This Hanukkah cookies recipe isn’t so much a recipe as it is a decorating how-to. Because you’re probably already an old pro at making cookies, and we know you probably already have your favorite roll-out cookie recipe, but the decorating thing may be a little new to you.
A little confidence and a steady hand are all it takes—well, and our nifty decorating how-tos below. If you’ve never undertaken cookie decorating beyond some colored sugar before, you’ll find everything you need—minus that steady hand—below as well as in our recipe for basic royal icing.
What You’ll Need to Make This
- Cookie dough–Use any type of roll-out cookie dough, such as chocolate, sugar cookie dough, or gingerbread.
- Royal icing–This will give you the smoothest, most even coverage on your cookie, and sets up firmly. We don’t recommend using a different type of icing here.
How to Make This Recipe
- Roll out your cookie dough. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Re-roll scraps and cut more shapes.
- Bake the cookies. Cool the cookies. Frost with royal icing.
FAQs
You can make your own natural food coloring, however, be aware that the colors may not be as vibrant as those made with food coloring or food-color gel.
Outline your cookies with medium-consistency icing, then use a flooding consistency to fill the cookies. Our guide on How to Decorate with Royal Icing gives you all the tips and tricks you need to decorate successfully.
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.
Helpful Tips
- When cutting your cookies, dip the cutter in flour between cuts to give the cookies clean edges.
- Chill your cookie dough before baking to help keep the cookie shape.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or freeze for longer storage.
More Great Hanukkah Recipes
Write a Review
If you make this recipe, or any dish on LC, consider leaving a review, a star rating, and your best photo in the comments below. I love hearing from you.–David
Hanukkah Cookies
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
Ingredients
- Your favorite roll-out cookie or shortbread dough, whether chocolate, sugar, gingerbread, or some other snazzy incarnation
- Basic royal cing
- Blue and/or yellow food coloring or food-color gel
Instructions
- Roll out your cookie dough and cut out shapes with the cookie cutters. Bake the cookies as the recipe directs and cool completely.
- Frost the cooled cookies with the Royal Icing, tinting it as desired with food coloring or food-color gel. You can follow your whim when decorating or you can take inspiration from the various decorating instructions that follow.
Notes
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
fancyflours.com for cookie cutters.
Thank you Lilla!
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.