(upbeat Christmas music)
- What it do everybody? Merry holidays.
My name is Ross Pineda, chef and owner FYEH Kitchen.
Today we are here to test out four celebrity
cookie recipes to see which one is the jolliest.
We have Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Melania Trump,
and Jessica Alba.
I measured out all the ingredients as each recipe stated
and I got three cookie enthusiasts
to come test them out to see which one is their favorite.
So which celebrity has the best holiday cookie recipe?
I'm about to make it rain-deer. Let's get it.
So first up we have Taylor Swift's cookie recipe.
You're going to cream together butter, sugar, egg,
vanilla, and oil until it's all nice and mixed.
Make sure that (bleep) move.
We're going to throw in our baking soda,
salt, and her little secret, chai tea.
Once the batter has come together,
we're going to slowly add our flour in increments
until the batter is nice and smooth.
Now that your cookie dough has formed,
we're going to put it in the refrigerator
for about an hour or in the freezer for up to 15 minutes.
Once the dough is nice and set, we're going to divide it,
throw some flour on the board,
flour our rolling pin so it doesn't stick,
and we're going to roll it out to about
a quarter-inch thickness. (upbeat music)
Take your favorite cookie cutter.
Make sure to keep it festive, not like I did,
and cut out some shapes. (upbeat music)
On a lined baking tray, we're going to place the cookies
about two inches apart and bake at 350 degrees
until nice and golden brown.
We're going to put together the eggnog icing.
In a bowl, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little bit of egg nog,
a lot of powdered sugar.
The icing was looking a little bit thick here,
so I added a little bit more eggnog
to reach the consistency that I wanted.
Once the cookies come out of the oven,
we're going to ice the top of the cookies
with the eggnog icing and just a dash of cinnamon on top
for a little bit of flavor. (upbeat music)
And there you have it,
Taylor Swift's chai tea, eggnog cookie.
- What is this?
- This is a beautiful color.
I love a little brown on brown cookie.
- Looks like a gingerbread cookie, maybe, of sorts.
Some cinnamon for sure.
- A little weight to it. That's always good.
- Mmm.
- That's nice.
It's a crispy cookie.
Personally, I'm more of a, I like a little bit
of softness in a cookie, but this isn't too hard.
- It tastes kind of like those, like, Biscotti cookies
a little but, but elevated.
- I feel like I'm more into like the chewy cookies,
but I really like the cinnamon.
- Whoever made this one I guess really enjoys the holidays
and really knows how to spice things up.
- I could see myself eating
like a hundred of these and forgetting
that I was eating anything, so,
you should probably not give me more of them.
- [Ross] Next up we have Mariah Carey's cookie recipe.
In a bowl, we're going to crimp together butter and sugar
until it's light and fluffy.
Once that's done, we're going to add an egg,
milk, lemon zest, vanilla, and we're going to mix that up
until it's nice and smooth.
We're going to add baking soda, salt,
and once again, add flour in increments
until you reach a nice consistency.
Once the dough is finished, we're going to bring it together
and wrap it up in plastic and refrigerate it
for about 50 minutes to a half hour.
Now that we're ready to roll out,
flour the board and flour the rolling pin
so it doesn't stick. (upbeat music)
We're going to roll this dough out
to about an eighth of an inch thickness.
Since Mariah Carey's the Queen of Christmas,
I cut these out in Christmas tree shapes.
Once again, on a lined baking sheet,
spread them out about two inches apart
and bake until golden brown.
Once the cookies come out of the oven,
ice to your heart's desire, do not at me.
I'm having fun. Kind of.
Once you're done icing the cookies,
throw a little red and green sprinkles on that thing
and plate it up.
Mariah Carey's holiday sugar cookie recipe.
- This is cute.
Got some fun sprinkles.
- Very sparsely sprinkled, though.
If I'm making cookies,
I just kind of go ham on the sprinkles.
I want it to be everywhere. (laughs)
- Mm.
Whenever you drool, that's a good sign.
- Okay.
- It reminds me of like those animal crackers kind of.
- Yeah this one's definitely a bit drier than I would like.
- I mean, yeah, this is like your regular sugar cookie,
just a little bland.
- If it's a sugar cookie, where's the sugar?
- With something this dry, you either need to make it
a little softer or you need to add like a lot more frosting.
