Rich and delicious eggnog buttercream frosting snuggled inside of Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies makes for a perfect holiday treat!
( November 2016 Update : I updated the old iPhone photos in this post, but if you scroll all the way to the bottom, there’s still one old photo to remember Baking Mischief’s pre-DSLR days by. 😉
We’re so close to Christmas that I can practically taste it! There are two big things I love about this time of year. One we’re going to talk about in a minute, but the other is Christmas movies!
I have a very strict Christmas-movies-between-Thanksgiving-and-Christmas-day-only policy, so by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I’m chomping at the bit to watch all of my favorites.
A few on the list this year are A Muppet Christmas Carol , While You Were Sleeping, Iron Man III , and Polar Express . The family traditionally gets together and watches Love Actually , but I swear that film gets sadder every year, so we decided to give it a pass this Christmas. Do you have any favorite holiday films?
And now back to my first love of Christmas time, Christmas baking! December is probably my favorite baking month, because I have an excuse to make ALL THE COOKIES, like my Miniature Hot Chocolate Cookies , my Butterscotch Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies , my Chai Sugar Cookies with Eggnog Glaze , and basically every cookie I’ve pinned on Pinterest for the last month (guys, I make so many cookies in December).
But there’s one cookie that holds a special Christmas place in me heart: Snickerdoodles.
They are the cookies I make on Christmas eve every year to eat while we sip hot chocolate and wait for Santa. But everyone has a snickerdoodle recipe , and mine is very much more of the same. So I thought I’d put a little twist on it. Enter Snickerdoodle Sandwich Cookies with Eggnog Buttercream Filling.
I’m going to be honest. These are the sort of ridiculous, ridiculously good, desserts you can only really justify around the holidays. They’re rich and buttery and AMAZING. The decadent eggnog buttercream takes the humble cinnamon snickerdoodle and elevates it to the stuff of dreams.
I tried a couple different fillings with these cookies and the minute this one crossed my lips, I knew I’d found a winner. I’ve been throwing test batches at everyone I know for the last couple of weeks (so I don’t eat them all myself!) to rave reviews and now I cant wait to share them with you!
Ingredients
Snickerdoodles
- ▢ 4 tablespoons ( 2oz ) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 48 g) shortening
- ▢ 3/4 cup ( 150 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg
- ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 1 1/3 cups ( 187 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Eggnog Buttercream
- ▢ 1 1/2 cup ( 180 g) powdered sugar sifted
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- ▢ Pinch of salt
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 4oz ) unsalted butter softened
- ▢ 1-2 tablespoons eggnog or heavy cream
Instructions
Snickerdoodles
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. On low, mix in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt until just combined.
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon. Scoop 36 1/2-ounce mounds of dough into balls (just over 1-inch wide) and roll in sugar mixture. Place on a baking sheet 1 1/2-inches apart. These are small cookies, so you should be able to fit 18-20 on a standard-size cookie tray.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. They are done when they are just golden and look set. You don’t want them to crisp up too much since we are turning them into sandwiches.
- Allow cookies to cool completely.
Eggnog Buttercream
- In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and add the powdered sugar mixture and 1 tablespoon of the eggnog, beating until combined. If your frosting is too dry, mix in a little more eggnog, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.
Assemble
- Pair cookies by size so that you have 18 sandwiches with matching halves.
- The best way to fill these cookies is to “pipe” the buttercream. Spoon the buttercream into a disposable plastic bag and cut off a corner. Pipe frosting in the center your first cookie, about two-thirds of the way to the edge and then top with a second cookie and squeeze gently until the frosting comes to the edges. I recommend experimenting with a couple cookies to see how much frosting you need before finishing the entire batch.
Nutritional Information Snickerdoodle Cookies Adapted from AllRecipes
Original Snickerdoodle Cookie Sandwiches Photography, circa 2015 (iPhone 5)
A few simple gingerbread house tips and tricks.
In college, my sister and I started a gingerbread house tradition. While home for Christmas breaks, when the novelty of no homework began to wear off, just before the boredom of being home really started to drive everyone crazy, we’d put on a day-long marathon of movies, tear our parents’ kitchen and dining room apart, and make a gingerbread house.
