This is a very simple-to-ice cookie collection in celebration of Hanukkah. We think that you might find these cookies go down very well at any one of the eight festival nights. Take some of the ideas to use as favors at bar mitzvahs or bat mitzvahs, too.–Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore
LC Yes, You Can Create Cookies That Look Like This Note
What we’re giving you here is less a recipe—okay, it’s not a recipe at all—than a decorating how-to. We figure chances are you’re an old pro at making cookies, but the decorating thing may be a little new to you. A little confidence is all it takes. Well, okay, that and a steady hand. And, if you’ve never undertaken decorating before, some inspired how-tos. You’ll find everything you need—minus that steady hand—right here as well as in the recipe for Royal Icing Basic Royal Icing.
Special Equipment: Toothpicks or slender wooden skewers for when your outlining gets a little sloppy and needs to be erased
Cookie cutters: Star of David, dreidel, menorah, and rectangles of various sizes for gifts
Pastry bag or a resealable plastic bag with the tip cut off for piping icing
Squeezy bottles in any size for flooding icing
Hanukkah Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- Your favorite roll-out cookie or shortbread dough, whether chocolate, sugar, gingerbread, or some other snazzy incarnation
- Basic Royal Icing
- Blue and/or yellow food coloring or food-color gel
Directions
- 1. Roll out your cookie dough and cut out shapes with the cookie cutters as desired. Bake as the recipe directs and let cool completely.
- 2. Frost the cooled cookies with the Royal Icing, tinting it as desired with food coloring or food-color gel. You can follow your whim or you can take inspiration from the variations that follow.
Cookie Decorating Variations
- To make the Star of David and Dreidel
- Pipe the outline of the cookie. Let set for a few minutes. Flood the surface in white icing or icing tinted gentian blue. Let set. Add details in icing tinted gentian blue.
- To make the Menorah
- Pipe the outline of the cookie in icing tinted gentian blue. Flood the surface of the cookie with the same color icing. Let set. Pipe on the candles in white icing and finish by piping teensy flames in icing tinted yellow.
- To make the Polka Dot Gift
- Pipe the outline of the cookie in icing tinted gentian blue. Let set. Flood the surface of the cookie with white runny icing and then immediately squeeze on spots of gentian blue runny icing. Let set. Pipe on the ribbon and bow detail in gentian blue.
- To make the Starry Gift
- Pipe the outline of the cookie in icing tinted baby blue. Let set. Flood the surface of the cookie with runny gentian or baby blue. Let set. When dry, pipe on the ribbon and bow details in any color contrasting icing.
Hungry for more? Chow down on these:
- Black & White Cookies from David Lebovitz
- Seven Layer Cookies from Smitten Kitchen
- Almond and Walnut Macaroons from Leite's Culinaria
- Rugelach from Leite's Culinaria
Hanukkah Cookie Recipe © 2011 Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore. Photo © 2011 Katie Hammond. All rights reserved.
Where did you find the cookie cutters? I was not successful with the ones I bought.
Eleanor, the stunning photo above was taken by the publisher of the book, which is in the UK. I fear their cookie cutters may not be terribly attainable for those of us in the states. If anyone else has a favorite brand of cookie cutters, we’d love to hear it. Otherwise, if you want to make these in the very near future, may I suggest you consider making a sturdy cardboard template in the shapes that you want? Just print onto your desired shape from online, trace it onto cardboard, cut it out, and then use it as a stencil for your cookie dough? It sounds like a lot of work, and I guess it sort of is, but once you have the template, you can go really quite quickly. And this allows you to customize your shapes exactly how you like.