Fan favorite of my holiday cookies—great any time of the year
These small, crisp, buttery cookies have layers of flavors that work increadibly well together. They are an adult cookie, a complex and sofisticated treat.
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspooon baking powder
3/4 teaspooon salt
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing:
1 teaspoon extremely finely ground, excellent quality coffee
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2-4 teaspoons bourbon (enough to make a thin glaze)
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted
Method
- In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, and allspice.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a hand-held mixer), beat butter and sugar together until butter is pale and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one by one, mixing until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract. Turn off the mixer and scrap the bowl and the paddle thouroughly with a spatcula. Mix until everything is fully incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix only until combined, careful not to overmix.
- Place dough on a sheet of plastic wrap and flatten into a 1“ disk. Cover in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- After your dough has rested in the fridge, pre-heat the oven to 350F.
- Take your dough from the fridge and unwrap it on a lightly floured surface.
- Roll your dough out to a 1/16“ or 1/18“ uniform thickness. The best way to roll out dough is working from the middle, outwards, as you would pie crust dough. Use your hands to press together any crumbling, cracking edges as much as possible. And loosen the underneath and turn every so often to make sure it’s not sticking.
- Use your favorite small cookie cutter to cut out your shapes and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet about 1“ apart.
- Bake them for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown on top and bottom.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature on a cooling rack.
- When all your cookies are baked and cooled, make the glaze.
- In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth with no lumps. Adjust the amount of bourbon or powdered sugar if your icing is too thick or too thin.
- Set up a drying area with drying racks set over baking sheets.
- Working one by one, ice your cookies by picking up a cookie with one hand and dip the index finger of your other hand into the icing and “paint” it onto the cookie evenly, without letting it drip over the cookie edge.
- Place the iced cooking on the drying rack and continue with the rest.
- Once your cookies are iced, let the icing harden. This should take about 1 hour.
- When your icing has hardened, melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.
- When your chocolate is completely melted, dip the tines of a fork into the chocolate and channel your inner Jackson Pollack and “throw” the melted chocolate over the cookies. Make sure you’ve got all the cookies.
- Let the chocolate harden. You may need to put the cookies in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes if you have a warm kitchen.
- Once the chocolate hardens you’re done. Enjoy!