Eggnog meltaway cookies are melt-in-your-mouth tender and deliciously spiced with warm nutmeg, cloves, and a hint of vanilla. They wonderfully replicate the flavors of your favorite holiday season drink.
Have a couple of eggnog meltaway cookies (or maybe the whole batch, I won’t tell) and share them with your loved ones; it can hardly get more festive than this!
The cosiest of drinks
I found out about eggnog from an American flatmate. She had been feeling homesick for a while, and when December rolled around, she really wanted some eggnog. Obviously, it would have been impossible to find eggnog in Turkey, so we set out to make some. And I’ve been a convert ever since!
We do have eggnog in France; it’s called lait de poule (hen’s milk), but it’s definitely not as popular as it is in North America. Before making it with my flatmate, I didn’t even know what it looked like. You can’t buy eggnog in French supermarkets, and the only times I encountered eggnog/lait de poule were in 19th-century French novels or American Christmas movies.
A meltingly tender cookie
Meltaway cookies, as the name indicates, melt in your mouth in seconds. If you’re looking for chewy, cakey, or crispy christmasy cookies, this isn’t the recipe for you. When I say these eggnog meltaway cookies are meltingly tender, I mean it! Their delicate texture is due to the absence of a leavening agent (baking soda, baking powder, etc.), the use of cornstarch, and a high butter ratio. The moisture from the icing also contributes to the eggnog meltaway cookies’ softness.
⚠️ Because of the high amount of softened butter, the dough is much softer than most cookie doughs. As a consequence, the dough will imperatively need to be chilled before being shaped into a log and sliced. Otherwise, it will be way too sticky to do anything with it.
The shaped and sliced cookies placed on the baking trays will also need to be chilled before baking. A brief stay in the freezer (or fridge) will prevent the cookies from spreading too much in the oven. Limiting the spread is important because if you don’t, the eggnog meltaway cookies will be thinner, which means they will turn out crispy instead of tender.
Step by step
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. The ingredient list and full instructions are in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Make the dough
Beat the softened butter and spices together until creamy. Incorporate the yolks and vanilla. Sift ⅓ of the dry ingredients over the mixture. Beat at the lowest speed until the dry ingredients are well incorporated. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hr.
Step 2: Shape
Place half of the dough on a floured work surface. Lightly dust it with flour. Shape the dough into a log. Roll the log over the flour on the work surface. Cut the log into slices and place them on a lined tray. Use your hands to shape the slices into round cookies. Repeat with the rest of the dough and bake the eggnog meltaway cookies as indicated in the recipe card.
Step 3: Prepare the icing
Combine the powdered sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Make a well and pour in the rum/bourbon and water. Stir everything together with a fork.
Step 4: Ice the cookies
Drop 1 tsp of icing into the center of a cookie. Spread it using the back of the spoon until you almost reach the edges, but leave a 0.5 cm (¼ in) gap all around. Leave to set.
Freezing instructions
If you want to get ahead with your Christmas baking, you can either freeze:
- raw dough: tightly wrap the 2 dough logs in plastic wrap and place them into a freezer bag. Freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw the logs overnight in the fridge before continuing with the end of step 3. If the logs are too hard to slice, leave them at room temperature on the floured surface until they become “sliceable”. Or,
- baked cookies: bake the cookies and leave them to cool down completely on their baking trays. Place the trays in the freezer until the cookies are frozen solid, about 1 hour, and then transfer them to a freezer bag. You can keep them in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, place the cookies on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and leave at room temperature. Wait until the eggnog meltaway cookies are completely thawed (it might take a few hours) before icing them.
Eggnog meltaway cookies
- Prep Time: 50 minutes
- chilling & setting: 2 hour 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 17 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours 22 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Eggnog meltaway cookies are melt-in-your-mouth tender and deliciously spiced with warm nutmeg, cloves, and a hint of vanilla.
