Sugar Cookies

Christmas is a time of year filled with fun activities, some new and some carried down through families. Many of these activities take place prior to Christmas Day and help with the excitement leading up to the arrival of Santa Claus.

Baking sugar cookies for the holidays is one of my most memorable traditions that I have enjoyed for many years.

When my children were young, we would set time aside as they were always anxious to help me with baking cookies. They would take turns adding the portions of the ingredients as the mixture churned in the bowl and would help sprinkle the counter tops with just the right amount of flour in preparation for the balls of dough, and they always insisted on helping to roll out the cookie dough to the desired thickness. With our Christmas themed cookie cutters, we would press the shapes into the dough and then with my spatula in hand I would lift them and slide them onto the cookie sheets. The aroma of fresh-baked sugar cookies filled the air as the kids sat in front of the oven window waiting impatiently for the cookies to bake. The last and final step was the decorating, this is where my passion and creativity flows. I enjoy every aspect of decorating the cookies, from mixing the different colors of icing, piping, and flooding the cookie, adding the different embellishments, creating a style for everyone to enjoy.

It was always a tradition to leave a plate of cookies out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. There was nothing better than watching the kids on Christmas morning seeing that empty plate!

The following recipe is the one our family has enjoyed for years, and my wish is that you and your loved ones will enjoy it as well.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup shortening

1 ½ cup sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons of milk

Preheat over to 350˚ degrees Fahrenheit

Directions:

In a separate bowl mix baking powder and flour together and set aside.

Using an electric stand mixer, in a large mixing bowl cream butter and shortening together.

Slowly add sugar to the mixture and continue beating until the mixture is creamy and fluffy.

Beat in eggs in one at a time and vanilla to the butter mixture.

Slowly add the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture, using slow speed. Add milk as needed to create a soft cookie dough. Dough should be soft but not sticky.

Roll out onto a lightly floured work surface keeping your rolling pin and hands lightly floured, to the desired thickness.

Cut rolled dough into shapes, you can also add a hole in cookie if you want to tie a ribbon.

Place them on a nonstick cookie sheet and bake at 350˚ degrees for 10 – 12 minutes.

Let cool prior to decorating.

Royal Icing

Ingredients:

8 cups of icing sugar

6 tablespoons of Wilton meringue powder

12 tablespoons of warm water

Directions:

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed)

Please note:

This icing will be a thick consistency, suitable for piping detailed designs.

To prepare icing for flooding cookies, take one cup of stiff icing and put in a smaller bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon of water an stir vigorously by hand, continue to add small amounts of water and stirring until the icing forms a string off the end of your spoon.

To create the snowflake effect as shown below, prepare two piping bags, one with a #3 Wilton tip and the other with a #1 Wilton tip. Fill the # 3 Wilton tip piping bag with thinned white icing and the #1 Wilton tip piping bag with thinned blue icing. With the piping bag of white icing flood the cookie leaving a small boarder around the edge of the cookie to prevent the icing from flowing off. While the white icing is still wet, take the piping bag of the blue icing and add random dots on the cookie's surface. Using a sharp tool (like a toothpick), dip the tip into the dots and swirl the colors to make a pleasing design.

The 7 second test:

When thinning your icing, lift your spoon and let the icing flow off the end of the spoon over your bowl of icing. Count 7 seconds. If the icing strands have melted into the icing in the bowl and almost disappeared your icing will be the right consistency to flood your cookies. You can add food coloring at this point if you wish.