Christmas cookie dough
Well, you’re going to tell me, cookie dough is pretty easy to make. But is it that easy to make good cookie dough that crunches in your mouth and crumbles just right, tastes great, has just the right amount of sugar, and bakes well?
It’s easy too my captain, but with the right recipe only.
That’s good because I didn’t plan to give you a bad recipe (the super nice girl you know haha).
To make biscuits it is therefore quite easy, BUT it is necessary to respect the strict and uncompromising use of a margarine rich in fat and which is firm. Throw the tubs of spreadable margarines out the window, say hello to fat bricks!
I often talk about the ingredients themselves, and if in omnivorous pastry, we see less difference by using different ingredients, in vegan pastry, any mistake can quickly be fatal.
Said like that is not super reassuring but even so, when you follow the recipes, vegan pastry is slightly less technical!
Regarding the brands, I always take the vitaqell in the organic store, the “cooking and pastry” one which is quite firm despite its packaging in a tray (and above all the percentage of fat is strong, it is not water with a little fat, if you have the curiosity to do so, you will see that a lot of water is sold at exorbitant prices in trays).
Then, I also like, when I find them, the margarines from fruit d’or and from planta fin, in paper-wrapped wafers.
Finally, here I opted for a consistent thickness of biscuit: it allows to have something greedy, and above all, to have biscuits that are not likely to deform when they are handled to place them on the baking sheet. cooking before baking.
It’s up to you, but you will have to control the baking if you put several different thicknesses, taking care to arrange them on different plates, because the biscuits are difficult to handle without deforming.
Make your cookie spice mix
You can absolutely buy “spices for gingerbread” and use the latter. But in life I have been blessed with a clove allergy which makes using these blends compromised!
They are also quite variable depending on the brand, each having its own “blend”; I therefore like the idea of managing my spices myself one by one, especially since these are spices that can be used for a gingerbreadbut also salted in a curry.
So I make a mixture with cinnamon, coriander, ground cardamom, ground ginger, and nutmeg.
For the exact proportions we will say 50% cinnamon, 20 cardamom, and we divide the rest between the last 3!
Once we tasted this mixture, it was difficult to buy ready-made mixtures, it was with my first pastry boss that I got into this habit (I won’t tell you the smell when we made the mixture with several kilos of spices haha).
It’s also a great idea for a Christmas gift, to put in a pretty jar, with a small parchment of your best spiced recipe!
Find pretty cookie cutters for your Christmas cookies
I’ve had this Christmas cookie idea for several years, but it wasn’t until this year when I went to my Zodio store (which opened its website during lockdown last year) that I found several takeaways. – piece of little men.
You will obviously find other more classic shapes such as stars.
There are plenty of them on the internet, but also at Ikea where I found a very nice moose cookie cutter.
Remember to make a hole in your decorations using a skewer if you want to hang them in your tree (preferably an organic tree, otherwise hello cocktail at the end). It is still more practical to pass a cord or a ribbon
How do I decorate my Christmas cookies?
We can not decorate them at all, but it’s still a fun part, it would be a shame not to let our creativity speak for us.
So here I made a royal icing whose recipe you already had last year with my gingerbread house.
For a few years now, I have been decorating layers cakes, with sugar paste, but also accounts that decorate cookies with royal icing.
There are 10,000 ways to use this preparation, you can color it (my dyes are nothing natural, I buy them in powder form, I like to use them sparingly to take advantage of their pep, but there are some on a base of totally natural products which are a little less lively if it turns you off), prepare it more or less smooth.
You will have to do a few tests, but in principle, if you want to fill full biscuits, you make a border of more solid royal icing, then pour a more liquid preparation in it, which will remain trapped by the edges.
Feel free to watch some tutorials like at Sweet Ambs it will give you an idea!
To decorate, I use a paper cone, there are a lot of tutorials on the internet to make them, but you can also use a piping bag cut very thin at the end. The cornet paper that I use is also from zodio. To see a real of the process I send you on instagram.
I also offer a step by step in my vegan baking ebookin order to understand how it works!
You can also spread chocolate on it, completely dip them in it.
And also put lots of sugar decorations: stars, vermicelli …
The first few times, I’m not going to lie: the figures are prettier in our heads than on the counter, but over time we improve, and above all, they always taste delicious.
And that’s the most important thing!
Spice Christmas cookies
Ingredients
Spice Cookie Dough
- 195 g margarine very firm and rich in fat
- 75 g icing sugar
- 30 g Granulated sugar
- 40 g almond powder
- 20 g cornstarch
- 90 g water
- 480 g wheat flour t45 to 65 max
- 50 g almond puree
- 1/2 vs. coffee salt end
- 1.5 vs. coffee spices mix of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and coriander
Royal icing (you can halve it if you only plan to make some decorations)
- 160 g icing sugar
- 30 g aquafaba
- 1 vs. coffee lemon juice
- 1 vs. coffee vanilla flavor
Instructions
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In a mixing bowl or the bowl of your robot equipped with the sheet tool, put all the ingredients for the dough except the water.
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Work with your fingertips or for a few minutes with a robot, until you obtain a fine sanding, then add the water and work for a few more minutes to obtain a homogeneous paste.
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To make it easier for you, spread out on a baking mat or a sheet of parchment paper. Here I wanted to spread it fairly thick over half a centimeter, for gourmet and generous biscuits. This also allows you not to deform them too much by moving them.
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Then place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
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Don’t hesitate to roll out the dough again, always trying not to work it too much so as not to make it soften. If you have difficulty and it sticks to your legs, add a little flour or put in the fridge (it’s cold at home, I never have this problem).
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Once all the dough has been detailed, bake at 175°C for about thirty minutes: the cooking time will depend on the thickness of the biscuits, but also on your oven. The cookies are done when they begin to color around the edges.
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Take out of the oven and let cool.
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Prepare the royal icing by vigorously whisking the icing sugar with the rest of the ingredients: the mixture must be white and slightly airy.
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To make multiple colors, divide into multiple bowls and use a spoon for each bowl. Then adjust the texture by adding more or less lemon juice or icing sugar. Note that if you want decorations that hold and will not drip, the royal icing indicated in the recipe is normally perfect.Do a test on a corner of parchment paper to check and decorate. Remember to make the decoration quickly because the royal icing dries in the open air. If you want to add sugar decorations, do it when the icing is wet, right after.
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Finally, let it dry for a few hours, so that the royal icing can harden.
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Store these cookies in a tin, or bag them as gifts!
