Soft Sugar Cookies

This is a light and soft sugar cookie recipe with a touch of lemon flavor.

We made these cookies for our Valentine’s Day Party

Sugar Cookies

*3/4 cup Butter, room temperature
*3/4 cup granulated Sugar
*1 tablespoon Honey
*2 large Eggs, room temperature
*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

Cream together in a stand mixer 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: Flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture until combined.

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 soft.

Divide the dough into 4 flat cookie dough balls. Refrigerate cookie dough at least 30 minutes. (Remove from the fridge one flattened dough ball at a time and add a another flattened dough ball after each rolling and cutting of the dough.)

Using an un-tapered rolling pin, Roll out the cookie dough to desired thickness. Note: The thicker the cut cookie the more the cookie will spread.

Use a cookie cutter, cut out 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

Note: This is a large icing recipe, cut in half if you don’t want extra icing.

*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 teal/aqua, red and white

Combine the water and meringue powder 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 wanting to use. (You will need most of the icing color teal then red then white.)

Keep icing containers covered with Saran 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 3 pastry bottles or 3 pastry bags and fill with individual icing colors add Pipe on the edge with thick icing red heart shape first and allow to dry. (By the time you finish piping the red edge lines they will be dry enough to flood/pipe in the red) Then fill in the center (adding a few drops of water to the icing or as needed to flood or pipe in the center hearts.) Repeat and pipe the teal/Aqua hearts. Then pipe dot the white dots.

*Allow drying time after each frosting color as needed.

**Also you can also spread the icing on each cookie with a angled icing spatula using the Royal icing or Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes approximately 25 medium large cookies.

Also see our Beehive Sugar Cookies

Also see Valentine Kisses 25 Cents and Valentine’s Day Party for decorating ides and recipes.