We made our first house in 2009 out of graham crackers and have made one every year since, finally graduating to actual homemade gingerbread last year. This past weekend, we made our seventh house and while we’re not exactly expert gingerbread-house craftsmen, we have learned a few things through trial and error. These are my favorite recipes, tools, and tricks we’ve discovered over the years:
Recipes
Structural Gingerbread – I love this dough. It’s easy to make, easy to work with, and dries hard and strong. In the two years we’ve used it, I’ve never had so much as a crack. Bonus: If you measure wrong (not that I would ever do this), it’s very forgiving of some last-minute trimming (I DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS ON SATURDAY IAMNOTLYING).
Frosting Cement – The canned stuff works fine when you are just gluing four graham cracker walls together, but if you are putting together anything more complex, this is the frosting you want. They aren’t kidding when they say cement. This stuff is so strong once it dries that you could probably build a real house with it.
Marshmallow Modeling Clay – Just in case you too feel the need to sculpt a dragon/detective for your house, this edible clay is great. It contains ingredients you probably keep in your pantry and is about as easy to work with as regular clay. The most difficult part is working in the coloring, which will take you a few minutes.
*All of these things are technically edible, but we don’t eat our houses, so I can’t comment on the taste.
House Templates
Victorian Gingerbread House – There is a surprising dearth of free gingerbread templates on the web for anything more complicated than your basic four walls and a chimney, so I was absolutely DELIGHTED to find this Victorian template from Kitchen Trials last year. It’s what we used for our 2014 house and it was perfect.
Tools
Other Tips and Tricks (AKA, lessons we learned the hard way)
- If you cut your dough and then bake, check and trim it after it comes out of the oven! A good gingerbread dough shouldn’t spread too much when it cooks, but it probably will a little bit, and a little bit is all it takes to throw your angles off. Check your pieces against their stencils and re-cut while the gingerbread is still warm and pliable.
- If you get any air bubbles in your dough, very, very gently smooth them out with a light rolling pin as soon as you take it out of the oven.
- Make your gingerbread house a two or three day project. Copying and cutting and rolling and tracing and baking and cooling takes a while. For these bigger houses, I like to cut the stencils day one, cook the gingerbread on day two and assemble day three. It will make the whole project feel so much less overwhelming.
- Use cans and mugs to prop up your walls while they are drying.
- Finally, buy more ingredients than you think you need! If something goes wrong, or you need more dough, there is nothing worse than having to go back out and buy ingredients in the middle of your baking. Believe me. It’s. The. Worst.
A History of Our Houses
If you’d like, take a walk down memory lane with me…
2009 – A House for Mr. & Mrs. Claus
2010 – A Home for the “Supernatural” Boys + Santa Cas
2012 – 221 B Baker Street Got a Gingerbread Upgrade
2013 – A “Sherlock”/”Desolation of Smaug” Gingerbread Crossover
2014 – “Hannibal” House
2015 – “Hannibal” House, Year 2
The Tips
A Few Weeks in Advance
Decide early on what you are going to bake. That way, there’s no last minute scrambling through Pinterest/books/your favorite blogs for recipes. This also gives you time to…
The Day Before
Day Of
Immediately After
2015 Christmas Cookie Boxes
Classic shortbread thumbprint cookies with delicious homemade butterscotch filling.
Photos have been updated. Don’t worry, you’re in the right place. :)
I’m so excited to hit publish on my very first blog post today!
I wanted the inaugural post to be something that reflected the spirit of the blog to come, one that was representative of my passion for healthy recipes, eating your veggies, and branching out of your culinary comfort zone. But honestly, it’s December. It’s pretty much all cookies all the time coming out of my kitchen right now (stay tuned for salad in January).
So instead, I’m starting today with a classic cookie, my current obsession, shortbread thumbprint cookies with homemade butterscotch filling.
This is going to sound crazy, but I wasn’t a shortbread fan for most of my life. Beyond a few tried-and-true family recipes, we weren’t really bakers in my house growing up, nor were we cookie people.
