I made these cookies for the first time today and they are so good.  They are another cookie from-come on, guess-King Arthur Flour!  I'll bet you didn't see that coming.  I made their Gingerbread cookies last year and while they were good, the flavor was just a bit strong for me.  If you feel the same way about gingerbread cookies, you're gonna love these.  Another beauty about these, all the ingredients can be found at your local grocery store!


They kind of remind me of the Chai Spice cookies my sister made last year for Christmas.  Kind of intriguing when you first bite into them and then they really grow on you.  They are a cutout cookie so you will need to refrigerate the dough, roll it out and then cut it into the desired shape using cookie cutters.  If you're not big on holiday cutouts and want something a bit more formal, I would suggest using a fluted square or round biscuit cutter.  Now on to the recipe!

light spice holiday cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch

• directions

  1) In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, shortening, sugars, baking powder, spices, and salt until light and fluffy.

  2) Add the egg and molasses, and beat well.

  3) Mix about half of the flour into the butter mixture. When well combined, add the cornstarch and the remaining flour.  The mixture will seem kind of shaggy, but just keep mixing until it comes together real well.

  4) Divide the dough in half, flattening each half slightly to make a disk. Smooth the edges by rolling the disk along a lightly floured work surface. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour (or longer), for easiest rolling.

  5) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  6) Take one piece of dough out of the refrigerator, and flour a clean work surface, and the dough.

  7) Roll it out as thin or thick as you like. For slightly less crisp cookies, roll it out more thickly. We like to roll these cookies 1/8" to 1/4"inch thick. Use flour under and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the table or rolling pin.

  8) Alternatively, place the dough on parchment, and put a sheet of plastic wrap or another piece of parchment over it as you roll, pulling the plastic or parchment to eliminate wrinkles as necessary when rolling; this will keep dough from sticking without the need for additional flour.

  9) Transfer the cookies to ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets.

  10) Bake them just until they're slightly brown around the edges, or until they feel firm, about 10 to 12 minutes.

  11) Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool on the baking sheet for several minutes, or until they're set. Transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

  Yield: 3 to 4 dozen 2 1/2" to 3" cookies.

  For cutouts during the holiday season, I will make several batches and freeze them.  When I'm ready to decorate with royal frosting, I'll take them out and defrost before decorating them.  Enjoy!

Key Lime Sparkler Cookies

Here's another great cookie recipe I found on King Arthur Flour.  This is how they describe them:  Mouth-puckeringly tart and satisfyingly sweet, these crunchy, sugar coated cookies will become a family favorite.  You might be thinking, isn't that a more summer-type cookie?  Actually it's a great year-round cookie, but when I found it on KAF's site, they were touting it as an alternative Holiday cookie.  This time of year you find a lot of chocolate and gingerbread cookies, but why not slip in one of these snowy and tart cookies to brighten things up?

This recipe does call for a few items that you probably won't have in your pantry.  These items are lime oil, sour salt (citric acid) or tart & sour flavor, and edible glitter.  You can find all of these items through King Arthur Flour.  The lime oil and edible glitter can probably be found at your local cake store or Michael's.  You might even find it at a Williams-Sonoma.  I did a quick search on the sour salt and they have it available at Williams-Sonoma as part of their new spice collection.  It's also available on several spice sites.

One thing I love about these cookies is that they freeze real well, so it's very convenient for this time of year.  Now on to the recipe:

Cookies
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons Key Lime Juice
1/8 teaspoon lime oil
1/8 teaspoon sour salt (citric acid)* OR 1/2 teaspoon Tart & Sour Flavor
1 large egg 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Coating
1/8 teaspoon sour salt (citric acid*)
1 cup glazing sugar or confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons white edible glitter (optional)

*Sour salt (citric acid) is what gives the cookies their sour bite—if you want less tang, use just a pinch.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and baking powder till well blended. Beat in the lime juice, lime oil, sour salt (citric acid), and the egg. Blend in the flour thoroughly. 

Roll the dough into 1" balls, and place them on lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies in the top third of a preheated 350°F oven for 14 to 16 minutes, until the cookies are browned on the bottom. Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Mix together the sugar coating ingredients in a pan or bag. Gently shake and roll the still slightly warm cookies in the sugar till coated. Allow the cookies to cool completely, then repeat, coating again with the sugar. (If you're freezing the cookies, you may choose to recoat the cookies in sugar once they've been removed from the freezer, before serving.)

Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

To scoop the cookies, I use the small scoop from Pampered Chef.  You bake them until the bottoms are slightly brown.  Watch them carefully because it can sneak up on you.  I would recommend you mix up the powder sugar coating as soon as you put them in the oven.  They cool down pretty quickly and you want to do that first coating when they are slightly warm.  Not too warm or it will become a gummy mess.  If I'm going to freeze them, I do one coating of the powdered sugar mixture and then freeze them in an airtight container.  I keep the left over sugar mixture in an airtight container until it's needed again.  You'll want to separate the layers of cookies with parchment paper.  When you're ready to serve, defrost and do one more coating of the sugar mixture.  

My sour salt is in a medium to large grain so when I mix it with the powdered sugar, I crush it a little bit first so it distributes nicely.  Also, you might be saying, what the heck is edible glitter?  It is flavorless and adds a beautiful touch to your baked goods.  I like to sprinkle some on top of the icing on cupcakes.  Gives it a nice sparkle.  When it first came out, it was on available in white (more like clear).  Now it not only comes in different colors, they are making it into shapes i.e. trees, hearts and stars!  I get mine at Michael's but a good cake shop should have it also.  If not, you can order it though KAF.  The recipe calls for white, but I do a combination of either white and green edible glitter or white edible glitter and green sanding sugar.  Combine all the ingredients for the powdered sugar mixture well and then add the edible glitter.  If stirred too much, it does tend to break down into smaller pieces and loses it's sparkle.  Enjoy!