Every year, my side of the family has something called Bake Day before Christmas. It started out as a cookie exchange, where we all got together and literally mixed and baked, sharing our bounty among the 12-14 families in attendance. After the first couple of years, we all agreed the practice was unwieldy but the get-together super fun, and why don’t we just bring our cookies pre-made?
It’s become the best holiday tradition going on two decades; and it’s become my side’s actual family Christmas gathering. My parents fly up from Arizona, nieces and nephews and siblings come from Milwaukee and Chicago and hither and yon throughout the South. We all bring “lunch,” which ends up being enough to feed the entire city we live in – and we hold a gift exchange: one for the guys, one for the women, and one for the kids. A gift-stealing game ensues, we share a glass, watch some football; and everyone goes home with full hearts and a whole buncha different kinds of Christmas cookies. I love it.
But it does involve making literally hundreds of cookies, so planning is required. This is the reason Santa’s Buttons work so well: I mix 4-5 batches of the shortbread recipe below (and some of you will see the similarities to a fall shortbread cookies I recently posted); freeze the dough; then unthaw to make the actual cookies in 2-3 baking sessions or as I have time. Another upside to this workflow is that you’re going to want to chill the dough regardless of when you bake since this prevents the butter and flour from separating in the oven. I take my dough out of the freezer the night before I plan to use it, leaving it wrapped on the counter to warm overnight.
Do be sure to let the dough come to room temp, however – the dough will be crumbly and hard to shape if too cold.
This recipe also works great if using a gluten-free flour (I use Cup-4-Cup) if you’re baking for anyone with Celiac Disease.
For the Dough:
16 oz. (4 sticks) butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch chunks
Large pinch of kosher salt
1/2 c. plus 2 T. powdered sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
4 c. all-purpose flour
Cream the butter and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until softened. Add the sugars, then mix until light and fluffy – about 3 minutes. Be sure to stop the mixer a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl/make sure all the butter gets treated democratically.
Add the flour 1 c. at a time, stirring on low initially so it doesn’t poof all over you and the counter. Turn the mixture out on a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap, press into disks, squeezing all the crumbs together. Wrap airtight – I wrap my disks first in wax paper, then place in a Ziploc bag. Chill for a couple of hours, or freeze for later use.
To shape, have your shortbread dough at room temperature and preheat the oven to 350°F with two racks at the center of the oven, one on one level and one the next level down. Line however many baking sheets you’re going to use – I use four, prepping two with unbaked cookies while two sheets are baking – with parchment or silicone mats.
Using a smooth rolling pin, roll your dough to one-quarter-inch thick. Make one pass over the surface with a carved/design rolling pin for prettiness. Then use a 2-inch, round, fluted cutter to cut as many rounds as you can. Place the cookies at least 1/4 inch apart on your lined baking sheets, then use a skewer or chopstick to create 4 “button holes” in each round.
Re-roll any excess dough per above – smooth rolling pin followed by the one to press a design into the surface – to extract the maximum number of cookies. Refreeze any dough you don’t need or have time for!
Bake each batch for 8-10 minutes, then turn the baking sheets to bake for another 8-10 minutes. These cookies are best if lightly colored on the bottoms and edges.
Cool on a baking rack, then package for gifts or eating, which at my house means hiding in some crevice deep in the freezer so they don’t disappear completely before Christmas. Feel virtuous for having made something so cute and fun and yummy to share.
Errin Stevens blogs, bakes, gardens, and chases dust bunnies at her home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her three novels – Updrift, Breakwater, and Outrush – are available everywhere fine books are sold, and you can visit her web site at https://errinstevens.com/
Originally posted 2024-12-01 19:06:48.