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 230 g butter (2 sticks or 8 oz)
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 to 3 tsp vanilla extract (I put 3 tsp because my extract is not very strong)
- 140 g all-purpose flour (1 cup), plus a bit extra to dust the work surface
- 95 g cornstarch (¾ cup)
- 55 g powdered sugar (⅓ cup)
For the icing:
- 105 g powdered sugar (⅔ cup)
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp rum or bourbon, or replace with water if you don’t want to use liquor
- 2 tbsp water
Instructions
- Soften the butter. Cut the butter into small cubes and place them into a large mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with whatever is handy (plastic wrap, aluminum foil, a tea towel, a plate, etc.). Leave the butter at room temperature until completely soft. It might take up to 3 or 4 hours if your kitchen is cold. There should be no resistance when you press a finger into a cube.
- Make the dough. Once the butter is really soft, sprinkle the ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt over it. Beat the butter with a hand mixer until creamy, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and beat again until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Mix the flour, cornstarch, and powdered sugar in a small bowl. Sift a third of the dry ingredients over the butter mixture. Beat at the lowest speed until the dry ingredients are well combined. Sift another third of the dry ingredients and beat again at the lowest speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly combined. Incorporate the last third of the dry ingredients following the same method. At this stage, the dough will be really soft and creamy. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. This is a crucial step, so don’t skip it, or it will be impossible to shape the cookies if the dough hasn’t had time to harden first.
- Shape the cookies. After 1 hour, the dough will have hardened a bit, but will still be very malleable. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper and set them aside. Dust your work surface with flour. Tear off half of the dough and place it on the work surface. Lightly dust it with flour and, with floured hands, shape the dough into a log, roughly 5 cm (2 in) wide. If the dough is too sticky, don’t hesitate to sprinkle more flour. Roll the log over the flour on the work surface to lightly cover it. With a sharp, floured knife, cut the log into 1.5 cm (½ in) slices. You should get about 10 slices. Place the slices on one of the trays, leaving gaps between them so they have room to spread. It’s normal if, after cutting and moving the cookies, you notice that they have lost their circular shapes. Use your hands to shape the slices back into round cookies. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough, putting the slices on the second baking tray.
- Bake. Place one of the baking trays in the freezer (or the fridge if you don’t have one) for 15 min. The eggnog meltaway cookies need to firm up before baking. Leave the other tray at room temperature. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) in the meantime. Once the first batch of cookies has been in the freezer for 15 min, place the baking tray with the cold cookies in the oven and place the room-temperature tray in the freezer. Bake the first batch of cookies until their bottoms and sides start to turn golden, about 17 to 20 min. The tops of the cookies should remain pale. After coming out of the oven, the cookies will be fragile, so leave them to cool down completely on the baking tray. Bake the other batch of cookies, and then let them cool down completely on their tray.
- Make the icing. Sift the powdered sugar over a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the cinnamon using a fork. Make a well in the center and pour in the rum or bourbon and the water. Stir everything together using the fork. This makes a rather thick icing. If it’s too runny, it will run down the sides of the cookies. However, if the icing is too thick to glaze cookies, stir in more water (½ tsp at a time) until it reaches the right consistency. On the contrary, if the icing is too runny, you can always add more sifted powdered sugar to thicken it. This makes a bit more icing than needed, but it’s not very practical to decrease the quantities.
- Decorate the cookies. Work with one cookie at a time. Drop 1 teaspoon of icing into the center of the cookie and carefully spread it with the back of the spoon until you almost reach the edges, but leave a 0.5 cm (¼ in) gap all around the cookie. Repeat with the other eggnog meltaway cookies. Let the icing set for 1 hour with the cookies undisturbed on the trays. You can lightly dust them with more ground cinnamon if desired.
Notes
You can keep the cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week. To prevent the cookies from sticking together, arrange them in a single layer (they shouldn’t overlap), cover them with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, and then add more cookies on top. Alternate cookies and paper layers until you have stored all the cookies.
You can make the dough up to 3 days in advance. Tightly wrap the 2 dough logs in plastic wrap as indicated in step 3 (recipe card) and place them in the refrigerator. Your dough logs will be hard as stone after chilling for this long, though. Leave them on the floured surface at room temperature until they become “sliceable”.
The cookies don’t spread much, so they could technically all be baked on one tray, but I have noticed that they don’t bake as well when doing so.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 167
Do you want to bake a different batch of cookies to fill up your Christmas cookie box? Here are some of my favorite recipes:
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