Who doesn’t love cookies cut into cute little Christmas-themed shapes? I mean really.
My only issue is that they’re usually sugar cookies. As in, not chocolate. How to solve this problem?
Duh. Scharffen Berger cocoa powder. And a recipe for Brownie Roll-Out Cookies from Smitten Kitchen. I whipped up four batches of this stuff since Thanksgiving. I admit, I ate some of the dough.
You would too.
Now if you decide to actually BAKE some of these cookies, or any other cutout cookie, let me recommend reading Gail’s site for easy but valuable tips. Five minutes on her site will save you hours of baking misery later. One of her best tutorials is one on how to more effectively roll and cut cookies by using parchment paper and your freezer. I gave it a try.
Un-chilled dough goes between two sheets of parchment paper.
Roll the dough unchilled. Trust me. This is a million times easier than fighting refrigerated dough.
Freeze the prepared sheets of cookie dough until you are ready to cut them out. Then go to town. Bake cookies while still quite cold; this helps them retain their shape.
Thanks to these helpful hints from Gail, this was by far the easiest experience I have ever had with cutout cookies. And that’s just ONE of her tutorials. She’s got more. She’s amazing. She’s on The Today Show this morning. She may or may not be one of my idols.
Enough of that, back to the chocolate cookies. While these cookies are perfectly delicious on their own, I wanted a way to feature my mad new meringue buttercream frosting skills. A linzer-style cookie seemed to be the obvious solution, so when Marsea came over to make the zebra cake, we also worked on our collective contribution to the DC Blogger Cookie Swap by cutting out plain circles and window circles and baking them.
Then it was time to get down to business. Raspberry meringue buttercream, for which I used the base meringue buttercream recipe from Nick Malgieri’s Bake! and added a bit of pureed and strained raspberries, goes on the solid circles.
Window circles go on top. Frosting featured. Sandwiched between wonderful chocolate cookies.
And I needed to show off my cookie dough frosting as well, right?
And for grins, I also made some cooked flour frosting and mixed in a bit of crème de menthe to make a mint version.
Fortunately, these are almost all out of my freezer now, happily in the hands of those who attended the DC Blogger Cookie Swap. These are seriously tasty. And so versatile – fill them with any frosting, jam, cream, nut butter, or anything else that would make you as happy as a soft rolled chocolate cookie.
Have you ever made linzer-style cookies? What kind of filling did you use?
Never made that type of cookie....but man do they look delicious!!!!! I love it when cookies are chocolate, pretty, and taste good too!!! =D
ReplyDeleteYum. These look pretty and DELICIOUS!
ReplyDeleteNever tried making these kind of cookie but they look awesome, as I am also a chocolate LOVE!! Have you ever gone to Max Brenner restaurant? Lots of great chocolate desserts!!
ReplyDeleteOh those are so cute! I've never tried anything like them! Now I'm curious though!
ReplyDeleteooh, i need some cookie cutters! these sound delicious, as well... i'm going on cookie overload :)
ReplyDelete@fitchocoholic And they aren't that hard to make! Plus so easy to fill with anything.
ReplyDelete@Julie @SavvyEats Thanks Julie! And of course, in my opinion, "delicious" is the most important part.
ReplyDelete@thehealthyapron Actually haven't hit up Max Brenner's; there isn't one in DC, BUT I plan to go to the NYC store next time I am there. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDelete@Emily @ For Sweets Sake Definitely give them a try, Emily. And the brownie roll out cookies are much tastier than plain sugar cookies.
ReplyDelete@Shannon OK, Shannon, here's my confession: I used a biscuit cutter and donut cutter that were the same diameter for these. That way, the circles were perfectly cocentric on the window circles.
ReplyDeleteStill most in love with teh cookie dough frosting :) I'm super lazy and usually go for drop-style cookies rather than roll 'em out cookies. Would definitely still eat the rolled out ones happily, though!
ReplyDelete@Hannah I'm right there with you, Hannah. I'm not sure what possessed me, except the fact that I could use my Scharffen Berger cocoa powder, and the fact that the recipe involved salt. You could do chocolate drop cookies and then sandwich cookie dough frosting in between them :D.
ReplyDeleteD'aw, those are so cute (I am a sucker for cute cookie cutters)! I'm a fan of the Smitten Kitchen too, so I'm glad you brought these up. Can't wait to give them a try, thanks! Also, your icing is beautiful! ^_^
ReplyDeleteUmm, so my sister and I have a little Christmas bakefest every year and I'm pretty sure these need to happen. That really is a great tip for rolling out the dough! They came out so pretty!
ReplyDelete@Mary at n00bcakes Thanks for the compliment on the icing, Mary. If you don't have Nick Malgieri's new book, you need it - it gives precise instructions for making a pleasing meringue buttercream. And the cookies, for the record, are good on their own. With or without baking.
ReplyDelete@Jessica @ bake me away! Jessica, definitely check out Gail's site for tips on making rolled cookies if you plan to try these. She has so many awesome tips. And she'll respond to your tweets, too!
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