Stocking Slice & Bake Cookies
Updated: Dec 12, 2022
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup salted butter, softened (you can use unsalted if you wish)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 drops drops of red & white food dye
Directions:
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Then set aside.
In a separate bowl (or in a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment) mix together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and continue to mix until fully combined and smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until a soft dough forms. If it helps to combine this using your hands you can do that too!
Once you have a nice dough formed, remove about 3/4 cups of it to dye red. Then dye about 2 Tbsp. white.Use gloves if you have them!
Roll out the red, white, and non colored dough separately 1/4" thick. Let the dough chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up.
Take the red dough out of the fridge first and cut out as many stockings as you can. Cut the tops off of the stockings. You can reroll the scraps until all of the dough has been used up.
Use the same stocking cutter to cut the tops out of the white. You can use a knife to clean up the edges too. Use the video above to help guide you for this step.
Stack all of the stockings on top of each other and gently press them together to form a long log of stockings. Place the log of dough in the freezer to harden for 20 minutes.
Take the non colored dough out of the fridge and cut the edges. Don't throw away the white scraps. We will use these in the next step.
Once the stockings are frozen solid, take the scraps of non colored dough and place them on either side of the stockings as shown in the video above.
Place the stocking log in the center of the non colored dough then wrap the rolled out dough around it. You can pinch the seams together to help the two sides meet. Remember to refer to the video above for more visuals on how to create these cookies, this part can be a bit tricky.
Wrap the entire roll in plastic wrap again and let sit in the freezer while preheating the oven to 375°. While the oven is preheating, prepare a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Once the log has chilled, slice the log into about 1/4" thickness. Place each cookie about 1 1/2" - 2" apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the edges just barely look brown. We want these nice and soft so as soon as you see a bit of browning on the edges, take them out of the oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for an additional 10 minutes on the sheet to firm up a bit/ finish baking and cooling.
Enjoy! 🎄