Sour Cream Holiday Cookies

December 12, 2018 |

I’ve only ever made Grandma Bess’ Rich Flavor Christmas Cookies when making holiday cut-out cookies. There are several holiday cut-out recipes in Cookies by Bess. I decided to make Sour Cream Holiday Cookies because I had sour cream in my refrigerator and I love using sour cream in cookie recipes! It was a good choice! This recipe made a very nice cookie with a dough that was easy to work with and baked up nicely!

I also wanted to make Sour Cream Holiday Cookies because I have this idea in my head that cookies made with sour cream are going to be moist, soft, and almost creamy…which sounds yummy to me! This is the second recipe I’ve make from Cookies by Bess with sour cream (Sour Cream Oatmeal Cookies was the first), and I have to say that my head is wrong. Both cookies are really good tasting cookies, but there really isn’t anything that distinguishes them as a “sour cream” type cookie in the flavor or texture. So, no big deal…I can put that notion away and just carry on ?

I rated this recipe as 3-stars because of the multiple steps of rolling the dough, using the cookie cutters, and then frosting and decorating the cookies. Also, this recipe makes about 13 dozen cookies! So, it took all afternoon and into the evening to roll, cut, bake, frost, and decorate the entire batch…whew, good thing it was Sunday so I could watch football and bake at the same time!

Once I got all my ingredients and baking tools together, I followed the recipe as written except for just one adjustment. I used butter instead of shortening. One of these days I’ll try shortening again, but not with these Sour Cream Holiday cut outs!

I used my Kitchen Aid to mix and blend all the ingredients together. With 4 ½ cups of flour to mix, I knew I was going to need the extra help of an electric mixer!

The dough came together nicely. It was a little sticky when all mixed together, so I added another ¼ cup of flour just to make it a little easier to work with as I rolled the dough out.

I decided to roll out the cookie dough on wax paper. This actually worked very well and saved my cutting board from getting stained. I used quite a bit of flour on the wax paper, dough, and rolling pin to make sure the dough didn’t stick.

Finally, I was ready to start cutting. I tend to use metal cookie cutters. I’ve found they cut through the dough the best.

Once I got everything set up and floured, the dough rolled relatively easily. With the large amount of dough, you can adjust the thickness as you are rolling it out. I ended up with about an 1/8 – ¼ inch thickness.

The recipe doesn’t mention whether the baking sheets should be greased or not, so I opted not to grease them. This worked well. The cookies didn’t stick per se, but I did have to be careful when removing them from the baking sheet just to make sure they didn’t break or tear from moving too quickly.

I settled on a baking time of 9 minutes. Baking them for the full 10 minutes resulted in a little too much brown around the edges for me.

As I mentioned, this recipe produced over 13 dozen cookies! I was astounded at the amount I ended up with!

The recipe doesn’t provide a suggested frosting recipe…so I went with the Sour Cream Frosting from Cookies by Bess. After looking at some other butter cream type frostings, I decided to stay true to Cookies by Bess, and use one of Grandma Bess’ frosting recipes. Why not use Sour Cream Frosting with Sour Cream Holiday Cookies ?

I do have to admit, while making the frosting, I made a mistake and ended up putting way too much powdered sugar in with the sour cream. The recipe calls for 2 cups powdered sugar, I ended up putting in about 3 ½ cups. Why? Well, I got confused with one of the other recipes I was looking at…oh well, in the end, I’m not sure how the recipe would have turned out with only 2 cups of powdered sugar because it was pretty darn loose with almost double that amount!

Using a hand mixer to beat the sour cream and sugar together worked well. I think this really helped with the consistency and fluffiness of the frosting in the end. Next time I’ll make it correctly and update this blog with notes on how it turned out.

I was worried about the looseness of the frosting until I started frosting the cookies. The consistency was great, and the frosting looked beautiful. It smoothed out on the cookie and looked shiny! I sprinkled color sugar on top of the frosting for a soft holiday festive look. I think they turned out great!

The butter and sour cream mixed together to provide a nice subtle flavor. The cookie itself is a bit crispy and the frosting adds a nice, slightly lemony flavor. Whether you are making Christmas cookies or Hanukkah cookies, or any other shapes, this Sour Cream Holiday Cookies recipe makes a nice basic cut out cookie for holidays or any special occasion.

These Sour Cream Holiday Cookies freeze nicely, so you can make them a head of time and pull them out as needed for holiday guest or just for family fun! I definitely recommend these Sour Cream Holiday Cookies with Sour Cream Frosting! You won’t be disappointed and you’ll have lot of cookies to share!

XXOO,

Janet