When I think of the holidays I have fond memories of baking cookies with my Mom. We would open up the “cookie factory” out of my Mom’s kitchen every Christmas, pumping out a huge assortment of our favorite cookies. When I got married to my husband his favorite cookies were Melting Moments. They were a cookie that his Grandma had made, his mother had made, and a family staple. I had never heard of them! Of course, since they were his favorite I had to learn how to master making them. This is his Grandma’s Melting Moments Cookies Recipe which produces a delicious cookie that is delicate and melts in your mouth as the name implies. The secret to the melting, delicate flavor is in sifting your ingredients to achieve a silky texture. It’s not as hard as it sounds though and anyone can do it!
Begin by creaming one cup of butter and gradually beating in powdered sugar. Then slowly sift in corn starch and flour and mix well.
Next chill in the fridge for an hour. If you live in the frozen tundra like I do (Northern Minnesota), then take advantage of that bone-chilling cold weather and stick your bowl outside for ten minutes. They will be chilled by then 🙂 Hey, the cold has to be good for something right?!
Then form small, bite size balls and smash them down just a little with your fingers so they are slightly flat, instead of ball shaped. Put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet or use a Silpat mat like I do (LOVE my Silpat mat!). Then bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes until bottoms just start to turn brown and tops of cookies aren’t doughy feeling anymore.
While the cookies are baking, start making your frosting. Use McCormick food colors and Pure Vanilla Extract to make the simple frosting recipe.
Combine melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk together to make frosting.
Then add red McCormick food coloring to one bowl and green McCormick food coloring to the other bowl and mix well. My husband’s family always colors their frosting very light so they are more of a pastel red and green. I prefer a little more bold red and green coloring which always makes my cookies stand out from the rest!
Once your cookies have cooled, frost the tops of them and let them dry.
Store in an airtight container or freeze. They freeze very well so you can make them ahead and pull them out the day you need them!
Print the recipe off below or pin this post to easily find it later!
Sarah | Must Have Mom
Melting Moments cookies melt in your mouth as the silky layers dissolve.
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Servings 36
Ingredients
1cupbuttersoftened
1/3cuppowdered sugarsifted
3/4cupcorn starchsifted
1 1/3cupfloursifted
Frosting
2Tbspmelted butterdivided in half in 2 bowls (mix your frosting in two bowls and then color it so you have red and green frosting)
1cuppowdered sugardivided in half
1tspMcCormick pure vanilla extractdivided in half
3tspmilkdivided in half (or enough to thin frosting for spreading)
McCormick Food Coloring
Instructions
Cream butter and gradually beat in the powdered sugar (sifted).
Then sift in corn starch and flour gradually, mixing as you add.
Chill one hour in fridge.
Remove from fridge and form small, bite size balls.
Place on parchment lined cookie sheet (or use Silpat mat) and smash down slightly so they are flat and not ball shaped.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes until just starting to brown on the bottom and so the tops no longer feel doughy.
Mix together the frosting ingredients in two separate bowls.
Add red food coloring to one bowl and green food coloring to the other bowl and mix well.
Frost cookies once they are cooled.
Store in an airtight container or freeze for later.
In 2014,McCormickmarks its 125th anniversary by celebrating the role flavor plays in all of our lives, inspiring flavorful conversation, and giving back to communities around the world. For every story shared on any ofMcCormick’s brand websites or social channels,McCormickwill donate $1, up to $1.25 million, to United Way to help feed those in need.
My Melting Moments were featured over at A Southern Mother. Grab some more great Christmas cookie recipes in her Cookie Exchange post!
Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.
In that role, white sugar aerates the dough when creamed with butter for thick and puffy cookies. Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more.
While there may be countless variations, each cookie at the core has four ingredients – butter, sugar, flour & eggs. The proportions of ingredients and the methods of mixing are what define our cookies. Dough spreads – Inside the hot oven, the butter starts to melt and the dough gradually starts to spread out.
One way is to add in some extra fat, such as more butter or even an extra egg yolk (which contains fat) — this will make the dough easy to work with again. Another way to fix the problem is to add in a bit of extra liquid, such as milk or water, which will help get the dough back to the consistency it needs to be.
Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.
Powdered sugar has a much finer texture and a higher cornstarch content, which can absorb moisture and lead to a drier, crumbly cookie texture. If you use powdered sugar in place of granulated sugar, you'll likely end up with cookies that are more cake-like and less chewy.
All-purpose flour is the most commonly used flour in cookie recipes due to its moderate protein content (usually around 10-12%). This balanced protein level makes it versatile enough to produce both soft and chewy cookies as well as slightly crisp ones.
But most importantly, let's talk about the end results. The cookie with all white sugar spread a lot more, and it was crispy around the edges, whereas the one with brown sugar didn't spread as much. and was a lot denser in the middle. And I feel like the biggest difference here, other than color, was in taste.
What happens when you bake without brown sugar? To be succinct, the resulting baked good could be slightly drier or more crisp. Without the excess moisture from the molasses in the brown sugar, the final cookie won't be as chewy and the final bread might be drier.
When added to dough, baking soda releases a carbon dioxide gas which helps leaven the dough, creating a soft, fluffy cookie. Baking soda is generally used in recipes that contain an acidic ingredient such as vinegar, sour cream or citrus.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that, and you won't see a noticeable difference in the final product. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes).
The egg taste might be due to using low-quality eggs, not fully incorporating the eggs into the batter, overmixing, or other factors. Here are some steps you can take to help get rid of the egg taste: Use Fresh Eggs: Ensure you're using fresh eggs. Older eggs can sometimes have a more pronounced taste.
Soft – Dough that's “soft” or “runny” can be thickened by adding one or two tablespoons of flour to your mix. This will help keep your batch from “Spreading” and coming out of the oven looking like flat, not-so-cookie-like puddles.
Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.
Add an extra tablespoon of flour to the recipe and bake a batch. If they are still too flat add another tablespoon. Once you have figured out how much extra flour to add, make a note on your recipe so you do not forget!
Introduction: My name is Rueben Jacobs, I am a cooperative, beautiful, kind, comfortable, glamorous, open, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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