I know I ate shortbread. I vaguely remember turning my nose up at those shiny blue tins of the stuff every year at Christmas, and I’d used it as a base in bars, but I didn’t understand the sweet and buttery goodness that was the homemade shortbread cookie until my sister baked up a batch for me.
My immediate reaction was, This is amazing. I never want to not be eating these. And then, Hey, World, what other wonders have you been holding out on me?!!!
Since that day, I’ve made this recipe waaaaay too many times in way too many variations (rolled in sugar, rolled in sprinkles, icing, no icing, chocolate drizzles, etc.) and have finally settled on my perfect variation: rolled in sanding sugar * or turbinado sugar *, turned into a thumbprint cookie and filled with butterscotch.
The butterscotch is the perfect, creamy complement to the buttery cookie and the sugar gives it a crunch to keep things interesting. These cookies are so good you’ll never want to let your shortbread go naked again!
Ingredients
Cookies
- ▢ 1 cup ( 8 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 60 g) powdered sugar sifted
- ▢ 2 cups ( 280 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/4 cup sanding sugar optional
Butterscotch
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) unsalted butter
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) packed brown sugar
- ▢ 1/4 cup heavy cream
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 3/4 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
Cookies
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in flour and salt, mixing until just combined, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl.
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to handle, about 15-30 minutes. You should be able to shape scoops of it into a ball without it being too sticky or cracking. If it is over-chilled and difficult to work with, leave it out on the counter for a few minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a tablespoon, scoop dough and roll into balls (slightly under 1 ounce each). If desired, roll balls in sanding sugar until completely covered. Place dough cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. The cookies are done when their bottoms are lightly browned.
- As soon as they come out of the oven, use a round teaspoon or the back of a wooden spoon to create shallow wells in the center of each cookie. Be careful not to press too hard or you can cause the cookies to crack. Set aside.
Butterscotch
- Melt butter in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add brown sugar, salt, and cream. Stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and, stirring occasionally, cook on medium for 5 minutes.
- Remove pot from heat and stir in the vanilla. Use a teaspoon to spoon butterscotch into the thumbprints. Allow the butterscotch to cool slightly before serving.
Notes
Butterscotch Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies Nutritional Information Adapted From: In the Kitchen with Stefano Faita Butterscotch Filling Adapted From: Smitten Kitchen
Small-batch Instructions: This cookie recipe halves cleanly, just use a pinch of salt instead of 1/8 teaspoon. For the butterscotch, simmer for 4 minutes instead of 5 in a 1-quart pot, and use 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.
Original iPhone Photography, Circa 2015
Snickerdoodle Sandwich with Eggnog Buttercream Filling
Ingredients
Snickerdoodles
- 4 tablespoons ( 2oz ) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/4 cup ( 48 g) shortening
- 3/4 cup ( 150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups ( 187 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons ( 25g ) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Eggnog Buttercream
- 1 1/2 cup ( 180 g) powdered sugar sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup ( 4oz ) unsalted butter softened
- 1-2 tablespoons eggnog or heavy cream
Instructions
Snickerdoodles
- Preheat your oven to 400°F. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. On low, mix in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt until just combined.
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon. Scoop 36 1/2-ounce mounds of dough into balls (just over 1-inch wide) and roll in sugar mixture. Place on a baking sheet 1 1/2-inches apart. These are small cookies, so you should be able to fit 18-20 on a standard-size cookie tray.
- Bake for 6 to 8 minutes. They are done when they are just golden and look set. You don’t want them to crisp up too much since we are turning them into sandwiches.
- Allow cookies to cool completely.
Eggnog Buttercream
- In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and add the powdered sugar mixture and 1 tablespoon of the eggnog, beating until combined. If your frosting is too dry, mix in a little more eggnog, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.
Assemble
- Pair cookies by size so that you have 18 sandwiches with matching halves.
- The best way to fill these cookies is to “pipe” the buttercream. Spoon the buttercream into a disposable plastic bag and cut off a corner. Pipe frosting in the center your first cookie, about two-thirds of the way to the edge and then top with a second cookie and squeeze gently until the frosting comes to the edges. I recommend experimenting with a couple cookies to see how much frosting you need before finishing the entire batch.
