Over the past few weeks I have had multiple inquiries on how I do my sugar cookies, so I decided to do a little "how to". This is what I have found works best for me, but I am sure there are many other wonderful ways. Here is step by step...
This is the final product
And here is how it starts...
Cream 2 C. sugar and 2 C. butter
Add 6 TB. milk, 1 t. almond flavor, 1 t. butter flavor, 2 eggs...and beat
Until it looks like this...
Slowly add 6 C. flour and 1 tsp. salt
I like to separate my dough into little packages and chill it for a few hours. If I'm not using it for a week or so I put it in freezer bags and freeze it until I am ready to use it.
Preheat your oven to 350 and get out your first batch. I like to use flour to prepare my surface. Some people use powdered sugar, but that makes everything sticky...so I just stick to flour. And I use it liberally. It doesn't harm the cookies.
Roll the dough out about as thick at the picture below. If you are using a plastic wilton cookie cutter, the dough should reach the top of the cutter.
Cut out your cookies and put the scraps aside. You can re-roll the dough, but I like to wait and combine it with the other already rolled dough. Does that make sense? I roll all the cold dough once and then combine all the scraps to re-roll until it is all gone.
Here are the cookies before going into the oven...
And here they are after...
Here is what the bottom should look like...Lightly golden...I like them to stay soft.
Let the cookies cool on wire racks. It takes 4 racks to cool the entire batch.
Here is the cast and crew for the icing
Mix 8 TB. meringue powder and a scant 1 C. water and beat until foamy.
Add the rest of the ingredients...(1 tsp. light Karo, 1 tsp. almond flavor and 1 bag of powdered sugar (2lb). I don't bother sifting, but you will notice little clumps of sugar at times, but they seem to work them selves out while piping. I don't take the extra time to sift, but you can if this little clumps bother you. Continue beating until you get stiff peaks. Check out the picture below. That is a stiff peak and this is the consistency you want for piping.
Next, I organize all the cookies onto the wire racks by type and decide what colors I will need. Then I divide the icing up into however many bowls are needed for the amount of colors.
My tools for icing...disposable bags, americolor gels for coloring, tips (#3 for piping) and couplers.
Next I pipe all the cookies with my stiff icing.
Next, I prepare the icing for flooding the cookies. I use the stiff icing that is already colored (make sure and save some for detail work later) and I begin adding water a little at a time. Add a little water and stir...continue until you get the consistency of the picture below. When you spoon some out and let it go back in, within a second or two it should disappear back into the icing.
Pour the icing into a piping bag with no tip. Fill up the bag and then snip off the end when you are ready to use it. Make all your colors first, because you might want to make dots or something into wet icing.
Here is the final product. Let the cookies dry for a day before packaging them. Enjoy! Hope this helps any aspiring cookie making friends. :)
