This week I have made a gingerbread cake, a double-decker challah, and about 46 thousand butter cookies cut to look like gingerbread men and snowmen.

Those were for Sophia’s class’s holiday party. The other stuff was for us.

All three recipes I used came from the Holiday Baking issue of Cook’s Illustrated, an issue I highly recommend. The butter cookie recipe is definitely different from the other recipes I found: it’s pretty much simply butter and sugar, held together with a little flour. You roll it out, cut out some cookies, roll it again, cut. Reportedly you should only roll the dough twice, but I took all the third-time scraps, rolled them together, and made another 10 delicious cookies, so take the whole “only roll twice” with a grain of salt.

Also, you can skip your upper body workout if you make these cookies. Man alive, in the midst of rolling out this dough — see above: butter + sugar, chilled in the fridge — I suddenly realized why I should do bent-over rows and lateral raises.

I worked that dough, trying to work fast in order to keep it cool, and every single muscle in my upper body said, “No, I don’t think so.” In fact, the first time I made this recipe, I rolled the dough out to 1/4 inch thick instead of 1/8 thick, because I honestly did not think I could get it any thinner. (Basically, I ended up with gingerbread-man and snowman shortbread cookies. Which doesn’t, you know, suck.) After four batches of this stuff — I wouldn’t have had to make so much had I gotten the thickness of the dough right the first time! — I finally got a clue about how to roll and how to get my back into it.

Pastry chefs must be in killer condition. Having the rolling pin is not enough; you must also know what to do with it.

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Cook’s Illustrated Holiday Baking Butter Cookie Recipe

Butter Cookie Dough
355 grams unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces or 2 1/2 cups — but you should weigh, not measure)
156 grams superfine sugar (5 1/2 ounces or 3/4 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt
227 grams butter (16 tablespoons or 2 sticks), cut into sixteen 1/2-inch pieces, at cool room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature (I think this is about 1 ounce or 28 grams)

Glaze
1 tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoons milk
170 grams confectioners’ sugar (6 ounces or 1 1/2 cups)

For the cookies:

1) In bowl of standing mixer fitted with flat beater, mix flour, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined, about 5 seconds. With mixer running on low, add butter 1 piece at a time; continue to mix until mixture looks crumbly and slightly wet, about 1 minute longer. Add vanilla and cream cheese and mix on low until dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.

2) Remove bowl from mixer; knead dough by hand in bowl for 2 to 3 turns to form large cohesive mass. Turn out dough onto countertop; divide dough in half (Diane’s note: they come out to 380 grams each), pat into two 4-inch disks (me again: the flatter you make these now, the happier you will be later), wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until they begin to firm up, 20 to 30 minutes. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen up to 2 weeks; defrost dough in refrigerator before using. Because otherwise you will destroy your biceps and triceps in trying to roll it out.)

3) Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out 1 dough disk to even 1/8-inch thickness between 2 large sheets of parchment paper; slide rolled dough on parchment onto baking sheet and chill until firm, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, repeat with second disk.

4) Working with first portion of rolled dough, cut into desired shapes using cookie cutter(s) and place shapes on parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until light golden brown, about 10 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Repeat with second portion of rolled dough. (Dough scraps can be patted together, chilled, and re-rolled once.) Cool cookies on wire rack to room temperature.

For the glaze: Whisk cream cheese and 2 tablespoons milk in medium bowl until combined and no lumps remain. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar until smooth, adding remaining milk as needed until glaze is thin enough to spread easily. Drizzle or spread scant teaspoon glaze with back of spoon onto each cooled cookie; decorate further as desired.

I can’t speak to how well the glaze turned out, ’cause I didn’t do that part, but I’ll definitely make these cookies again! Maybe after I’ve done a marathon or something (that dough is as tasty as it sounds).

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The entire challah got eaten tonight before I remembered to get my camera. It’s good stuff. I’m telling you, pick up this issue.