I'll still finish the cookie, though, so.
- Step it up celebs.
- [Ross] And next up we have Melania Trump's
sugar cookie recipe.
In a bowl, we're going to combine flour and baking soda,
set that aside.
In another bowl, we're going to combine butter,
sugar, egg yolk, egg white, and cream that together
until it's nice and smooth.
Once that comes to a nice consistency,
we're going to add in our sour cream, vanilla, salt.
We're going to mix that up until it's fully incorporated.
Once again, working in increments,
we're going to slowly add our flour until the dough forms.
Once the dough is formed, we're going to wrap it up
and throw it in the fridge for about
50 minutes to a half hour.
Once again, flour your board, flour your rolling pin
so it doesn't stick, and we're gonna roll this out
to about a quarter inch thickness.
She used stars, and I used planes to cut out my cookies,
'cause you know, she about to get out of there.
And on a lined cookie tray,
place it about two inches apart and bake it at 350 degrees.
Once again, ice to your heart's desire.
I suck at icing things, as you can see.
And there you have it, Melania Trump's sugar cookie recipe.
- Is this a plane?
Quite possibly an angel?
(laughing)
- It's like a dove or an airplane?
Not super sure.
(gasps)
(upbeat music)
- This kind of tastes like the crust on a pie,
but some people enjoy that type of taste.
I don't.
- Maybe the icings a little bit more flavorful.
Nothing really special to me.
- That one just crumbled apart.
It was nice.
It wasn't super sweet, but it's easy to chew through these.
It's kind of like a little cracker.
So like this one was pretty good.
- [Ross] And next up we have
America's favorite crush, Jessica Alba.
In a bowl, we're going to combine together coconut oil,
powdered sugar, vanilla, almond milk,
and mix that up until a batter has formed.
We're going to throw in some corn starch
and mix that up until it gets a little bit thicker.
And lastly, working in increments once again,
throw in your flour and mix until a very loose,
sandy dough is formed.
If the dough is looking a little too dry,
you can add more milk and bring it to the consistency
that you want it to be. (upbeat music)
We're going to wrap it up in some plastic
and throw it in the fridge and let it harden
for about an hour or two.
Once your dough is ready to be rolled out,
go ahead and flour your surface, flour your rolling pin.
We're going to roll it out to about
a quarter inch thickness.
Once again, choose whatever shape you want.
I chose an angel because you already know,
she looks like one.
And on a lined baking tray,
spread it out about two inches apart.
We're going to bake these at 375 degrees
or until golden brown.
And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen,
Jessica Alba's vegan sugar cookie recipe.
Enjoy.
- This one looks like someone died.
- It looks very dry.
I mean, I guess cookies are supposed to be dry,
but this is an ashy cookie.
- Hmm.
Hm? (crunching)
Why is there a crunch?
- Oh, god.
(crunches)
(laughs) - What was that?
- I didn't know something could be impossible
to chew through, but also chewy.
- Is this like a health cookie?
I'm really confused.
- This like hurts my teeth, like biting it.
It's like picking up a brick and starting to bite it.
- In spite of the difficulty of chewing through this,
like if you don't want too much sugar,
but you still want a little treat,
the flavor from this could do you for that.
- This isn't it.
I'm sorry.
- Do I get a free dentist after this?
- [Ross] So which celebrity has the best holiday recipe?
Let's find out.
- Out of these four celebrity cookie recipes,
my favorite has to be number one because it was bold.
It wasn't scared to throw in those extra flavors.
The texture was good.
The sweetness level wasn't high.
Tay-Tay, I guess you just got a new fan.
- My favorite would actually have
to be number three, I think.
I actually really liked how thin and crunchy it was.
I thought it was like a nice kind of subtle treat.
Whose was that?
- [Ross] Melania Trump.
- (bleep).
(laughing)
Maybe Melania is a better baker
than I would have anticipated.
I never pictured Melania Trump baking,
but, surprised there wasn't like gold leaf on it.
- I think I'm going to have to go with number one.
Definitely the one I enjoyed the most.
I liked the cinnamon.
The icing on top was nice.
Okay. I respect that.
I think, I think she did a good job.
Good job, Taylor.
- Taylor Swift takes today's celebrity
holiday cookie challenge.
Let us know which holiday cookie was your favorite.
Leave a comment below.
(upbeat orchestral music)