Sugar cookies are the other re-do on my 2018 baking
challenge. They’re my Achilles heel. I have failed at them many times, and
haven’t even tried to make them again for like…seven years? Yeah, and I was
making them for Christmas gifts, so it was a little stressful, but spoiler,
they totally worked! My friend, Jill, told me about Wilton’s no-chill sugar
cookie recipe, so I decided to try that: https://www.wilton.com/roll-out-cookie-dough/WLRECIP-31.html
For
the Dough:
1 c granulated sugar
1 egg
3 ¼ c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 c butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract *have I said that I hate almond
extract? Yes. I know I have. I hate it, so I didn’t add it. I will say, though,
that I felt like I wanted the cookies to be a little sweeter. Maybe the almond
extract gives some of that sweetness.
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a stand mixer, beat eggs and sugar until light
and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extract. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt; add
to butter mixture one cup at a time.
3. Do not chill dough. Divide into two balls. *Can I
just say at this point I was freaking out? This dough looks like fucking pie
crust. It’s crumbly and chaotic. The more you work it, the better it becomes.
It DOES actually come together, so if you see something like this, you’re okay.
4. On a floured surface, roll each ball out until
approximately 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each cut.
5. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet for 8 – 11 minutes
or until cookies are lightly browned. *It took my cookies a bit longer than
this. I think it was 12-ish minutes, but you’re looking for something like this:
For
the Royal Icing:
I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe that doesn’t require
meringue powder: https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/how-to-make-royal-icing-without-meringue-powder/
1 pound powdered sugar
3 pasteurized egg whites
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1. Sift sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. *You do
want to actually sift here- no lumpy icing!
2. Add remaining ingredients to bowl. Using paddle
attachment, mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, and then increase
speed to medium for about five minutes. Check for stiff peaks.
3. Once stiff peaks are formed, transfer the icing to
bowls for coloring.
*This consistency is going to be your border
frosting. I put some of each color into a piping bag. Then I added a little bit
of water to each bowl so that I got a runnier consistency for flooding the rest
of the cookies. So you have stiff icing to keep the softer icing in. You can
also use the thick icing for detail work. I thought that I wasn’t going to have
enough icing because I was making four colors, but I totally did, and I made a
little over three dozen cookies.
**One final side note: They didn't have any more black gel coloring, so I bought this:
Don't fucking buy this for cookies. This never dries. I ended up having to take off all of the black and put melted chocolate in its place. It was horrible.
Other than that, just go to town! It's actually easier than you'd think, but it requires some time. Start by doing your borders. Then you can fill them in with the same color. Finally you can use additionally stiff icing to do your details. Here are some of my other cookies:
Difficulty: 3 (really only difficulty is icing)
Amount of Time: 3 (again just with icing cookies- do it with a buddy)
Awesomeness: 4 (I wish they were sweeter, but they were adorable and impressive)
No comments:
Post a Comment