I absolutely love sugar cookies and would choose a sugar cookie over any other type of cookie any day. I always see beautifully decorated sugar cookies and wanted to try my hand at them. Since I chose an icing that is sweet to decorate the sugar cookies with I did not want my cookies to be overly sweet. Instead I wanted them to have a slight sweetness yet wonderful flavor. After trying a few sugar cookie recipes I have definitely found the one I will continue to use from now on.
At first the idea of decorating sugar cookies can seem like a daunting task but I did everything over the course of 4 days. Now of course this time could easily be shortened but since this was my first time I decided to take my time. The first day I made the cookie dough and refrigerated it. The next day I rolled the dough out, cut it with cookie cutters, and baked the cookies. The third day I started decorating the cookies with icing. The fourth and final day I finished decorating the cookies with any icing detail work that could not be completed on day three.
Sugar Cookies:
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Directions:
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg, vanilla, and sour cream until well combined.
Stir in sifted ingredients slowly.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll down out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet space approximately 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake for 10-15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before removing and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
*I chose to refrigerate the cookie dough overnight to make rolling the dough easier.
Sugar Cookie Icing:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup confectioners powdered sugar
- 3 teaspoons milk
- 3 teaspoons corn syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and milk until smooth. With a hand mixer, beat in corn syrup and vanilla extract. If icing is too thick add more corn syrup. Separate into bowls and add food coloring of your choice. Pipe or brush icing onto cooled cookies.
This is the modified version of the original recipe, I quadrupled this recipe to have enough icing for the amount of cookies I was decorating. Depending on the consistency you are looking for you might not need the full amounts of corn syrup and milk listed above so add it as you go. If your icing becomes too runny and you need it to be thicker add more powdered sugar.
Since Mother’s Day was soon approaching I decided to package and send the decorated cookies to my mom and my mother-in-law. I individually wrapped each one and tied a ribbon around the top. I then wrapped the cookies in tissue paper and boxed them up to be sent. I was very pleased with the overall turnout of the cookies and now that I have done this once I will surely do it again.
The picture below shows the finished product:
Here is a picture of the cookies with a note to my mom.
Here is a picture of the cookies all wrapped and ready to be boxed and sent.
