Sugar Plum Cookies

## Book Reference

Christmas Cupcake Murder

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

**Hannah 1st Note:** *If you plan to make these cookies in the morning, get out 4 sticks of butter on the night before, unwrap them, and put them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap. That way the butter will be soft enough to use in the morning.*

### Cookie Ingredients

* 2 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar (don't sift unless it's got big lumps and pack it down when you measure it)
* 2 cups softened, salted butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)
* 1 cup white (granulated) sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (freshly grated is best, of course)
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 4 and 1/4 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when  you measure it)

### Cookie Directions

* Prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick baking spray or lining them with parchment paper.
	+ **Hannah's 2nd Note:** *These cookies are easy to mix up if you use an electric mixer like the one Lisa and I have at The Cookie Jar. You can mix them by hand, but it will take more time and more muscle.*
* Measure out the powdered sugar and put it in the bowl of an electric mixer.
* Arrange the 4 sticks of softened butter on top of the powdered sugar.
* Sprinkle the cup of white (granulated) sugar on top of the butter.
* Turn the mixer on to LOW speed and mix the sugars and butter together. Continue mixing on LOW speed until everything is thoroughly combined and the mixture is a uniform color.
* Mix in the eggs at LOW speed, one at a time, mixing after each egg is added.
* With the mixer still running at LOW speed, mix in the vanilla extract.
* Add the baking soda and mix it in thoroughly.
* Again, at LOW speed, mix in the cream of tartar. Mix thoroughly.
	+ **Hannah's 3rd Note:** *In case  you're wondering, the addition of cream of tartar makes your cookies smoother (at least that's what Great-Grandma Elsa told me when I asked.)*
* Add the ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and salt. Mix them in thoroughly.
* Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition. You can add the quarter cup of flour with the last full cup.
	+ **Hannah's 4th Note:** *Whatever you do, don't try to add all the flour at once. If you do that, when you start the mixer it will fly out of the bowl and all over your kitchen counter and floor.* (*And please don't ask me how I know this*.)
* Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and take the mixing bowl out of the mixer.
* Give your cookie dough a final stir by hand with a mixing spoon.
	+ **Hannah's 5th> Note:** *This recipe makes from 8 to 10 dozen cookies. If you don't want to make that many Sugar Plum Cookies, round your cookie dough into a ball and cut it in half. Place one half in a freezer bag and stick it in the refrigerator to bake in a week or so, or in the freezer to bake in a month or so. You can use the saved half of the cookie dough to bake more Sugar Plum Cookies or you can roll cookie dough balls and make Grandma Knudson's Cinful Sugar Cookies.*
* Use your impeccably clean hands to roll the first half of the cookie dough into balls that are approximately one inch in diameter.
* Place the dough balls on the cookie sheets you've prepared, 12 cookies on each standard-sized cookie sheet.
* Flatten the dough balls with the back of a metal spatula or the palm of your impeccably clean hand.
	+ **Hannah's 6th Note:** *The flatter your cookie dough balls are, the bigger and crispier your cookies will be. Since you will be frosting these cookies, I'd suggest that you DO NOT completely flatten the balls or they might break when your frost them.*
* Bake at 325 degrees F. for 10 to 15 minutes. (The cookies should have a tinge of gold on the top.)

### Sugar Plum Filling Ingredients

* 4 dozen pitted dates
* 2 dozen walnut halves
* 1/2 cup white (granulated) sugar

### Sugar Plum Filling Directions

* Open the date. They should be almost cut in half so that you can spread the 2 halves apart.
* Break or cut the walnut halves into 2 equal parts lengthwise.
* Place the walnut quarter inside the date and close it up again.
	+ **Hannah's Note:** *Dates are very sticky. The two halves of the date will stick together with the walnut quarter inside*.
* Pour the half-cup of white sugar into a shallow bowl.
* Roll the date in the white sugar, coating it completely. Then take it out and place it on a piece of wax paper on the kitchen counter.
* Repeat until all the dates have been sugared and are on the wax paper.

## Sugar Plum Frosting Ingredients

* 1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) softened, salted butter
* 8-ounce package softened cream cheese (the brick kind, NOT whipped)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar

## Sugar Plum Frosting Directions

* Mix the softened butter with the softened cream cheese and the vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.
	+ **Hannah's 1st Note:** *If you heated the cream cheese or the butter to soften it, make sure it's cooled down to room temperature before you mix them together.*
* Add the confectioners' sugar in half-cup increments until the frosting is of proper spreading consistency. (You'll use all, or almost all, of the sugar.)
* With a frosting knife (or rubber spatula if you prefer) drop a dollop of frosting in the center of a cookie.
* Spread the dollop out to cover almost all of the cookie, but don't go all the way to the edge.
	+ **Hannah's 2nd Note:** *If you spread the frosting out all the way, it makes the cookies more difficult to pick up from a platter.*
* Once the first cookie has been frosted, put a sugar-plum (the sugared date with the walnut inside) in the center. Since the frosting has not yet hardened, the sugarplum will stay in place.

**Yield:**  Approximately 4 dozen buttery, sugary cookies.

## Conversion Charts

See Baking Conversion Chart for non-USA baking conversions.