You've Got to Try Ree's Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe of All Time (2024)

Directions

• 1. Step1Cream shortening, sugar, orange peel, and vanilla thoroughly. Add in egg and beat until light and fluffy. Add in the milk and mix.
  2. Step2Sift dry ingredients together, then blend into cream mixture. Divide dough in half (thirds if you double your recipe), slightly flatten between two sheets of waxed paper, then refrigerate for one hour (or freeze for 20 minutes).
  3. Step3While dough is chilling, combine egg yolk, water and food coloring to make the egg yolk glaze.
  4. Step4Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and cut into shapes with a cookie cutters. Transfer shapes to lightly greased cookie sheet and paint cookies (with a soft brush) with egg yolk glaze.
  5. Step5After brushing with egg yolk glaze, bake at 375 degrees for approximately 6 minutes. Do not allow the cookies to brown.
  6. Step6While cookies are baking, mix powdered sugar, milk and egg whites (which are optional) to make the decorative icing. Remove cookies from oven to a wire rack to cool. Then, using a pastry bag or Ziploc bag, pipe with white icing to decorate.
     

The Cast of Characters: Flour, Sugar, Salt, Baking Powder, Shortening (yes, shortening), Sugar, Eggs, Vanilla, Milk, Food Coloring, and Powdered Sugar. Ho ho ho!

Before we measure 2/3 cup of shortening, do you guys have these “atypical” measures? I love them more than I love Coffee Haagen Dazs. Wait. No I don’t.

Okay, NOW you can measure 2/3 cup of shortening.

Now zest a lemon. (And if you don’t have a microplane zester, you’re naked and alone in the dark.) You can also zest an orange if you don’t have a lemon available.

And add in 1/2 teaspoon zest.

Then, since I’d doubled it, I added two eggs and 8 teaspoons milk.

Mix until light and fluffy.

Now, into a sifter, throw 4 cups flour, 3 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Sift dry ingredients together.

Now add dry ingredients into the mixer and mix until thoroughly combined.

Here’s the dough when it’s all mixed. Go ahead and take a bite. Say yum. Feel guilty. Now it needs to be refrigerated before rolling it out.

I usually divide the dough into thirds: just take a third of the dough and place it on a piece of waxed paper.

Then place a second piece on top and flatten the dough slightly. This will make it easier to roll out later.

Just separate an egg, reserving the white.

Place each egg yolk in a separate bowl. Just use as many yolks as you want colors with which to decorate your cookies. Huh?

To each egg yolk, add 1 teaspoon water and stir.

Now add a couple of drops of food coloring to each dish. I always use green, of course. Blip…

Blip! (Sound effects provided by Pioneer Woman.)

Then just stir together with a fork.

Blip!

Now repeat with red.

Blip-Blip-Blip! Now throw all your colors together to make some pathetic attempt at black. How does one make a black egg yolk? I’ll never know.

Now sprinkle flour on a smooth surface.

Remove one of your discs of dough from the fridge or freezer, and place on the floured surface.

Now, with a rolling pen, begin rolling out the dough. I generally roll from the center, outward. But you just roll that dough however you want to, honey. I’m all about bending the rules.

I’m all about precision here at The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

Now comes the fun part! Begin pressing cookie cutters into the dough, using up as much dough as you can.

What is the trait that allows a person to formulate the best pattern in which to cut the shapes so as to use the dough as efficiently as possible? Spatial reasoning? Intelligence? Whatever it is, I ain’t got it. But I do my best.

Place the shapes onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Butter is fine, or a light mist of Crisco Spray with Flour works great.

Now comes the REALLY fun part! With soft bristle brushes, begin painting on the colored glazes. Really, just make sure the bristles are very soft—watercolor brushes work really well—or the surface of the dough will get scratched and messed up.

This is a cookie cutter I used when I was a little girl when my fingernails were bitten to a quick and my hair was stringy and unkempt. Or was that last year? Anyway, this cookie cutter has been a part of my life forever. (Thanks, Gee, for parting with it recently. You’re the best mom I ever had.) And say! That black is lookin’ pretty durn black if I do say so myself.

Continue until all cookies are painted as desired, then bake at 375-degrees for about six minutes. IMPORTANT: Watch to make sure the cookies do not begin to brown, as they taste much better if they don’t. Six minutes is almost always just the right amount of time. Just make sure the cookies have sufficiently poufed, then take ’em out.

Here’s what they look like when removed from the oven. Remove from pan and allow to cool on a wire rack. But wait…we’re not finished yet.

And dadgum, in all the excitement I forgot to paint the tree trunks black. But I’m not afraid to admit it to you. Because if I can’t be honest with all of you, what is there to live for?

Now, these Santas (facing sideways, for those of you who can’t get your bearings) are okay, but I think they need a little definition. So lets make some white icing to pipe on the cookies, okay?

I dump a bag (2 pounds) powdered sugar into a bowl…

Add about 1/2 cup milk…

And a couple of tablespoons egg whites. If you’re squeamish about raw egg products, you can EASILY leave this out. I don’t even know if it helps. I just like to add it for kicks.

Mix together, then place into a pastry bag with a very fine tip OR into a Ziploc bag with a tiny hole cut into one corner. Then just begin piping white icing wherever you’d like!

Don’t take yourself too seriously; just have fun with it.

More Honesty: I can already tell I got this icing way too thin. When it’s right, the icing is thick enough to retain its shape as it exits the tip of the pastry bag.

For example, in years past the Santas’ beards and fur boot trim has actually been “curly”, drying soon enough after it’s piped on to retain its shape. But I don’t let consistency of icing ruin my fun time. Because who cares what they look like as long as that cookie’s goin’ in my mouth in about three minutes? All this to say, start with 1/4 cup milk instead of 1/2. Don’t be like me.

For the snowmen, just squeeze some icing on and spread it to cover. I haven’t yet figured out how to color an egg yolk white.

Okay, I cheated and painted on the tree trunks after the effect, just for show. I’m all about honesty here—honesty about cheating.

If you have little adornments, feel free to add those.

Aren’t they darling and kitschy?

But more than that, they’re totally delish.

If you’re looking for a fun, easy, charming new recipe for Christmas cookies, why not give these a try?