Sugar Cookies With Royal Icing

In honor of the holiday season, I attempted to make the traditional iced sugar cookie. I noticed that sugar cookies aren't a big deal to a lot of people except for during the holidays. I don't know why, though. These cookies are DELICIOUS! I used this recipe I found on the Veggie by Season blog. It was recommended to me by this post on the Beantown Baker blog. I chose this recipe because I wanted a yummy cookie that would make a big enough batch to satisfy my sugar cookie need for all my goodie bags I'm putting together and because I wanted a cookie that would hold it's shape.

If you're intimidated by the thought of making this holiday classic, don't be. This is a recipe that anyone could make and that everyone will thoroughly enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 5 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Powdered sugar, for rolling

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Cream butter and sugar together for 5 minutes using a hand mixer or stand mixer. It's important to cream the two ingredients for a full 5 minutes, don't rush or you'll be sorry!

3. Add eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next.

4. Add all three extracts and mix in thoroughly.

5. Sift and mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. I did about a cup at a time. Be sure you don't over mix the flour. If too much gluten develops you'll end up with hockey pucks instead of cookies.

6. Roll out a portion of the dough on a counter that's been WELL DUSTED with powdered sugar. Don't be afraid of the dusting sugar, if you have too little the dough will stick to the counter and you'll have a complete mess. Make sure you sprinkle a little powdered sugar on top of the dough and on the rolling pin as well to avoid sticking. I divided the dough into 4 portions and rolled them out one a time to cut out my cookies. If you have the counter space to roll out more dough, then by all means please do!

One thing I did wrong with the first batch of cookies was I rolled the dough out too thin. This resulted in thin, flat, burnt cookies. You want to roll the dough out to about the thickness of half of a checkbook. Just eyeball it and make sure there's a little depth your cookies.

7. Bake cookies for 6 to 7 minutes, or until the edges are just barely starting to brown.


For the icing, I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com. I chose this recipe because it made small enough batches I could easily whip up individually for each of the colors of thick icing and flooding icing. What I didn't realize before I iced these cookies was that using royal icing takes a bit of patience. Please be sure to give your cookies plenty of time to sit out so that the icing can harden.

Ingredients

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon almond extract -- or whatever you want to use. I substituted lemon and vanilla extract in some of my batches.

assorted food coloring

In a small bowl, mix confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, and milk until smooth and glossy. If the icing is too thick (like mine was) add a teaspoon of milk and corn syrup until just right.

There are two types of icings that you'll use when icing sugar cookies, a 'thick' icing that you'll use for outlining the cookies and then a thinner 'flooding' icing you'll use to fill in outlines.

To make the 'thick' icing, stick to the recipe above. To make the 'flooding' icing, add two more teaspoons of milk.

Here's a picture of my reject cookies that I practiced on before doing the real thing.

Be sure you allow the cookies to cool completely before you start outlining them with the thick icing.

 Once you've outlined your cookies, make sure you let them sit for at least an hour and a half so the frosting has time to set up.

Once the outlining frosting has set up you can add the flooding frosting and use a toothpick to spread it around and fill in the outline. You'll want to allow the flooding icing to sit out overnight (so it can harden)  before adding any embellishments to your cookies.

I used ketchup bottles to squeeze out the icing, but I know other bakers who use the #2 Wilton tip and a piping bag. Use whatever you want to use, it won't affect the outcome.

Alas, here are the final products:

This recipe yielded five and half dozen delectable cookies.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Pinwheel Cookies

I've been a busy, busy baker! The Christmas baking marathon has officially started in my house. Since I've ran out of eggs, I'm taking the day off to blog.


I originally saw this recipe on Annie's Eats blog and knew immediately that I needed to make it. I went into it knowing it was going to be a bit of a challenge since I've never done anything like this before. But I had no idea just how hard it would be! From the dough being too crumbly to stay together to burning the better half of the batch of dough, you name a baking conundrum and it probably happened. I'm going to make another attempt to make these since I think I've figured out what I did wrong.


Despite the obstacles I encountered, these cookies turned out DELICIOUS! Do you remember those yummy little cookies that come in tins usually around this time of year? These are those kind of cookies, only a million times better! They're absolutely mouthwatering, I believe you'll thoroughly enjoy these little delights.


