Soft Sugar Cookies
This is a soft sugar cookie recipe with a touch of lemon flavor.
Special Supplies:
*Round Cookie Cutter about 3 and 1/2 inches
*Paste Food Colorings Copper, Super Red, Black
*Pastry Bags #2 Tips or desired tips or plastic pastry bottles with tips
*Parchment Paper or Silpat
*1/2 baking sheets, chilled (helps so cookies won’t spread)
Sugar Cookies
*3/4 cup Butter, cold and cut into cubes
*3/4 cup granulated Sugar
*1 tablespoon Honey
*2 large Eggs
*3/4 cup Whipping Cream or Canned Evaporated Milk or Sour Cream
*4 1/2 -5 cups All-purpose Flour
*1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
*1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
*1 teaspoon Lemon Extract
*1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
*1 teaspoon Sea Salt
Directions:
Mix together in a stand mixer on low speed with paddle attachment or (with a wooden spoon in a large mixing bowl): Butter, sugar, lemon extract and honey, slowly adding eggs and milk.
Whisk together in bowl the dry ingredients: Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until crumbly.
Remove the cookie dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead in more flour if needed, adding just enough to be able to roll out the dough. Dough should be crumbly.
Divide the dough into 4 flat cookie dough disks. Refrigerate cookie dough at least 30 minutes. (Remove from the fridge one flattened dough disk at a time to roll and cut out cookies)
Using an un-tapered rolling pin, Roll out the cookie dough to desired thickness. (I like around 1/4 inch)
Use a cookie cutter and cut out shape on the rolled out cookie dough into desired shapes.
Use cooled 1/2 baking sheets with parchment or Silpat and place 6 cookies
per sheet.
Bake the cookies in a pre-heated 325*F. oven for 12 minutes. Be careful not to over bake.
Remove cookies from oven and allow cooling before decorating. Decorate as desired.
Royal Icing (Large Batch)
*2 pounds Confectioners’ Sugar
*1/4 cup Meringue Powder
*2/3 cup water
*1 teaspoon Lemon Extract
*1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
*Food coloring paste, we used black, super red by Americolor and Copper from Wilton
Combine the water and meringue powder in a stand mixer with paddle attachment and beat until frothy or if making 1/2 the recipe whisk together until dissolved, in a pour measuring cup.
In a stand mixer with paddle attachment add the confectioners’ sugar and then add the meringue mixture, mix slowly until combined and then on high-speed for 2 minutes or until the frosting turns a pure white color.
Divide icing into separate containers, as many as needed for the colors you are going to use.
Keep icing containers covered with Saran Cling Wrap or wet cloth.
Pastry Bag Instructions:
You will need thick icing for piping the edges and a thinner icing for flooding/ piping the centers. Snip a small hole off the end of a disposable pastry bag for the thick outlining and then after outlining make the whole slightly larger for flooding /piping the centers with a slightly thinner icing.
Icing Bottle and Pastry Bag Instructions:
Using 4 pastry bottles or 4 pastry bags (#2 tips) and fill each bag with individual icing colors. Pipe (copper icing) on the edge with thick line of icing around edge of the shape first and allow to dry. (By the time you finish piping the edge lines they will be dry enough to flood/pipe in the centers)
Add a few drops of water to the copper icing or as much as needed to flood or pipe consistency in filling the centers.
*Allow the cookie to dry; you can use a fan in the room to help dry the icing.
When Copper icing has set enough, add the wavy line above of the cookie face.
Use the black icing to pipe on eyes and smile. Then add the two red dots for the top of ends of the smile line. Add eyebrows with the copper or black icing as desired.
Allow he cookies to dry overnight and then store in an airtight container.
**Also you can also spread the icing on each cookie with an angled icing/offset spatula using the Royal icing or Cream Cheese Frosting
Note: I like our above recipe better than the one I used to make these cookies the taste just wasn’t worth the perfect cookie shape but if you really want the perfect shaped cookie then see Perfect Every Time Cut-Out Cookie Recipe click HERE
Enjoy!
Lindy
