Atlassian Bake Off: ACE Holiday Sugar Cookies
Hello bakers!
It's that wonderful time of year again with the holidays right around the corner, so for the Great Atlassian Bake Off, I thought it would be apt to bake up some ACE holiday sugar cookies!
For the cookies, you'll need:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (about 226g), room temperature
- 300g granulated sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 15g vanilla bean paste
- 5g mandarin zest (you can also use oranges)
- 600g all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- Combine all your dry ingredients (flour, salt and spices) together, run a whisk through the mixture to break up big lumps, and set aside. (It'll start smelling wonderful already!)
- Using a stand mixer (you can also use a hand mixer), cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla bean paste and mandarin zest. Start on low, then gradually increase speed. The beating adds air into your mixture, so it'll start to fluff up a bit.
- Add eggs (tip: crack them into a separate bowl so you don't get shell in your mixture, or just in case an egg is bad, and beat slightly to break the yolks up a bit, then pour into your mixing bowl). Beat slowly to start until you get a glue-y looking mix, then increase the speed to lighten the mixture.
- Over your mixing bowl, sift the dry ingredients in all at once. If you're feeling lazy, you can pour them straight in, but sifting does remove small lumps or hard nuggets of spices. Mix on low (otherwise you'll be covered in a cloud of flour!). At this stage, try not to overmix - you just want to combine everything until the dough comes away from the bowl naturally.
Here's a tip I learned from cookie experts I follow: roll your dough out between cling film. It's a huge time saver and you don't get cookie dough sticking to your rolling pin! So empty about a third of your dough out onto cling film on your counter, lay another bit of cling film over it, flatten it slightly with your palms, and roll out to about 3/8 inch (another tip: you can get rolling pins with guides nowadays, no more estimating required!). Now, seal up your rolled dough and refrigerate. The dough now is too soft to cut - putting it in the fridge will help to harden the dough and make it easier to cut. I like to chill my dough overnight.
When you're ready to bake, line your cookie tray with baking parchment or a silicone sheet and preheat your oven to 375F. Warm your chilled dough on the counter for just a few minutes (it'll make it easier to roll when it's not fresh out of the fridge). Cut out your dough with your desired cookie cutters and lay them on your cookie sheet. Allow a couple of inches in between each cookie in case they spread. Then, place your cookie sheet in the fridge until your oven is ready. This will help them firm up again and avoid too much spreading. Smaller shapes will cook fast, about 10 minutes, while larger cookies may take about 12-13 minutes. You'll know your oven best, so keep an eye on your cookies, and adjust as needed.
Your cookies should come out just slightly browned on the edges, and they'll be lovely and soft when cooled. Bonus: your kitchen will smell AMAZING!
For decorating, I like to use royal icing. Here's the recipe:
- 2lbs powdered sugar
- 3 tbsps meringue powder (you can usually find these in supermarkets nowadays)
- 2 tbsps light corn syrup
- 1/2 cup lemon juice, slightly warmed
- 1 tsp white gel coloring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Mix lemon juice and meringue powder together with a whisk (by hand or with a mixer) until frothy. This usually takes a minute or so.
- Add vanilla extract.
- Add in powdered sugar, corn syrup and white gel coloring. Remember to mix on low to start, or you'll cover your entire kitchen in a flurry of sugar! Your mixture will be very thick at this point.
- Get a bowl of water and add in a couple teaspoons at a time, until your mixture starts to resemble toothpaste. It should still be pretty stiff, but with a bit more movement than before. At this point, beat it on high for about 3-5 minutes until it becomes fluffy and airy.
- Take the amount you need from this mixture into a separate bowl and color with your desired colors (gel food coloring tends to give me the best results). I like to use a spray bottle to add water into my icing to get my desired consistency - it's easier to control the amount. Your royal icing should last a long time - just remember to keep it sealed, otherwise it starts to form a crust and become crunchy.
So there you have it!
I've used this recipe to make cookies as holiday gifts for friends and my son's teachers in past years. Interestingly, even before I joined Atlassian, I used Trello A LOT as a planning tool to help me organize what I was baking and for which friends.
These are so fun to make, especially with kids, and in the words of the great Prue Leith, it's definitely worth the calories!
11 comments
![Nikki Zavadska [Appfire]](https://avatar-management--avatars.us-west-2.prod.public.atl-paas.net/5b6ee27036d4343beb82da37/f0705529-bfd4-4076-8e7b-3860c1cde99f/128 "Nikki Zavadska [Appfire]"){kind=avatar}
