Icebox Cookies

  •  Icebox Cookies

    Do you know what icebox cookies are?

    If you do, then you’ll know that they are amazing and you’ll need to bake this recipe today.  If you don’t, then you’ll need to believe me that these are amazing and worth making today.  You do trust me, don’t you?

    Icebox cookies are simple- elegantly so- and festive (assuming you can find the tacky red & green candied cherries, which I admit I had to smuggle back from a trip to Toronto last week because I can’t seem to find them readily in Chicago- even at Dominick’s, which usually sells a lot of tacky red & green foods this time of year).  I hark back to the mid 80s (formative years in my budding sweets addiction) and recall the boxes of icebox cookies my Mom would buy from Dominion around Christmastime… the cookies made at the actual grocery store, not in a factory (not that they were any higher up the quality food chain or anything, let’s be real).  The combination of softish cookie center + crispy edge + chewy cherry bits embedded in each slice of cookie = important Christmas event.  Why keep icebox cookies waiting for Santa, but once a year?  I say: make ’em in the middle of July.  Just because.

    Adapted from Canadian Living’s recipe…

    1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

    1 cup sugar

    1 egg

    2 teaspoons vanilla

    2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    3/4 cup candied red &/or green cherries, roughly chopped

    1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar for 3 minutes (until light & fluffy).  Beat in egg and vanilla for 1 minute, scraping sides of bowl.
    2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk flour, BP and salt together.  Stir into butter mixture in two additions, then stir in cherries.
    3. Divide dough into thirds, and place one dough blob at a time on a large piece of waxed or parchment paper.  Roll each 1/3 blob into 8″ logs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until firm.
    4. Preheat oven to 375°.  Cut very cold dough logs into 1/3-inch thick slices.  Place about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until lightly browned.  Allow to cool for a few minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to cooling racks.

    Tips:

    • Icebox Cookies with SprinklesDough chilling idea:  cut open an empty paper towel center/core paper thing (what is that called?  the roll?), and fit dough into it.  The cylindrical shape will help the dough to stay rounded as it cools, instead of getting a flattened bum.
    • Dough cutting is SO much easier when the dough is very very very cold.  Don’t even try it if it’s not very very very cold.  You will just get very very very frustrated.  I have done this too many times and need you to NOT try to cut the dough as it softens, okay?
    • Want thicker cookies? You could cut them thicker for sure- just bake a few minutes longer.  You could also create square cookies by pressing all 4 edges after you roll the log out.
    • Creative ideas: you don’t have to use candied cherries.  You can skip them and just roll the dough in finely chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips, colored sprinkles (like the picture at right), toffee bits, or turbinato sugar with a bit of espresso.
    • This recipe makes a crapload of cookies so you’ll want to freeze them.  (Oh- you can freeze the logs of dough before baking, too- just thaw, slice and bake.  That’s why they call them icebox cookies.  Get it?)
    • Happy holidays!

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    December 22nd, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags:

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