Christmas is just around the corner, and its atmosphere echoes in glittery decorations in the streets, windows, and every corner of the house.This was the inspiration behind the idea we used to start cooking with my nieces to create something that would light up the magic of Christmas.These cookies are delicious to eat but very impressive when decorating the Christmas tree; they are also great to be decorated with all sorts of colors and decorations.For coloring the icing, use powdered or gel food colorings. Both should be dosed directly into the egg white to dissolve properly. Keep in mind that the color of the icing tends to fade once dry, so I suggest you slightly over-saturate the color versus the shade you want to achieve
Preparation: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes minutes
Rest in the Fridge: 2 hours hours
Total Time: 4 hours hours
RECIPE FOR: 8 people
EQUIPMENTS
- Cookie Cuttters
- Electric Mixer or a Stand Mixer
- Baking Pan
- Pastry Bag and Piping Tips
Ingredients
For the Shortbread
- 500 gr All Purpose Flour
- 300 gr Granulated Sugar
- 200 gr Softened Butter
- 110 gr Eggs
- 5 gr Baking Powder
- 3 gr salt
- 5 gr Vanilla
For the Icing (Ghiaccia Reale)
- 120 gr Egg Whites
- 700 gr Icing Sugar
- 5 gr Lemon Juice
For Decorating
- Gel Food Coloring
- Sugar Sprinkles
- Sugar Pearls
DIRECTIONS
For the Icing (Ghiaccia Reale)
- Whip the egg whites and lemon juice in a Stand Mix until foamy. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, whipping at medium speed. Once the mixture is ready, cover it with plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature.
- For the cookie decoration, divide the icing into various bowls and add a small amount of coloring. Stir with a spoon until the color is fully distributed. Once the icing is ready, use it immediately.
For the Shortbread
- Work the softened butter with the flour until fully dispersed. The flour will turn like wet sand.
- Add the icing sugar, flavorings, salt, and, lastly, the eggs. Knead as long as necessary to form a smooth dough.
- Leave the shortcrust pastry in the fridge for at least 2 hours, keeping it tightly covered with a sheet of food-grade plastic wrap.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of about half an inch and cut out the desired shapes
- Bake in preheated oven at 150ยฐC for 30min keeping the door of the oven slightly open ( either by using the handle of a knife or a ball of aluminum foil).
- Once the cookies have cooled, decorate them with sugar icing and let them dry overnight or so before hanging them on your Christmas tree or eating them.
NOTES
As an alternative to Vanilla, here are some additional ideas for flavoring the Shortbread Dough of these Christmas Cookies as
- Grated orange
- Ginger powder: 5-6gr for the recipe's shortcrust pastry quantity
- Cinnamon powder: 5-11gr for the recipe's shortcrust pastry quantity
- Nuts Flour: You can replace 100gr of recipe flour with 200gr of nut flour and add 20gr of egg to rebalance the recipe
- Dark Cocoa: You can replace 100gr of recipe flour with 20gr Dark Cocoa by adding 10gr sugar.
NUTRITION LABEL
Serving: 100g | Calories: 925kcal | Carbohydrates: 173g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 105mg | Sodium: 234mg | Potassium: 116mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 124g | Vitamina A: 699IU | Vitamina C: 1mg | Calcio: 23mg | Ferro: 3mg