Texas Sugar Cookies!

Howdy Y’all!

Yesterday, the kids and I (mostly me) made some Christmas sugar cookies with sugar cookie icing. This year was my first year to make rolled out sugar cookies with the kids and it was a delight but not very pretty! Truthfully, I haven’t had much practice decorating sugar cookies or even making and rolling them out but the recipe I followed was a little bit fool-proof and I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to make some sugar cookies with icing at home.  Bristol mostly licked the sprinkles from her hand and helped mix (or should I say lick) the icing! Bradley on the other hand was napping the whole time we made them but don’t think he didn’t help eat them later.

This recipe is from a HEB magazine I received for free with my groceries.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder

Instructions:
1. Using a handmixer or countertop mixer, cream butter and sugar together.
2. Add eggs one at a time and beat into creamed butter and sugar. Add vanilla and beat until mixture is smooth.
3. In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and combine thoroughly to form a smooth dough.
4. Chill for 1 hour before baking.
5. When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350°F. On a floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes and bake until golden brown (about 9-12 minutes, depending on size and shape of cookie cutters used.)
6. Frost with prepared frosting or Sugar Cookie Icing.

Sugar Cookie Icing

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. whole milk
1 1/2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar,salt, milk, corn syrup, almond extract, and vanilla extract.
2. Whisk until icing is smooth and glossy, adding more corn syrup if icing is too thin.

Serves: 24

Tips and Hints below!!

Our cookies weren’t professional by all means! I only had two cookie cutters, a gingerbread man and Christmas tree! I made white icing, green icing and used sprinkles to decorate with also! I plan on making more cookies and buying more cookie cutters before Christmas is here. These were very fun to make and I’m trying not to eat them all haha!

1. I had to add a little water to the cookie dough to get it into a smooth ball. I just added by the teaspoon until it all came together in my mixer.
2. I chilled overnight. You definitely don’t want to under chill  and then your dough is too sticky to handle and sticking to the surface! 2 hours is perfect.
3. Make sure you roll out evenly. Dip cookie cutters into flour so it doesn’t stick to the dough and is easier to cut out.
4. Rotate cookie sheet in oven about halfway through baking time.
5. I had to add a little more milk to my icing to get it smooth and whiskable. I don’t think whiskable is a word. You DON’T want the icing to be too thin, so only add a little milk at a time.
6. I would say an ideal consistency for the icing is when you lift up your whisk the icing falls down and dissolves back into the bowl about 5 seconds later. Remember, if you’re adding food coloring make sure the icing is a bit thicker so you don’t thin it too much with the food coloring that is added.
7. Put a small zip lock bag into a coffee mug and pour the icing inside to make a piping bag to ice your cookies. Cut a little bit off the tip!

Happy Holidays!