Christmas Star Cookies Recipes

CHRISTMAS STARS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended. Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate dough for three hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.
• On a floured surface, roll out half of the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into star shapes using a 3- to 4-inch star cookie cutter. Using a 1- to 2-inch star cookie cutter, cut a star into the center of half of the big stars. Place the full stars on one cookie sheet and the "tops"--the cookies with the center cutouts--on another. Sprinkle colored sugar on the star tops, if desired.
• Bake in preheated oven until edges are golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely. (You can re-roll the mini stars cut out of the centers, or bake them separately for about 5 minutes.) Repeat with remaining cookie dough.
• After cookies cool completely, spread 1 teaspoon of preserves in the center of each full star cookie. Place a cut-out cookie on top of the layer of preserves. Pack cookies between waxed paper in a covered tin to preserve freshness.

JAMMY STAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Blitz the butter, flour and a pinch of salt in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and blitz again. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and blend until balls of dough have formed. Tip the dough onto a work surface and knead briefly to make a smooth ball. Cut into two equal pieces, pat them into discs, then wrap and chill for at least 30 mins. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
• Remove the dough from the fridge 15 mins before you roll it out. Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin. Unwrap 1 piece of dough and roll it out to the thickness of a 50p coin. Use a 6cm star cutter to stamp out stars (you should get about 15) and transfer to a baking sheet.
• Unwrap and roll out the other piece of dough. Stamp out 15 more stars and transfer to the second baking sheet. Stamp holes from the middle of 15 of the biscuits using the smaller cutter. Cover and chill for 15 mins. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake for 10-15 mins (the stars with a hole need less time), cool for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, make the filling. Whisk the butter, sugar and 50g of the jam with an electric whisk. Transfer to a piping bag with a small round nozzle, or snip off the end to make a ½cm opening. Put the remaining jam in another piping bag and snip off the end to make a slightly smaller hole.
• Pipe blobs of the filling around the edge of each whole biscuit, leaving a space in the centre. Fill the space with jam, then sandwich a biscuit with a hole cut out on top of each one. Will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

FINNISH STAR COOKIES (JOULUTORTTU)

Steps:

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well combined, about 1 minute. Add sugar and lemon zest and continue to beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add 1 egg and beat until combined. Beat in flour mixture on low speed until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a square, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Remove one-half of dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured sheet of parchment, roll out dough into a square about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out squares using a 3 1/2-inch square cutter, then carefully transfer to prepared baking sheets, spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart. If dough becomes too soft, transfer parchment with dough to a baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.
• Place 1 teaspoon preserves in the center of each square. Using a small paring knife, cut 1 1/4-inch slits diagonally from each corner toward the filling. Fold every other tip over to cover filling, forming a pinwheel. Press lightly to seal. If dough becomes soft, refrigerate until firm.
• Lightly beat remaining egg with remaining pinch of salt. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush tops of cookies with egg wash. Bake until edges are golden and cookies are slightly puffed, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

GRANDMA'S STAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening and sugars until light and fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in orange juice concentrate and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate until easy to handle, about 2 hours., On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-in. star-shaped cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° until edges are firm, 7-8 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool., For frosting, combine the confectioners' sugar, butter, orange juice concentrate, vanilla and enough milk to reach spreading consistency. Tint with food coloring if desired. Frost cookies; decorate as desired.

CHOCOLATE STAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat overn to 375°.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat together Crisco, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, water and vanilla until well mixed.
• Add the flour, baking soda & salt to the mixing bowl and mix well.
• Cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Place in preheated oven and bake for 9-11 minutes or until light brown.
• As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, place a chocolate star on the top of each cookie.

SHINING STAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350°F.
• Put the sugar and butter into a large bowl. Stir them together with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth.
• Break the egg into to a separate bowl. Use a fork to stir the egg hard, until the yolk and the white are mixed together well. Mix the beaten egg into the mixture in the bowl, a little at a time.
• Sift the flour and allspice through a sieve into the bowl. Mix everything together really well, using the wooden spoon.
• Use your hands to squeeze the mixture together to make a dough. Then, squeeze the dough into a large ball.
• Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with a little flour. Don't use too much flour or the dough will get tough. Roll out the ball of dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.
• Draw around a cookie sheet on parchment paper. Cut out the shape and put it on the baking sheet. Cut the stars from the dough using the large star cookie cutter. Place the stars on the parchment sheet.
• Make a hole in each star by pressing the drinking straw through the dough, near to the top of one of the points.
• use the small cookie cutter to cut a hole in the middle of each star. The hole should be only slightly bigger than the candy.
• Squeeze the scraps of dough into a ball. Roll out the dough again and cut out the rest of the stars. Place them on the parchment sheet and make holes and circles in them too.
• Put a candy into the middle of each star. It looks better if you use different colored hard candies. Put the cookie sheet on the middle shelf of the oven and bake the stars at 350°F for 12 minutes.
• Take the cookies out of the oven. Leave them on the baking sheets until they have cooled completely. Remove carefully. This is where you can eat them, or make them into ornaments by stringing a ribbon through each hole at the tip of the stars.

SUGAR-COOKIE STARS

Steps:

• Make the cookies: Sift flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a large bowl.
• Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg.
• Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, then vanilla. Refrigerate dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out various star shapes using 3-to-4-inch cutters. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing each 1 inch apart.
• Bake until cookies are just turning gold around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets set on wire racks for 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool completely.
• Make the icing: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until icing is glossy-white and holds a ribbonlike trail on the surface for 5 seconds when beater is raised, about 5 minutes.
• Transfer icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip. Pipe an outline of icing around the edges, then flood each cookie with more icing to cover. Sift edible silver dust over cookies. Let cookies dry completely.