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frosted sugar cookies

March 23, 2010 by 4 Comments



Making cut-out sugar cookies and frosting them can be quite a process.  Between making the dough, letting it chill for a few hours, rolling out the dough, cutting out the shapes, making a mess with the flour, baking the cookies, letting them cool before you frost, making the frosting, and eventually frosting the cookies, you could spend a whole day making cookies!  


However, if you have the right recipe, all of the work is definitely worth it.  Nothing beats a good sugar cookie and the recipe I have for you is a great one!  

This recipe comes from my step-mom, who has been making these sugar cookies for every possible occasion for as long as I can remember.  She doesn’t wait for Christmas to roll around every year.  Oh no…she makes them for Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter.  Her recipe has been praised by everyone who has tried them and I finally got my hands on the recipe.  The cookies are soft, buttery, and they literally melt in your mouth.  I made them for Easter and if you have an free Saturday afternoon coming up, give this recipe a try!  They are a yummy addition to any Easter basket and frosting the cookies can be made into a fun family project.  


For the frosting, I tried two different approaches.  I made the traditional butter and powdered sugar recipe  and then also took a shot at making royal icing.  Royal icing consists of meringue powder, water, and powdered sugar and gives the cookie a more professional look, in my opinion.  This was my first time making royal icing and while my icing skills are nothing to brag about, I like how the royal icing appears smooth and shiny.  The cookies in the first picture have the buttercream frosting, while the picture below is royal icing.  

Soft Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup milk 
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 cups flour, plus up to 1 cup extra for flouring rolling surface

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking soda.  
Cream together the sugar and butter with electric mixer until creamy.  Add milk and vanilla and mix to combine.  Add the eggs.  Finally, add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Put the dough in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours.  

Roll out chilled dough (I used about 1/3 of the dough at a time) onto floured surface.  Make sure to flour the rolling pin too and cut out with cookie cutters.  I rolled the dough until it was about 1/8-1/4″ thick, which results in a softer cookie.  

Place the cut out cookies 1/2″ apart onto non-stick baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes, until the edges are very light brown.  You do not want the top of the cookies to be brown.  Cool the cookies completely on wire rack before frosting them.

Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup milk
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Food coloring

Combine the butter and powdered sugar, then vanilla extract.  Slowly add the milk until desired consistency is reached.  Add food coloring to desired color and decorate away!




Royal Icing
From the meringue powder container

2 tbsp meringue powder
4 cups powdered sugar
6 tbsp water
Food coloring

Mix meringue powder, powdered sugar, and water on low speed for 7-10 minutes.  Add more water by the teaspoon if the icing looks too thick.  The main batch will be used for piping the edges.  This can be done with a ziploc baggie with a tiny edge cut off, but “real” bakers would insist this be done with patry bags and tips….what can I say…I’m cheap.  

So, using the ziploc baggie or pastry bags with tips, outline the cookies using the color you will fill them in with.  After outlining the cookies, add a few drops of water to the same-colored icing until it reaches an almost liquid consistency.  Fill in the outlined cookies with the thinned frosting, using a toothpick.  

For a more comprehensive tutorial on how to decorate cookies using Royal Icing, the Brown Eyed Baker has a great one here.  

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Filed Under: cookies

Comments

  1. Rebecca says:
    March 23, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    Those look GREAT!! Easter sugar cookies are on my “to-do” list! Happy birthday :)

    Reply
  2. taylor (greens and chocolate) says:
    March 25, 2010 at 10:00 pm

    I need you to show me how to make sugar cookies look good…the ones from the wedding shower you did were beautiful!

    Reply
  3. Jan says:
    March 27, 2010 at 3:06 am

    These are really good!! In fact, the cookies are so good, they don’t even need frosting! In fact, the dough is so good, it doesn’t even need to be baked! (:

    Reply
  4. taylor (greens and chocolate) says:
    March 29, 2010 at 7:50 pm

    I agree Jan…I couldn’t keep myself away from the dough while making these! It was just too easy to eat some of the “scraps” between the batches of cut-outs!

    Reply

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