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Wine cookies, ever heard of them? They aren't at the top of the cookie food chain, and that's always surprised me as I've always been a fan of this not too sweet treat. So if this your first introduction to wine cookies, I hope you enjoy this fabulous recipe from Gigi Sue! My family and I sure do. In fact, this holiday season I teamed up with my cookie loving daughter to make these and it was a perfect match, as I love wine and she loves cookies. Don't panic, the booze cooks right out of these babies but leaves behind a light and crunchy sweetness. To take this cookie up a level, we added a vanilla icing. Traditionally this cookie isn't iced, just dusted with sugar and it is often dunked in coffee, warm milk or..... you guessed it, wine!! However, I find a touch of icing takes these goodies to a bit more of a sweeter treat and enhances presentation, especially during the holiday season.
When I cook with my daughter, I LOVE to bring food coloring into play. She picks the colors and gets so excited as the shades change. With these cookies, we went with blue as we were bringing them to a Hanukkah party.
We split our dough in half, to make two batches. On the first batch we mixed 2 drops of food coloring directly into our dough, working it until the dye was distributed throughout, we dipped them in sugar pre-cooking, and after they were cooked we drizzled them with frosting.
In the second batch, we saved the food coloring for icing. I did feel that the "blue" cookie required overworking the dough a bit to get a full blend of color, so if you do put dye in your dough work quickly and mix it well. This is not a dough you want to handle too much. But regardless, that version was delicious and really cute. The second batch we dipped into a vanilla icing and they looked like little donuts of delight. Needless to say, both versions didn't last long at the party and were a hit with both the big and little humans.
So you have options here, the traditional sugar dust, the dyed dough with sugar dust AND a drizzle of icing and the fully iced version with no sugar dip.
Have fun and do a bit of each, they look so great mixed on a serving dish or cookie tray!
This recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies
pre-heat oven to 350
What Do I Need?
for the cookies
1/2 Cup White Wine
1/2 Cup Sugar ( + more for dusting)
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
2 1/2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
Food Coloring Optional Parchment Paper
for the icing (if you plan to totally ice or drizzle)
2 Cups Confectioners Sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk
2 Tablespoons of Vanilla
1 - 2 drops of food coloring
Now What?
In a medium sized bowl, mix your sugar, white wine, oil, vanilla and baking powder. Now gradually mix in flour (you can use an electric stand of hand mixer for this dough). If you intend to use coloring in your cookies, you can add it here. Don't over work your dough! When dough is well mixed, stop! Break off pieces that are about a 1" ball, roll them into a log and twist around your finger, pinching the ends together to make little circles.
Sugar Coated: If you want to sugar coat your cookies, just have a bowl of sugar ready and dip the tops into it, then place on parchment paper.
Fully Iced: If you want to fully ice your cookies, just make your circle and place on the parchment paper, no need to dip them in sugar.
Bake your cookies for about 20 - 25 minutes. When finished, allow to cool before frosting!
To make your frosting, mix your confectioners sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring together until smooth. To fully ice your cookies, simply dip the tops in and place back on the parchment paper to dry. To drizzle , mix a fork in your icing and pull it out, allowing most of the excess to drip off, then quickly move the fork over your cookies. This will create fun thin lines of icing.
Allow your icing to dry and ENJOY!
BE ADVISED: Darker shades of food coloring will dye your hands for a bit, so wear gloves if you can or just be extra careful.