My Apologies...but I"ll Make it Up with Cookies!

Happy New Year!  I trust the holidays treated you well.  I'll admit, my intention was to post pics and recipes of all of the cookies that I baked over the holiday season, but the season got the best of me.  I did a TON of baking, and visiting, and shopping and wrapping.  I hosted my sister's family from 12/26-1/1.  So..unfortunately I did not get to post my hardwork for you to use during the 2012 season.  However...I'M BACK!  The hubby, as always, took photographs of EVERYTHING and I intend to still do a series of blog posts that involve holiday cookies and recipes that can be used for 2013.  I will also make sure to repost said recipes in December :)

Today's post will be about sugar cookies.  You know..the kind you cut, bake and decorate.  At one point, a few years ago, I had a little side business called "Katie's Konfections".  Catchy, right?  Well, that little business helped pay for Christmas one year, but it was OVERWHELMING!  One of the most ordered items were my decorated sugar cookies.  We did them for all occasions.  Baby showers, bridal shower, birthdays and holidays.  I like to think that this particular cookie is one that I perfected over the years.  The cookies are slightly crisp on the outside but soft and moist on the inside.  We've tried different frosting/icing recipes over the years as well. 

This year, we made a batch of cookies and frosting just for our boys to decorate.  I may have mentioned my boys once or twice in previous posts, but if not, they are 4 and 11.  They love to mess around in the kitchen as well, especially the little guy.   Here are pics of the boys and their decorating extravaganza as well as the cookies that my husband and I decorated. 

Katie’s Super Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

3 c all purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined.  Sift flour and baking powder, and slowly add to wet mixture.  Dough will seem as if it doesn’t have enough moisture, but continue to mix with mixer until combined.  Shape into disk and wrap with saran wrap; refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll out dough between two sheets of waxed paper.  Cut out with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets (line with parchment paper).  Bake 7-8 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool for one minute, then transfer to cooling racks.

1 disk = 49ish medium cookies; 30 large; 20 extra large

  

Decorate.

Icing:

Confectioners’ sugar

Almond extract

Milk

Mix until desired consistency….apply to 


As I stated before this is a great standard cookie to add to your recipe collection.  It can be adapted to any occasion as long as you have the cookie cutters and the coloring.  One tip - when it comes to coloring your icing or cookies..or even cake, I prefer gels over your standard food coloring.  The colors will be bolder and more intense and you will need to use less of the actual gel.  With that..start with very little gel and add more until reached the desired color.  Wilton has a great line of gels in all colors.  The icing recipe above is for a simple and thin royal icing for piping and flooding.  The royal icing used in the pics above is different.  I'll try to type that recipe up and post at a later time.

Here are some photos of the cookies decorated by myself and the husband.  As always..enjoy!