Hanukkah Cookies

It’s almost time for the Jewish Festival of Lights, and we think these delightfully decorated Hanukkah cookies should be present for all eight days. The cookies are enriched with cream cheese, elevating them beyond other sugar cookie recipes with an extra-soft and tender texture.

After making the Hanukkah cookie recipe, it’s time to break out your cookie-decorating supplies to celebrate the magic of the holiday. Using food coloring, you can create blue, yellow and white royal icing to transform the cookies into a festive array. Decorated menorahs, Stars of David, Maccabee shields and dreidels look stunning on a dessert platter with other traditional Hanukkah desserts.

Ingredients for Hanukkah Cookies

• Butter: Butter adds flavor and impacts a cookie’s texture, rise and structure. Use one of our Test Kitchen’s picks for the best butter brands to create the highest-quality cookies.
• Cream cheese: Cream cheese adds richness and a subtle tang. It also creates a softer, more tender cookie dough.
• Granulated sugar: Sugar keeps this Hanukkah cookie recipe soft and moist, and it also contributes to the cookies’ crispness or chewiness.
• Eggs: Different parts of the egg affect a cookie recipe’s taste, texture, color and structure. Egg whites mainly influence rise and structure by incorporating air into the dough. Yolks add color and fat, which makes cookies rich, tender and soft.
• Almond extract: Almond extract lightly flavors our Hanukkah cookie recipe and perfumes the cookies with a wonderful scent.
• All-purpose flour: Flour gives cookies their structure, allowing Hanukkah cookies to rise and spread while retaining their shape.
• Royal icing: Royal icing hardens when it cools, creating a gorgeous coating for cookies. We make this icing with confectioners’ sugar, water and meringue powder, plus food coloring for aesthetics.
• Blue and yellow paste food coloring: We recommend using a paste or gel type of food coloring for royal icing. It’s more concentrated than a liquid dye, creating a great color payoff without thinning the icing too much.

Directions

Step 1: Mix the dough

In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, five to seven minutes. Beat in the egg and extract, then gradually beat the flour into the creamed mixture.

Editor’s Tip: One of our top tips for baking perfect cookies is to avoid overmixing cookie dough. Overworking the gluten in the flour can cause the cookies to be tough instead of delicate and tender.

Step 2: Chill the dough

Divide the dough in half, and shape each half into a flattened disk. Cover and refrigerate the disks until firm enough to roll, about two hours.

Editor’s Tip: It may be tempting to skip the step, but chilling cookie dough is essential to obtaining the proper temperature for rolling, cutting and baking these cookies. Chilling the dough also hydrates the flour, improving the cookies’ overall taste and texture.

Step 3: Roll and cut the cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut the dough with floured 3-inch cookie cutters.

Editor’s Tip: After you roll out the cookie dough, use a variety of cookie cutter shapes to create a fun display.

Step 4: Bake the cookies

Place the cutouts 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until set (do not brown), 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for five minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Editor’s Tip: If your cookie cutouts vary in size, try arranging similar-sized cookies together or baking the cookies in batches. Otherwise, some cookies may burn while others are underbaked.

Step 5: Prepare the icing

In a small bowl, combine the confectioners’ sugar, water and meringue powder. Beat on a low speed just until combined. Then, beat on high for four minutes or until soft peaks form.

Step 6: Color the icing

Divide the royal icing into thirds. Tint one portion blue, one portion yellow and leave the remaining portion white.

Editor’s Tip: These are the traditional colors for Hanukkah, but feel free to divide the icing into more colors. Varying shades of blue or yellow may be used for more dynamic-looking designs.

Step 7: Decorate the cookies

Pipe the icing onto the cookies as desired. Let the cookies stand at room temperature for several hours or until the icing is dry and firm before serving or storing.

Editor’s Tip: Always cover unused icing with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out (a common mistake almost everyone makes with royal icing). If necessary, beat the icing again at a high speed to restore its texture.

TMB STUDIO

Recipe Variations

• Use a different dough: You can use Hanukkah-themed cutouts and colored icing to decorate any type of cookie. If you don’t enjoy sugar cookies, use this icing recipe to top your favorite gingerbread cookies or chocolate cutout cookies instead.
• Flavor the dough: Flavor this Hanukkah cookie recipe with other extracts, like vanilla, mint, orange or lemon, or use other flavorings like ground cinnamon, lemon zest or orange zest.
• Jazz up the decorations: Feel free to break out your cookie decorating supplies and get fancy with the decorations. You can also add fun toppings like sprinkles or chocolate chips.
• Bake them for other occasions: Swap in your favorite cookie cutter shapes and different colors of royal icing to make these cookies all year round. This Hanukkah cookie recipe is just too good to limit to only eight days each year!

How to Store Hanukkah Cookies

Store Hanukkah cookies at room temperature in an airtight container. Wait until the frosting is fully hardened before storing the cookies. Place a piece of parchment or waxed paper between the layers to keep them from sticking.

How long do Hanukkah cookies last?

Decorated Hanukkah cookies will stay fresh for up to one week. To ensure the cookies don’t spoil early, avoid common cookie storage mistakes, like storing them before they’ve cooled.

Can you freeze Hanukkah cookies?

You can make the Hanukkah cookie recipe ahead of time and freeze the cookies at various stages of development, or you can save leftovers by freezing the fully baked and decorated cookies.

• How to freeze Hanukkah cookie dough: You can freeze cookie dough by shaping the prepared dough into a flattened disk. Once fully chilled, wrap it tightly in storage wrap and store it in a freezer bag for up to three months. To use, transfer the dough to the fridge and let it thaw completely. Then, roll, cut and bake as directed.
• How to freeze baked Hanukkah cookies: You can freeze cookies (decorated or undecorated) in a freezer-safe container. If stacked, separate the cookie layers with a piece of parchment or waxed paper. The frozen cookies will stay fresh for up to three months. To enjoy, defrost the cookies at room temperature before decorating or serving.

Hanukkah Cookie Tips

TMB STUDIO

How can I make these Hanukkah cookies parve?

To make the Hanukkah cookie recipe parve (free of meat or dairy), use dairy-free alternatives or lactose-free foods instead of the butter and cream cheese.

Why are my Hanukkah cookies flat?

A few common cookie mistakes can lead to flat cookies. Incorrectly measuring the ingredients (especially the flour) is a common culprit. The temperature of the dough or oven can also lead to flat cookies. For best results, chill the dough thoroughly before rolling and cutting. It’s also worth investing in an affordable oven thermometer as an insurance policy to ensure your oven bakes at the proper temperature.

What can I substitute for meringue powder in royal icing?

Egg whites, powdered egg whites, gelatin and aquafaba (the starchy liquid in a can of chickpeas) are all common alternatives to meringue powder for royal icing. However, they’re not one-to-one swaps, so some experimentation will be necessary.