Sugar Cookies

Well, before I get started editing the layout, I'll include a post making your visit worth-while.

At Christmas time I was looking for a good cut-out cookie recipe and stumbled across this sugar cookie recipe: here. I used the first recipe and the icing recipe. It's supposed to be like the sugar cookies you pick up at the grocery store with the fluffy icing on top; though this icing comes out thin and glaze-like at my house, they are delicious! I am going to be searching for a different icing next time, but they are good how they are, too.

This recipe seems much quicker if you make the dough ahead of time and chill it overnight. It can be done the same day if you like though, as I did below.

Per the link above, I used:
For the Cookies:
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 C butter
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder

For the Icing:
2 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tbs butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 egg white
1/4 C milk

If you're baking these cookies as soon as the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
I started out cubing up the cream cheese to make it easier to cream with the butter.

 

After that I did the same with the butter and added it to the cream cheese.

 

Next I added the sugar...

  

 Since I was making Valentine's Day cookies I decided to use my Valentine's Day spatula I got at Target for like $1 a few years ago...

Mixing the sugar, cream cheese, and butter with the mixer. This is a very thick dough and it would be much harder with a hand mixer, another thank-you to my grandmother. 

As I said, very thick dough, so thick in fact that a $1 spatula is no match for it, bye bye festive utensils.

 

Next I mixed the egg and flavorings together.

  

Then combined this with the sugar mixture:

 

The metal spatula handles this recipe a LOT better than wooden ones, if you have a metal one, my advice is make use of it!

Next I mixed the baking powder in with the flour.

Then gradually added this to the mixing bowl.

 

It's a big load on the mixer, and it takes a lot of scraping it off to get it mixed well.

Then, I had to get the baby who woke up from his nap.

 

So far this is the extent of his helping:

So this big, heavy mix of dough is going to need to be chilled to roll it out, so I wrapped it in cling wrap and put it in the fridge while I fed the baby and got started on the icing.

 

Before I got started I had to wash the mixing bowl, you'll want the mixer for the icing, too.

The following has a few mistakes in it, so read ahead if you're making this for the first time...

I separated the egg (though I used the same bowl from the egg mixture in the dough recipe, so there's a bit of yolk in my bowl but it didn't make a difference).

Then I sifted the powdered sugar. We have a sifter somewhere, but I always just use the wire strainer and tap it  to bring the sugar through.

This is where I realize my mistake: I was supposed to mix the egg and milk, not the egg and sugar. The sugar was supposed to go in the mixing bowl to be mixed with the butter and flavorings. So I begin scooping most of it off...

And add the milk to the eggs.

Then I mixed it all together. Because I didn't melt the butter and I messed up the mixing my icing took a lot of extra mixing to get it smooth. It turned out ok after a long bout with the mixer.

Now I got ready to cut out my cookies! The best part.

I laid them out on a greased cookie sheet. The thicker you roll it the fluffier your cookies will be, and obviously the more even your cookies are the better they will bake, some of mine were much browner than others because I mixed thin with thick in the same batch. 

Away they go to bake. I always start with the least recommended time and  then add to it a few minutes at a time for every batch, depending on my results. The recipe calls for 8-10 minutes, though many of mine took longer than that. These cookies are still good browned a little, but I think they're the best right before they brown up.

This recipe yeilds a lot of cookies! I was baking for a while. Once they cooled I got ready to decorate.

I thought some pink would be a nice touch for Valentine's Day. If I'm going to start making holiday cookies around here for the little ones I'll have to stock up on sprinkles and cookie cutters again; our collection is dominated by Christmas.

This is the best I could do for our sprinkles, but it worked out ok. Here is a taste of my finished product (and my mess):

 

Now that I look at these pictures I wish I would have taken close-ups of the prettier ones, but they looked so good they didn't last long.

I love these cookies, but as I said, I'll be looking for a fluffier icing one of these days, then they will be just perfect.

Maybe I'll be making shamrocks next month, any excuse to make some sweets!

Hope you enjoyed the post, and happy baking!!