Daily Loaf

Sooooo, I thought I’d get in the Christmas spirit and make Fancy Decorated Sugar Cookies.

With all of my baking adventures, I have never made decorated or worked with cut out cookies. Hmm, wonder why?I saw this post and this post over at Our Best Bites, and I was inspired. She gives a wonderful tutorial on both the cookie making and the glazing. And her cookies are adorable. Check them out.

Enough being nice, as I am still a little bitter. Making the dough was a cinch. Threw everything in my KitchenAid mixer and in 2 minutes it was done and chilling in the fridge. Easy peasy. Holiday cheer and joy flowing!

Then the pain in the assness began. The dough was too hard to roll, so I let it sit out for a bit to warm up. Ditzo me left it out for too long and it got too soft to roll. Back in the fridge. The my daughter proceeds to blow across the floured counter top, making it snow flour in my kitchen. Oh, happy day!
After the second trip to the fridge, I managed to get the rolling and cutting down pat. Oh, yeah, I am so doing this! I got all the cookies baked — a double batch I might add, what the hell was I thinking? I mixed up the glaze and decided I want all white snowflakes. I love the look of white on white cookies.

(I also do all white Christmas lights. My husband wants colored on the tree, I want all white, I give puppy dog eyes, so we compromise and do all white!)

As I sit here reliving my piping hell and nursing my sore wrist, I vow never to make this many decorated sugar cookies, EVER AGAIN!

I piped the outline, let it dry. I glazed the centers.  Let that dry, then piped all the freakin’ decorations. All those damn snowflakes. I know that a 6 month old could probably do a better job at piping.

By now it is 12:15 am — I started at 8 — so what do you want from me? Let me tell you, there was NO MORE HOLIDAY CHEER flowing in my house. I am traumatized by these cookies!

Don’t get me wrong, they taste amazing. I just bit off more than I could chew. What else is new?

Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp almond extract (you could use vanilla instead)
3 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Cream butter and sugar in standing mixer (or with hand mixer) until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.
2. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
3. Shape the dough into 2 flat disks, wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours. When you’re ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut to your desired shape. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Remove to cooling racks and let cool completely. Decorate as you like. Icing recipe is below.

Glacé Icing
1 lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 cups)
1/4 cup + 2 tbs cup whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
1/4 cup + 2 tbs light corn syrup
1 tsp extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)

1. With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth. Stir in corn syrup and extract. You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you need it for glazing — nice and thin.
2. To prepare the icing for piping, just add more powdered sugar. You can’t really mess it up because if it’s too thick you just add more milk and if it’s to thin, you add more powdered sugar.
It is ready for piping when it gets difficult to whisk.
3. To use the piping icing, place the icing in a pastry bag fitted with a #2 tip. If you wish, you can pipe around the edges of the cookie. Let set for about 30 minutes. This will serve as a dam for the thinner glaze. Using a small spoon spread enough icing to cover  the cookie to the edges. Let this sit for 1 hour. After the icing is set, pipe your desired design on the cookie. If you want to take the easy and fast way out, you can just dip the top of the cookie in the thin icing and call it a day! Before you can stack the decorated cookies on top of one another, you need to let them dry for a day.

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