Sugar Cookies

After the Christmas time cookie baking extravaganza, we got obsessed with royal icing - particularly my mom, who was really good at it and thus enjoyed herself immensely when we used it to decorate. As you might have guessed, I was rather terrible so I am mostly in charge of making the cookies and the frosting.  Last week, Mom asked me to bake up some heart-shaped cookies so that we could decorate them for Valentine's Day.  We did have plenty of different heart cookie cutters, so I agreed (plus we were having tons of snow days!).  However, I did decide to try a different recipe than the two that I used at Christmas time.  While those gingerbread and sugar cookie recipes make delicious cookies, they spread and rose while they were baking, which made for some cookies that were rather ambiguous in shape.  This recipe is the one that Annie's Eats posts with her recipe for royal icing, and says they are both delicious and they hold their shape while baking.  Count me in.

I think what makes them stay the shape they're cut into is the lack of a rising agent - there is no baking power or soda.  For some reason, powdered sugar is used in place of regular; maybe that has something to do with it too?  The flavor comes from a teaspoon and a half of almond extract, and another teaspoon of vanilla, so these cookies are not short on taste.

The dough was not that fun to work with, I will admit; it was crumbly and stayed hard as a rock no matter how long I left it out of the fridge!  I finally took to cutting slices off the big rock and rolling that out, so it took a bit longer, but it was okay.

The cookies really do hold their shape!  Look at all these perfect hearts - you can even tell which ones were cut with the fluted cookie cutter heart!  That made me happy.  And they really are tasty.  Of course, my mother still insists that my dad's recipe is better, which they may be, but if you want a cookie to look like its cutter, then this is what you want!

Sorry, no pictures of the decorated ones... because there aren't any.  We Tucker ladies have been busy here on our vacation week!

Recipe:

sugar cookies
from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sifted flour

Instructions:

1) Cream butter.  Add powdered sugar.  Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla salt, and flour.

2) Chill dough until firm.

3) Roll to 1/4"-thickness on well-floured surface.  Cut with cookie cutters.  Place on greased cookie sheets.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Cookies should not brown.  Frost and decorate when cool.

Sugar Cookies

Okay it's my last Christmas cookie post.  Promise.  But I wasn't joking when I said I went into a Christmas cookie baking extravaganza the week before we went on vacation.  Besides the gingerbread cookies, and experimenting with royal icing, I also made these roll-out sugar cookies.  We decorated these with royal icing too, even though there is a frosting recipe attached, which I will post.

This recipe came from my dad's old boss (in fact the recipe is handwritten in Dad's handwriting on an index card, and is titled "Jeff Melvin's X-mas cookies" - I had to ask my mom who Jeff Melvin was.).  Apparently it was his grandmother's recipe, and I can attest to the fact that his grandmother must have been a great baker.  These sugar cookies are really good; crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside, sweet but not too sweet, buttery and delicious.  Top them with royal icing, and you've really got something amazing on your hands.  Or, in your hands, I guess.  Hopefully.

Recipe:

Jeff Melvin's X-mas Sugar Cookies
from Jeff Melvin's grandma :)


Ingredients:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups flour

Instructions:

1) Mix butter and sugar.  Add milk and soda mixture, and well-beaten eggs.

2) Add vanilla, salt, cream of tartar, and 3 cups flour.  Mix.

3) Add 2 cups flour, and more if necessary.  Chill overnight, or at least 2 hours.

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll out onto floured counter.  Cut into desired shapes.  Bake for 10-12 minutes on ungreased cookie sheets.

Frosting:
Whip 1/2 pound butter.  Add 2 pounds confectionary sugar.  Mix and add 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add boiling water 1 teaspoon at a time until spreadable.
*frosting recipe can be cut in half and still have lots left, as my mother's handwritten note says!