Ice Cream Kolackies

Last night, it was very Christmasy around here, while I made my favorite Christmas cookies and Joe finished putting together a puzzle (Rosie the Riveter by Norman Rockwell!).  I have made these cookies for three years now, and always have sent them to work with Joe.  They're good stuff, so I thought I would share the recipe and my tips with all of you!

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com (thank you to marbalet, the original poster), and have changed the recipe a little bit along the way.  They are a flaky pastry-like cookie with a jelly center.  Deeelicious.  And enough butter to make grandma proud.  So in case you're looking for a new cookie this Christmas, this one will get you noticed.

Ice Cream Kolacky

(Joe once called them Schnotzkies...and I think it's hilarious so you are welcome to, as well)

Makes: 2 1/2-3 dozen

Ingredients:

1 Pint (2 cups) Vanilla Ice Cream

2 Cups butter, chilled (REAL butter, not margarine)

4 Cups all-purpose Flour

1/4 C Raspberry Jam or jam of your choice

Powdered Sugar to roll out cookies (about 1-2 cups)

Directions:

In very large bowl, add flour to butter and cut in using a pastry cutter until butter forms small pea-sized lumps.  Add in ice cream and mix in with dough hooks or your hands until thoroughly mixed.  When dough is smooth, shape into a flattened circle, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate overnight.

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Next Day:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  

Using powdered sugar to keep dough from sticking, roll dough to 1/4" thickness.  Cut into 2" circles using a cup or cookie cutter.  Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet.  While cutting all the cookies, place any full trays in refrigerator to keep cold.  Once cookies are all cut, make a thumbprint in each cookie & fill with 1/2 tsp. raspberry jam.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove cookies from pan immediately after removing from oven--do not allow to cool on the cookie sheet, or they'll stick.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cool.

My Notes & Tips:

1.  If you are mixing in the ice cream for the dough by hand, it's COLD!  I battle that by first putting on a pair of thin knit gloves, and then wearing rubber gloves on top of those.  It keeps your hands from feeling like they're going to fall off.

2.  Keep the dough as cold as you can when you're rolling out the cookies.  When it starts to warm, it gets sticky and nasty, and won't rise properly.  Every chance you get, let them sit in the refrigerator.

3.  You can squeeze the cookies as close together as possible on the sheet--they shrink up when they bake.

4.  I like to use Raspberry seedless jam.  Seeds in my teeth while I'm eating cookies doesn't appeal to me.

There you go!  I love that I can bake all I want this time of year and it's completely okay--after all, it's Christmas!  Do you have any special baking that you do this time of year?