December 1, 2013

Eggnog Cookies

Welcome to December… the Season of Giving & Eating & Lights & Cookies & Shopping & Baking & Friends & Food & Family & Entertaining! During this busy season, many Cookies get baked and eaten. Another holiday Classic (which I just recently discovered many people are not big fans of) is Eggnog!

These cookies combine the best of Eggnog with the best of Cookies. They are sweet with a bit of spice, just soft enough without being chewy or cakey and are not at all a crunchy cookie. If you are a fan of eggnog, I can guarantee that you will enjoy these cookies (if you are not – sorry, you’re out of luck).

Growing up in a house where we celebrated Hanukkah instead of Christmas, I was in the minority with many things – no Christmas Tree or running around crazy shopping for everyone under the sun or having to do any of the “typical” Holiday Season Activities. Hanukkah in many ways is a much “simpler” holiday. It is not as commercialized and (at least in my house when I was growing up) was much more centered around family & food than the gifts. That is not to say that I didn’t get gifts – but I guess it just means that it was never my main focus as a child (call me crazy, but I have never been a huge gift-receiving-fiend, I think I fall more in the “it is better to give than to receive” category of people)! Although we did not celebrate Christmas, Eggnog has always been a favorite of mine!

Warm Eggnog, Cold Eggnog, Spiked Eggnog – I love it all. The problem that I have with Silk Eggnog that they have though, it is not quite as strong flavored, BUT at least I can enjoy a glass without having to skip all other calories for the day! These cookies have that yummy smoothness that eggnog has, and due to the extra nutmeg in these cookies, they really give off that classic Eggnog Flavor and will be a welcome addition to any Holiday Party Cookie Tray!

Eggnog Cookies

Author: Rachel (teacher-chef)

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 22 mins

Total time: 42 mins

Serves: 3 dozen

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup salted butter, room temp
1/2 cup eggnog
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks
OPTIONAL: 1/2 Cup Cinnamon Chips
Eggnog Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 cup eggnog (might need more or less)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer. Add eggnog, vanilla and egg yolks and beat at medium speed until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto Slipemat OR parchment lined baking sheets, 1-inch apart. Bake for 21-24 minutes or until bottoms turn light brown. Transfer to cool, flat surface immediately with spatula.
For the Eggnog Icing: In small mix your nutmeg & powdered sugar together. Gradually beat in eggnog with a small whisk or a fork until icing is smooth and the desired consistency. You may need less or more depending on the consistency you like. To ice the cookies, put the icing into a plastic baggie and snip just the very corner off. Pipe beautiful stripes or crosshatches or whatever pattern of icing you would like onto your cookies.

Notes

In some of the cookies we added a few Cinnamon Chips (Hershey’s makes the ones I have) and we LOVED the addition of the chips. Feel free to add the Cinnamon Chips to the dough after mixing in your flour and scooping into cookies![br][br]Rolling your cookies between your hands is very important – when you smoothly roll out your cookies the end result is MUCH prettier!