Foolproof Holiday Cookies

Name: Foolproof Holiday Cookies
Yield: Makes thirty-six to forty 2 1/2-inch cookies
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups, unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces); 3/4 cup, superfine sugar (5 1/2 ounces) (see note); 1/4 teaspoon, table salt; 16 tablespoons, unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into sixteen 1/2-inch pieces, at cool room temperature (about 65 degrees); 2 teaspoons, vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons, cream cheese, at room temperature; 1 tablespoon, cream cheese, at room temperature; 3 tablespoons, milk; 1 1/2 cups, confectioners' sugar (6 ounces)

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Appears in Cook's Illustrated November/December 2003, America's Test Kitchen TV

Desserts or Baked Goods

Make Ahead

Rolling out cookie dough is a sticky business. Most recipes add excess flour, and the resulting cookies are tough. Could we make tender, crispy cookies that roll out easily?

SERVESMakes thirty-six to forty 2 1/2-inch cookies

TIME1¼ hours, plus 20 minutes chilling and 20 minutes cooling

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WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

In our search for a holiday cookie recipe that would yield cookies sturdy enough to decorate yet tender enough to eat, we started with the fat and found the right amount of butter to give the cookies great flavor without making them greasy....

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