Mary Unger's Christmas Butter Cookies

Republished from 12/2019

​By Hilda Joy

Christmas and cookies go together ofcourse.  I have many happy memories of cookies sweetening this year-end holiday, but my favorite is of a woman with whom I worked who took Christmas cookie baking seriously.  Every December 1, she bought 20 pounds of butter.  Every day after work, she would make a light dinner and go to bed early.  Then she would awake about two o’clock in the morning and bake a batch of cookies.  These would be packed into candy boxes she collected throughout the year at the office, where we had a custom of celebrating our birthdays by buying two pounds of chocolates, passing them around after lunch, and then giving my friend the empty box.  These boxes of cookies would be stashed in her freezer to be shared at Christmas, especially at her annual Christmas open house.  In addition to all the Swedish recipes she learned early in life, she made Mexican besos (kisses) and a shortbread cookie so rich that she cut the dough into half-inch cubes, sprinkled with red and green sugars.
 
Another woman, with the help of two of her friends, gathered all of her grandchildren into her large kitchen on a Saturday early in December for a full day of baking and decorating cookies while their parents had the day free for serious Christmas shopping.  When their parents returned, each child offered them a tin of Christmas cookies.
 
My all-time favorite Christmas cookie is my Mother’s unusual butter cookie, which is offered here for you to try.  Please do and remember to leave some out for Santa Claus.   EnJOY

Christmas Eve in our Unger household always was scented by pine from the Christmas tree, furniture polish in the living room, the fishy smell of tuna salad (the only time in the year that this meal was served due to a meatless vigil), and the best smell of all---Christmas butter cookies.  My Mother’s Christmas butter cookies are like no others due to their 1/4-inch thickness and primarily due to the inclusion of sieved hard-boiled egg yolks, which affect the texture and enhance the yellow color.  The cookies should be golden yellow, not brown, so one must watch the baking carefully (my Mother would pull up a chair to the oven with its light on to watch color).  This recipe was lost for many years until a happenstance long-distance phone call with our long-time next-door Illinois neighbor, Laverne, gratefully brought it to light.  On Laverne’s recipe card, this recipe was attributed to another neighborhhood baker with whom my Mother shared it but who claimed it as her own.  I still use my Mother’s five old Christmas cookie cutters; they are willed to my children, Lisa, Sheila, and Patrick, and to my granddaughters, Haley and Zoe.

​1 pound cold butter (highest
   quality, such as Plugra)
1 cup sugar
4 cups unbleached flour

​Cut cold butter into small pieces.  In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light.  Gradually incorporate flour.
 
If using unsalted butter, add 1/4-teaspoon salt now.

1 raw egg yolk
splash of vanilla
grated rind of a half lemon

​Incorporate egg yolk and vanilla.
 
Gently fold in lemon rind.

​4 hard-cooked egg yolks
   (no green rings please)

​​Halve egg yolks and spread evenly in a large fine sieve; press yolks through sieve onto dough and fold in gently.  (Hard-cooked egg whites went into our Xmas tuna salad.)

Shape dough into a flat oval, wrap it in waxed paper, and refrigerate it for no less than one hour but preferably all night or all day.  Firmness is important.

​1 raw egg white,
   room temperature
   and slightly beaten
finely chopped walnuts
   mixed with sugar

​​Roll chilled dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut with Christmas-shaped cookie cutters (not too large) and place cookies on ungreased cookie sheets.  Brush cookies with egg white and sprinkle sparingly with mixture of walnuts and sugar.  Bake butter cookies in preheated 350 degree-F oven for about 15 minutes until golden yellow (not brown).  Immediately transfer cookies to racks to cool.

EnJOY