4 teaspoons table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
18 tablespoons (255g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups (390g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) Sparkling Sugar/sanding sugar

 If orange peel is the least bit dried out, place in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Cover and set aside. If peel is very moist, just set aside.

 Beat together the sugars, orange oil, salt, and extracts until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

 Add the butter and beat on medium-low speed until smooth, 3-4 minutes. Scrape the bowl and beaters, add the egg, and beat until fully combined, about 1 minutes.

 If you soaked the orange peel, strain it and press gently to removed excess moisture. If the peel was very moist, get ready to add it.

 Add the flour and orange peel, and beat on LOW speed until combined, about 30 seconds.

 Transfer the dough to a clean work surface. Divide the dough in half (about 500g per piece) and shape each half into an 11-inch long log.

 Spread the sparkling sugar across the middle of a piece of parchment, then roll each log in the sugar to completely coat.

 Wrap each log in a long piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate until very firm, about 1-2 hours. Alternately, freeze for up to two weeks.

 When ready to bake, remove any frozen logs from the freezer and allow to thaw for 1 hour. If refrigerated, remove from fridge, unwrap and you are ready to slice and bake.

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

 Take one log of unwrapped (and thawed if necessary) dough and slice into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Rotate the log about 90 degrees every few slices to maintain a neat circular shape.

 Place the sliced on two parchment-lined baking sheets (I used baking sheets with a light spray of butter flavored baking spray instead of parchment), placing the cookies about 2-inches apart.

 Bake for 14-18 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Let cookies cool on the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely before serving. Repeat the slicing and baking and cooling with the remaining dough, or save in the fridge to slice and bake later, up to one week.

 I found that 400 degrees F and 14 minutes were too long for my cookies, so keep an eye on the first batch since you may need to remove them from the oven a lot sooner than 14 minutes. You can see from the photos that mine were a darker brown on the edges than 'golden' and the centers were the golden brown color.