It’s the holiday season, and one thing that screams Christmas holidays, at least in my little world, are the clementines. They have an elegant citrusy flavor that goes so well with the buttery cookies. Every year for Christmas, I make several batches of the crispy and fragrant clementine butter cookies, and they never disappoint. They should definitely be part of the Christmas cookie box.
HOW TO …
Clementine butter cookies are relatively straightforward to make. There are no extra or tricky steps. The most important points are:
- Don’t over-process the dough as the cookies will not be crispy but rather hard and chewy.
- Always properly cool the dough and cookies before baking. This ensures the cookies don’t spread too much when baked and hence will retain their shape.
- The cookies should not start taking on the color on the edges as they bake. Keep an eye on the oven and the cookies like a hawk since they can turn brown in tens of seconds.
DECORATING COOKIES
The clementine butter cookies are quite versatile. They are great with tea or coffee, dusted with a bit of powdered sugar, or you can elevate them to another level by making little cookie sandwiches. Simply “glue” them together using your favorite homemade jam.
In this recipe, I used my homemade raspberry, apricot, blueberry lemon thyme, and grape jam. It’s nice to have a variety of different tastes.
When making cookie sandwiches, make sure not to put too much jam so that it does not spill over when the cookies are pressed together. It is best not to add enough rather than overdo it.
If there is not enough jam, just add some more with a small spoon directly in the middle of a cookie opening. You can use a clean toothpick to distribute the jam. Make sure not to touch the sides of the cookie as it will look a bit smeared and not clean.
You can also add some ground nuts like pistachios to your cookies. If you have a tree-shaped cookie add some raw ground pistachios on top of a very thin layer of jam.
Note that if you dust the cookies with the powdered sugar, do that only for the top cookie and before you “glue” the cookies together. This will enable the jam to look extra glossy.
Clementine butter cookies
Equipment & Tools
- Food processor
- Kitchen scale
- Baking sheet 3x
- Parchment paper 3x
- Plastic wrap or a reusable zip-lock bag
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie cutters
- Chopsticks, plain takeout ones (optional), about 4mm (0.16in) thick
- Cookie spatula (very thin one)
INGREDIENTS
Cookie dough
- 300 g all-purpose flour (sifted)
- 90 g powdered sugar
- ¼ tsp salt (Himalayan)
- 7 g clementine zest (organic, about 3 clementines)
- 205 g butter (unsalted, cold, cubed)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract (pure)
- 3 tsp whole milk (cold)
Other
- raspberry, apricot, grape, blueberry lemon thyme jam (homemade)
- powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Gather all the ingredients.
Prepare the dough
- Mix vanilla extract with the milk. Set aside.
- Add the flour, sugar, salt, and clementine zest to a food processor. Pulse so that all the ingredients and the clementine zest is evenly incorporated into the flour mix.
- Add the cold butter cubes and pulse until the mixture resembles small grains. There should not be any chunks of butter visible.
- Add the milk and the vanilla mixture and process until the dough starts to form.
- Transfer the dough onto a clean working surface. Shape the dough into a disk of about 1½in thick. Place the dough into a zip-lock bag and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (Note 1)
Rolling the dough & cutting out cookies
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF).
- Take the dough from the fridge and let it sit on the kitchen counter for about 15 minutes. (Note 2)
- Lightly dust the kitchen counter and the dough with flour. Roll the dough from the center outwards. (Note 3)When you have reduced the thickness of the dough by a half, place one chopstick on each side of the dough (left and right). Roll the dough until the rolling pin reaches the chopsticks and can not go further. The final rolled out dough should be about 4mm (0.16in)thick. (Note 4)
- Cut out the cookies using your desired shape.Using a cookie spatula, carefully transfer the cookie onto a baking sheet. Make sure to leave around 1.5cm (½in) between the cookies.Refrigerate the cookies for at least 15 minutes before baking.
- Gather all the leftover dough and form a disc. Place in the zip-lock bag and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Repeat the process of rolling and cutting out the cookies until there is no more dough left. (Note 5)
Baking and serving
- Bake the cookies, one baking sheet at a time in the middle rack, for 12 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through the 12 minutes.
- Carefully transfer the baked cookies onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
- Dust the cookies with powdered sugar, or make cookie sandwiches by adding a jam of your choice.
NOTES
- The dough needs to cool thoroughly so that the butter sets. Note that if the dough does not cool properly, rolling and especially cutting out the cookies will be extra difficult. Moreover, the shape of the cookies might be distorted since the butter in the dough is not set and hence not firm enough.
- The dough might be too hard to start rolling immediately after taking it out from the fridge and as a result, it might break.
- Apply a small amount of pressure when rolling the dough. Too much pressure and the dough will break. In the beginning, it will seem as if the dough is too hard to roll, but as you continue it will get easier. Fluff the dough and add additional flour, if needed, so that it does not stick to the kitchen counter.
- Using the chopsticks ensures that the dough is rolled evenly.
- For a normal size baking sheet, the process repeats 3 times.
Nives
Well known Christmas cookies but this recipe gives an extra scent of vanilla and clementine which guarantees there won’t be any leftovers. Usually eaten as soon as baked.
Tried it this year and very satisfied.