I made 2 batches of dough, one plain and another chocolate, so I could roll them together to make the pinwheels. Here's the list of ingredients for ONE batch of dough. Don't skimp on the butter, not only will your dough completely fall apart but the flavor of the cookie won't be completely developed. I know it's a lot but trust me, you won't be sorry.



Ingredients

1 large egg
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour


1. Place the egg in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, remove the saucepan from the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile fill up a small bowl (I used my measuring cup) with ice water.

2. After the egg has sat for 10 minutes, transfer the egg into the ice water and let sit for 5 minutes.

3. Once egg has sat in ice water for 5 minutes, carefully crack the egg and peel away the shell. Separate the yolk from the white and discard the white.


4. Press the yolk through a fine mesh strainer. My yolk was bright yellow like a raw yolk is but was a thicker consistency than a raw yolk, it wasn't runny at all. It's not supposed to be pale yellow like a hard boiled egg. I tried to get a good picture of the yolk so you have an idea of it's consistency. Here's my best attempt:

5. In the bowl with the egg yolk, combine butter, sugar, and salt with an electric beater. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

6. Once butter mixture is light and fluffy, turn the mixer down to low and beat in vanilla until well incorporated.

7. Add the flour and mix on low speed until everything's combined. Then use your hands to press the dough into a ball. If the dough is crumbling apart, add more butter 1 tbsp at a time until it's no longer crumbly.

8. Divide the dough ball in half and set aside.

9. Repeat steps 1 thru 8 but instead only using 1 1/3 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder to make the chocolate dough.

10. Once you have the plain and chocolate doughs separated, roll out each dough half on lightly floured wax paper until it forms a rectangle that's about 1/4 inch thick.

11. Place one rectangle of chocolate dough on top of one rectangle of plain dough and roll dough starting with the long end into a tight log. Use the wax paper to help you roll the dough. I tried using my hands and the dough was sticking to the paper when I tried pulling it off. When I used the wax paper to roll and then pull the paper off the dough, it came up just fine. Twist ends of wax paper and chill for 1 hour. Repeat with the remaining halfs of dough.

12. Once dough has chilled for an hour, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice your dough logs into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Be sure to rotate your log after every few slices so the log doesn't become misshaped.

13. Place the cookie rounds an inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Bake cookies for 15 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through. Allow cookies to cool.

Like I said before, these cookies were difficult for me to make but were absolutely delicious. Here's a few mistakes I made that I want to share with you so you don't make them as well.

• I rolled and chilled the plain dough and chocolate dough into loges without stacking them first. I thought that I would be able to roll the dough out once it had chilled, and I was wrong. I had to let the dough soften up and go repeat steps 10 & 11.
• I put the dough in the freezer and I think I should've put it in the refrigerator. The dough fell apart when I was slicing it and I think it was because the dough was too hard. Next time I make this recipe I'm going to put it in the fridge and make sure it's slightly soft when I slice it.
• Lastly, my ADD got the best of me and I forgot about a batch I had in the oven when I was organizing my pantry. I'll be investing in a kitchen timer this weekend.
• I also forgot to rotate the cookie sheet halfway through (thanks again, ADD)

Enjoy! Let me know how your attempt goes!

Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

This is a recipe that has 3 of my favorite things:

1. Cinnamon
2. Oatmeal
3. Peanut Butter

These delightful cookies are a cinch to make and should please even the pickiest of pallets.


Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup cinnamon chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat butter and both sugars until creamy.

3. Beat in eggs one at a time. 

4. Stir in peanut butter, water, and vanilla.

 5. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder together then beat into peanut butter mixture until well combined.

6.   Mix in rolled oats and cinnamon chips.

7. Then spoon mixture (about 2 teaspoons each) onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7 minutes.

8. If you can resist (I wasn't able to) allow the cookies to cool on a cooling rack. Enjoy!

This recipe yielded about 5 dozen cookies for me. They are decadent and super yummy. These cookies will go great with my evening cup of coffee.

Number of baking injuries: 1 (I'll spare you the picture)

Husband Rating: 4/5