Soft sugar cookies infused with holiday spirit!
And the Christmas Yumminess Countdown continues!!! I think I have two more recipes coming at you so keep that last belt loop open.
I am busier now that I’m home than I was in college… hmm? I am working at a bakery, catering some holiday orders, and chatting with you fine people every couple of days. Yesterday I worked from 8:30 until 3:00 rolling out sugar cookies and frosting cookies at work, and I then came home and decorated sugar cookies that I made yesterday for a catering order! It was the most exhausting day but the perfect day! I went to sleep with a smile on my face, and the smell of sugary icing still lingering in my nose!
Thanks to my favorite blog, Sally’s Baking Addiction, I found a new technique for making cookie icing. If you use a tiny dab of light corn syrup the icing hardens up better! Another way you can accomplish this is by using meringue powder but not many people keep that in their pantry! The corn syrup hardens it enough so that you can stack the cookies but not so much that the icing sort of crumbles when you bite into it like some Royal Icings (icings with meringue powder or egg whites).
As a tradition, my sister and I make sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. We have flour fights, and play basketball with the cookie cutters (the basketball) and the sink filled with soapy water (the basket) (that may be why the snowman cookie cutter’s head is a little tilted… but then again he may just be pondering Christmas!). My sister always makes so many ginger girls because they have the most surface area!
In addition to the Christmas Eve cookies to come, I made a batch a little early so I can share them with you! I decorated snowmen, sleighs, christmas trees, mittens, and snowflakes. Icing does take a lot more effort than just sprinkles do but, they are definitely prettier.
For a more detailed post on making the cookies see this post. And for a more detailed post on frosting techniques see this post.
Happy cookie eatin’!
…and voilà!
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spoon and level method)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓ cup (75g) milk
- 2 cup (215g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- 2- 2 ½ T. water
- food dye
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream the butter until it is smooth.
- Add sugar gradually.
- Mix in egg yolks and vanilla and blend well.
- Add dry ingredients gradually to wet ingredients alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
- Form dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.
- Chill for at least 1 hour in refrigerator or until firm.
- Preheat oven to 350°F degrees.
- Flour a clean, dry surface and a rolling pin very well.
- Break the disk into 2 or 3 chunks so that it all doesn't get warm at the same time. This way you can stick some back in the fridge and pull out a cold piece.
- Roll dough out on a well floured surface to ⅛-1/4 inch thickness.
- If it sticks the first time or when you have scraps, form it into a ball and roll it out again.
- Cut with cookie cutters and place on greased cookie sheets.
- Decorate before baking with colored sugars and sprinkles or ice after baking.
- Bake for 6-9 minutes.
- Cool on the pan for 1-2 minutes and then carefully remove them to a wire rack.
- Whisk powdered sugar, corn syrup, and water together until smooth.
- Add food coloring.
- Ice the cookies. See pictures in the linked post for details and tips.
- Voilà!
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