Jam-Filled Cream Cheese Cookies and Citrus Sugar Cookies

For the past few years I've lived away from my home in South Carolina, going home for the holidays has usually involved a considerable amount of time spent in airports. I get ridiculous travel anxiety: with all the steps it takes for me to get from my house in Brooklyn to the airline gate (subway, airtrain, security), and the fact that I travel so infrequently that I can never remember the exact amount of time it takes for me to travel from Point A to Point B, I'm one who's prone to grossly overcompensate on the time it takes for me to get there, and then I end up with lots of extra time to kill in airport newsstands. I guess it's better than being unprepared, but I always end up buying magazines to help me pass the time.

This year, while browsing the racks, my recent fixation with baking drove me to buy Martha Stewart's Everyday Food (December 2009 issue). Personal sentiments about Martha aside, it was my first time reading this magazine and I fell in love with it-- the photography is delicious and the entire magazine is only seasonal recipes, which really got me into the holiday mood. I studied the "Sweet Treats" article all the way home, plotting my Black Friday Shut-In Cookie Fest. I chose two rolled-and-cut-out cookie recipes: Jam-Filled Cream Cheese Cookies and Citrus Sugar Cookies.

The first step after making the doughs for each batch is to divide the dough into three portions and roll it out between pieces of parchment paper (I used wax paper), and then refrigerate for 20 minutes. This extra step, allowing the butter to harden again in the refrigerator after the dough is mixed, is a great trick, if not an already well-known one to cookie bakers across the world except for me (before now)! When I was a kid we used the tube-dough you buy ready-made in the grocery store, and we always ended up with overworked, sloppy, room-temperature cut-out cookies. But now, this step will ensure that we always get the pretty, crisp-edged cookies we saw in the magazine (using real butter, as opposed to the partially-hydrogenated oil in pre-made dough, is a good idea too). Below are the sugar cookies at that stage:

Jam-Filled Cream Cheese Cookies adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food, December 2009 issue
Makes 48

8 ounces bar cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups jam, jelly, or preserves (jams, jellies, and preserves that include pectin work best)

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, add flour and salt; beat until combined (do not overmix).

2. Divide dough into 3 portions; flatten each into a disk. Roll each disk to an 1/8-inch thickness between sheets of parchment (or wax paper). Stack dough (still in parchment/paper) on a baking sheet; refrigerate 20 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Mix egg yolk with 1/2 teaspoon water. Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, peel off parchment. With a 2 1/2-inch round or 2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies. Spoon 1/2 teaspoon jam into center of each and brush exposed dough with egg wash. Shape cookies (see below: "Before"); arrange, 2 inches apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets and refrigerate 20 minutes (reroll scraps).

4. Bake until cookies are light golden brown, about 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cool completely on wire racks.

Although these looked beautiful going into the oven, I failed to realize the egg yolk called for in the recipe was supposed to be an adhesive, and not just a brush-on finisher like you do with a pie. Without the egg to glue these cookies together, they all unfolded in the oven, undoing our meticulous hard work! Check out this dramatic before and after:

Before

After

They still tasted delicious, even though they look... not as great as expected.

The sugar cookies, however, were an A+. I can't say enough about how great these cookies turned out. I performed the same butter-grating trick as I did with the pie crust, and the dough was perfect, the cookies cut out perfectly, and they baked to be perfectly crisp and not-too-sweet. I want to reiterate the importance of refrigerating the dough before cutting out the cookies. Call me a novice, but this was the first time I made cookies this way and it was an eye-opener for me, who grew up on the gooey tube-of-dough cookies I previously mentioned, and for whom the creation of shortbread and other crisp-edged cookies had been shrouded in mystery, the stuff of magazine and cookie-factory secrets, until now.

Citrus Sugar Cookies adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food, December 2009 issue

Makes 40 3-inch cookies

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for working

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg plus 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1. In a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (if you're like me and you don't have a food processor, you can sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and then grate the butter into the dry mixture, lightly tossing to  incorporate). Add sugar, eggs, and lemon zest and process until the mixture resembles wet sand.

2. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface; knead several times until dough comes together. Divide into 3 portions; flatten each into a disk. Roll each disk to an 1/8-inch thickness between sheets of parchment (or wax paper). Stack dough (still in parchment/paper) on a baking sheet; refrigerate 20 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in middle and lower thirds. Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, peel off parchment. With lightly floured cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and arrange, 1 inch apart, on baking sheets (reroll scraps). Refrigerate 15 minutes.

4. Bake until cookies are set but still pale, 7 to 9 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.

I had thought of doing a royal icing glaze for them, but two batches of cookies later, I was too tired to by the time they were all done. They're delicious as-is though, and traveled safely back with me to New York. I will definitely be using this recipe again!