Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/3 cups shortening
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated orange or lemon zest
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons milk
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Egg Yolk Glaze:
- 4 whole egg yolks
- 2 drops food coloring per egg yolk, various colors
Frosting:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 sticks butter
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- Dash vanilla extract
- Edible decorations, for decorating
Directions
For the cookies: Cream the granulated sugar, shortening, vanilla and orange zest thoroughly. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Add the milk and mix. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt, and then blend into the sugar mixture.
Divide the dough in half, slightly flatten between two sheets of waxed paper and refrigerate, about 1 hour (or freeze for 20 minutes).
For the egg yolk glaze: While dough is chilling, separate the eggs, reserving the whites and placing each yolk into an individual small bowl. Add 4 teaspoons water and different food coloring to each yolk and combine to make the egg yolk glaze.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Carefully cut around hands using a dull knife.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Transfer the hand cookies to a lightly greased cookie sheet and paint the cookies (with a soft brush) with the egg yolk glazes.
Bake the cookies, about 6 minutes. Do not allow the cookies to brown.
Transfer the cookies from the oven to a wire rack to cool.
While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting: Simply combine the powdered sugar, butter, heavy cream and vanilla in a food mixer until light and fluffy. If you like you can put the frosting in disposable piping bags to make decorating easier. Decorate the cookies with the frosting and any edible decorations, jewels, disco dust, sanding sugar you like.
Photo: Hand Cookies Recipe


















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By dkrstec
phoenix, AZ
on December 17, 2012
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The finished cookies tasted delicious; however the dough was difficult to work with. It crumbled when rolled and the 'hand' had to be re-assembled after transferred to baking sheet. It did provide for a fun time though.
By jumsgirl_9342503
on December 15, 2012
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These cookies took me back to when I was a child, and my Mom and I would make and decorate them for Santa. : They tasted great and were a lot of fun to cut out with cookie cutters, since I don't have little one's living at home any more. Didn't stop me from throwing on some Christmas music and singing along while making them, though. Thanks, Ree! Merry Christmas! And PS, I will never understand why people "rate" a recipe at 3 or 4 stars when they've never even tried it. . . . why bring down a recipe's rating like that?! lol
By dvasil
on November 04, 2012
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This recipe was a little disappointing. The dough was too dry, which made it difficult to work with. There was too much water in the egg yolk "paint" which made the colors too light. And the baking time was not long enough. I made this recipe with both my kids and they had a great time, but it was challenging. I wish the recipe had been better tested, I've never had this much trouble with other recipes I've gotten from the food network website. We still love the show and will do more recipes, but we'll stick to the non-baking recipes b/c I think they're a little more forgiving.
Read all 6 reviews