Sugar Cookies
Believe it or not, there used to be a time when I didn’t really care for sugar cookies. I figured if you were going to eat a cookie (and I DO LOVE cookies), it needed to be a cookie with chocolate chips, or nuts, or oatmeal, or raisins. Sugar cookies just seemed a bit too plain for me. Then one day everything changed. That was the day my youngest daughter went over to a friend’s house, and they made sugar cookies together. My daughter brought a plate of them home with her, I tasted one, and suddenly sugar cookies took on a whole new meaning for me. The word “plain” just didn’t fit. These sugar cookies were really good, and as the story always goes. . . I HAD to get the recipe!
Both of my daughters helped me to decorate these cookies, and we had a lot of fun doing it. This would be a great activity to do with your kids for Valentine’s Day.
All of the sprinkles we used were purchased at Michael’s. I’ll admit I got a little carried away when I bought these, but it was worth it.
I used red color gel from Michael’s for the red frosting and McCormick red drops for the pink frosting.
If you want to make piping with the frosting, thin out some of it by adding a little more evaporated milk to it, then put it in a squeeze bottle like this one that I purchased at Michael’s. With the squeeze bottle, it’s really easy to outline cookies or to write words on them.
My youngest daughter made that swirly heart cookie in the center of this picture. She did it by first spreading red frosting on the cookie with a knife. Then she used the squeeze bottle to put white dots on top of the red frosting. She then used a toothpick to make a quick stroke across each of the white dots.
She also made the pink cookie at the bottom center of this picture. She first piped a pink heart in the center of the cookie. She outlined that pink heart with white piping, and then she outlined the white piping with more pink piping. Then she placed some of the pink sugar pearls on top of the white section. I think it turned out really pretty. To make the chocolate frosting for the small heart cookies, I just added some melted chocolate chips to a small amount of the regular frosting.
Go on, get out those cookie cutters! I know you have some!
Recipe By: Origin Unknown/Courtesy of Sammy Jones/Slightly Adapted by Winner Dinners
Makes about 3 dozen cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutters
NOTE: If you plan to use more than one color of frosting, or if you will be putting some of it in a squeeze bottle for piping, you will probably need to increase the amount of frosting by 50% (i.e. use 6 cups powdered sugar, 1-1/2 sticks butter, 3 teaspoons vanilla, and 6 tablespoons of evaporated milk). BUT if you want some of the frosting to be more white in color, I would suggest making the extra 50% separately and omitting the vanilla. It won’t be perfectly white because of the butter, but it was close enough for me.
COOKIES:
1-1/2 cups butter
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups flour
FROSTING:
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup evaporated milk
food coloring for icing (optional)
colored sprinkles (optional)
Cream together the butter and the powdered sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla and almond extract, beating again. Add flour and mix well. Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350. Divide the dough in half and place one of the halves in the refrigerator while rolling out the other half. Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Repeat with the other half of dough. Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to paper towels to cool. When cool, frost and decorate as desired.
To make the frosting, combine all of the ingredients with a mixer. Add food coloring as desired.
