Pioneer Day Sugar Cookies

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Supplies:  Cookie Cutters we used: Beehive, Honey Bee, Hat, Horse, Horse Shoe, Bear, Cactus, Seagull and the state of Utah.

*Candy Eyes

*Green Sugar Crystals

*Decorating Bag and Tip

*Food Coloring Paste: Wilton Golden Yellow and Brown. Blue and Black Great Value Food Coloring Paste

*Half Baking Sheet and Silpat etc…

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Sugar Cookie Recipe

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Ingredients:

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*1/2 cup Butter

*1 cup Sugar

*1 teaspoon Vanilla

*1 Egg

*1/2 cup Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream, Sour Cream or Cream Cheese (I’ve used each one of these variation each gives the cookie a slightly different taste and they’re all yummy!)

*3 1/4 cup any All purpose Flour

*1 teaspoon Soda

*1/2 teaspoon Salt

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In a stand mixer on medium-low speed cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the vanilla, egg and cream of your choice and mix just until combined.

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Using Sifter, sift together in a bowl the flour soda and salt and slowly add to the creamed mixture, mixing on low just until barely combined. Dough should be slightly sticky. Do Not Over Mix!

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Then divide the dough into 3 dough balls, flatten dough balls making disk shapes. Now wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or more.

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Remove 1 dough disk at a time from the refrigerator and rollout disk on a floured surface with rolling-pin or use 2 pieces of plastic wrap, placing the dough disk in the center of 1 of the pieces of plastic wrap and the second piece on top of the dough disk, use rolling-pin and roll out the cookie dough about 1/2 inch thick.

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Use a cookie cutter of your choice and cut out shapes in the rolled out dough. Repeat for each dough disk. Then add to the next dough disk the scraps from the first disk or (discard scraps of dough), continue this technic until all the dough is used.
Place cookies on a Silpat covered half baking sheet, 12 cookies per sheet.  For best results refrigerate the cut cookies on baking sheet before baking 5-10 minutes.

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Bake the cookies in a pre-heated 425* F. oven for 8-12 minutes or barely starting to turn golden on the bottom; baking time depends on the size of cookie cutter used. Do Not Over Bake! If you do over bake they will become to hard. Cool on baking sheet.

Recipe from Tested Recipes Cookbook, Central Milling Company third edition, now out of print an old family cookbook

Glac’e Icing or Royal type Icing

*1 pound of Powdered Sugar (3   3/4 cup)

* 6 tablespoons Whole Milk or 5 tablespoons whipping cream and 1 tablespoon water (You can use other milk but you will have to add more powdered sugar)

Whisk together the milk and powdered sugar until smooth no lumps.

Now stir in the light corn syrup and extract.

*6 tablespoon Light Corn Syrup (1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons)

*1 teaspoon Vanilla extract, use clear Vanilla extract if you need a white frosting and if you want an Almond Flavor use an Almond extract and use it in the cookie dough too.

Use this recipe for glazing cookies and the piping of the outside of cookies. Piping helps contain the frosting while you pipe fill in the center of cookie.

Use a pastry bag for each color of frosting you want to use. The small round tip for piping around the edge and then I used a plastic bottle with tip lid to fill in the center of the cookies which had a larger opening.

Also see this cute bee party

This Glac’e Icing recipe is adapted from Toba Garret you can find her link on ourbestbites which has good icing tips.

Enjoy!

Lindy