Eggnog cookies are an easy Christmas sandwich cookie made with butter, egg yolks and warm baking spices, filled with rum cream, ready in 2 hours 40 minutes. That makes them a make ahead cookie exchange pick for Christmas, holiday parties or a cookie tray, since the spice blend does the work.
Cream the butter and sugar for the full 5 to 8 minutes, because that trapped air is the only lift in this dough. There is no baking powder and no baking soda, so a rushed creaming gives you hard slices instead of short, crumbly ones.
Alex Guarnaschelli leaves eggnog out of the cookie completely and builds the flavor from ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon, so nothing in the dough can weep. The dairy and the rum sit in the filling instead, which is why the assembled cookies hold up in the fridge.
One number to fix before you start: that dough weighs about 659 grams, which needs roughly a 12-inch log and not the 10 inches the recipe gives. Slice a 12-inch log at 1/4 inch and you get 48 rounds, so plan on 24 sandwiches.
Eggnog Cookies
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalThin spiced butter rounds come off a chilled log, half of them punched with a hole, then stacked around rum icing with caramel and citrus sugar on top.
Ingredients
- For the Cookies:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- For the Icing:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons dark rum
- For the Dusting Sugar:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
- For the Caramel:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Directions
FAQs
Why is there no eggnog in these eggnog cookies?
The flavor comes from the spice mix instead, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon, which is the whole profile of eggnog without the custard. Adding real eggnog would put extra liquid into a short butter dough and make it spread. The rum and cream show up in the filling, where they cannot soften the cookie.
How many cookies does one batch actually make?
Food Network says about 20 sandwiches, but the dough weighs around 659 grams and that fills a log closer to 12 inches than 10. At 1/4-inch slices a 12-inch log gives 48 rounds, which is 24 sandwiches. Count on 24 and you will not come up short on a cookie tray.
What do I do with the cut-out centers?
The recipe never says, so you are left with 20 one-inch rounds of raw dough. Bake them alongside the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, since they are much smaller, and they come out as little spiced shortbread bites. They are also useful for checking your oven timing before the real batch goes in.
Can I make these without the rum?
Yes, swap the 2 tablespoons dark rum for vanilla extract and the icing still sets. Cut it to 1 teaspoon vanilla plus 1 tablespoon more cream, because 2 tablespoons of extract would taste harsh. For another alcohol free spiced cookie, our molasses cookies use the same warm spices in a single thick cookie.
How far ahead can I assemble them?
The filled sandwiches keep in the fridge, but hold the caramel and dusting sugar until serving because both dissolve in the cold. Assemble up to two days ahead and finish the tops within an hour of the table. If you want a sandwich cookie that holds its topping longer, the jam in our linzer star sandwich cookies does not melt.
