I have very fond memories of my parents making wassail during Christmas. Always simmering throughout the day in the crockpot and filling the house with the smell of warm, cozy spices. In honor of the memory, I wanted to take the spices and concept of wassail and make it a holiday cookie. Even better, it’s a cutout cookie so the kids went to town on my Christmas cookie cutters!
This cookie base alone is a dryer dough, but with the apple cider glaze, you get a sweet, gooey bite! I also garnished the rounds with leftover apple chips which dress them up for cookie exchanges, pretty pictures and an extra crunch. The dough includes little bits of dried apple chips for added texture and sweetness as well.
Wassail is a hot mulled cider drink with lots of warm and cozy spices and a bit of citrus. It is bursting with cozy flavors and extremely easy to throw together for a cold night or holiday gathering.
I love that there is a story behind it during the holiday season dating back many, many centuries. Wassail is traditionally drunk as part of wassailing, a Medieval Christmastide English drinking ritual with hopes to ensure a good cider apple harvest in the next year.
If you want my Crockpot Wassail recipe, you can find it here: Crockpot Wassail
Bakers note: be sure not to skip chilling the dough. It’s is an important step to ensure the cutouts don’t spread to thin.
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups all-purrposet flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup apple cider
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp orange zest
- ½ cup dried apple chips, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp apple cider
- ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp milk
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, combine butter and brown sugar. Then add the eggs, cider, vanilla, and orange zest.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients ½ cup at a time. Then add in dried apple chips.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes.While dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet, then set aside.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough ¼-inch thick. Use cookie cutter(s) of choice to cut out cookies (I did rounds and my kids did Christmas shapes).
- Place cutouts on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned on the edges. Then transfer to the cooling rack for 10 minutes.
- While cookies are cooling, whisk together all glaze ingredients in a small mixing bowl until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cookies into the glaze. Then set on parchment paper to allow glaze to set.
- *Optional - top with additional apple chips before glaze sets.
