New York Style Christmas Cookies

Meri Kirihimete. Merry Christmas!

I wanted a lovely cookie to put in take-home bags after a Christmas bbq and these cookies are perfect.

At Christmas time I like to get gifts for the kids in our family but for the adults we usually enjoy Secret Santa. Of course, Nisha (a teacher) turns this into a huge game of stealing and no one quite knows what is happening when right under your nose the gift that you have just won is whipped away and suddenly belongs to someone else… there is huge raucous competition to steal the best gift!

As a gift alternative for the adults I like to give everyone a home-made treat to take home. It might only be 2-3 cookies but when wrapped in a cellophane bag and tied with a red ribbon it looks festive and it can be a special treat to have long after the party is over.

This cookie recipe is yummy and filled with the flavour of Christmas- ginger, caramel, chocolate and citrus, scrumptious!

Follow the directions carefully and you will be rewarded with a rich, golden brown, crisp cookie.

Before you start baking these cookies check out my recipe for New York Style Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, also yummy cookies.

Ingredients

190g Unsalted Butter (chopped and cold)
135g Caster Sugar
135g Light Brown Sugar
300g White Choc (we like to caramelise half. See links below recipe for a how to)
75g Mixed Peel
75g Crystalised Ginger

155g SR Flour
260g Plain Flour
1.5 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
2 Eggs

Method

Place cold butter into the mixer and mix on medium speed with paddle attachment.

Add the 2 types of sugar and mix until nuggets form.

Add white chocolate chips and chopped caramalised white chocolate, mixed peel & chopped crystalised ginger. Mix on medium for a couple of seconds to disperse all the ingredients.

Mix the dry ingredients together with a whisk to combine and add to the mixer. Mix on low speed until it reaches a breadcrumb consistency.

Beat the eggs together and add to the mixture, then beat all together on a low speed. When the mixture comes together in clumps it will be ready. Don’t overmix.

Tip out onto a lightly floured surface. It will be crumbly so push together and press into cookie balls and weigh each one at 120g, be gentle and do not roll… press.

When the balls are all measured and pressed put them all into the freezer for 1½ – 2 hours or overnight… or longer.

Take the balls directly from the freezer and bake at 190°C straight onto the preheated baking sheet/tray for 16 minutes or until golden and crispy.

Cool on the tray before placing in a storage container.

Tips

The main idea is to keep the butter as cold as possible so the first thing to do is chop the butter and pop back in the fridge.

Secondly, prepare all the other ingredients before you start mixing. Chop the chocolate, make the caramelised white chocolate well in advance, weigh the sugars, weigh the ginger and peel, whisk the dry ingredients and break 2 eggs into a bowl and mix with a fork.

Now you are ready to gently mix until crumbly and press together into rough balls to freeze.

I used caramilk chocolate instead of caramelised white chocolate, much less faffing! It kinda melted through the cookie but tasted great… gave a lovely caramel flavour.

The dough balls can be stored in the freezer and one or two cookies may be cooked as you need them.

Heat the baking sheet in the oven before baking the cookies so that the dough hits a hot surface when baking.

Make sure they are well spaced out on tray and only bake 4-6 at a time.

The recipe calls for 125g measure for each cookie dough ball but I used 75g, no idea why I chose this weight, just seemed to be the right size.

I don’t like nutmeg so I omitted this ingredient and the cookies still taste good.