Valentine's day is this week, so I thought that I would share another recipe. I have posted this sugar cookie recipe before, in my Annual Turkey Sugar Cookie post, but it lacked photos and detailed instructions. Since I love these cookies so much, I thought I would share it again. This time, I've included instructions on how to make the cookies as well as decorate them the way I did. These cookies are perfect to hand out to friends and loved ones as a special sweet treat. The recipe makes a lot of cookies, too, which is perfect because you can give a bunch out and still save some for yourself. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
For the Cookies:
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus a little extra for rolling later on)
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the Royal Icing:
4.5 ounces pasteurized egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups confectioner's sugar
Small dish of water
Pink, orange, and brown food coloring
Directions:
1) Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on low speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2) Add the eggs and vanilla, beating on low until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and set aside.
3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
4) Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing in between each addition.
5) The mixture will seem very sticky and smooth. If it's too sticky, add in more flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Continue doing this until your dough becomes less sticky and you are able to pick it up. It will still be soft.
6) Once your dough is the right consistency, pull out two pieces of plastic wrap. Split your dough in half and place half on one piece of wrap, half on the other. Shape each clump into a ball before flattening it out into a disk, about 8 to 9-inches in diameter. Cover the dough with more plastic wrap as needed. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
7) After the 30 minutes is up, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take out two cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper. Take out your dough. If it is too hard, wait a few minutes for it to soften before continuing. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.
8) Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, begin to cut out your cookies. Any left over dough can be rolled up into another ball and re-rolled Repeat this with your second disk of dough as well.
9) Lay the cookies out on your cookie sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Make sure not to crowd them, because if they expand and touch each other, they won't be as pretty. Bake for 8 minutes, then switch racks and bake for another 5-9 minutes, until slightly browned and hardened.
10) Set the cookies out on a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
11) Prepare your icing. Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, combine the egg whites and vanilla. Beat until frothy.
12) Slowly add in the confectioner's sugar, a little at a time. Once it has all been added, beat the icing for several minutes on high until stiff, glossy peaks form.
13) Separate the icing into four bowls, trying to make them as equal as possible. Then, take your water dish and dip your fingers into it. Sprinkle some water into the bowls, a little at a time, mixing in between each addition. Do this until the icing has thinned. You know that the icing is thin enough when, if you lift up the spoon and let the icing drizzle down, it disappears into the rest of the icing after 10 seconds. Make sure not to thin the icing too much! Dye two bowls beige (using the orange and brown) and two bowls pink.
14) Spoon the icing into piping bags, closing them off with twisty ties or rubber bands. Cut small holes in the bags holding the thicker icing, which will be used for outlining, and large holes in the bags with thinner icing, which will be used for flooding.
15) Begin by using the thick beige icing to outline the cone of the heart. Do this on all your cookies before moving on, so that it can dry.
16) Take the thinner beige icing and flood the cone, using a toothpick to smooth it out. Do this on all your cookies before moving on, allowing them to dry.
17) Use the thick pink icing to outline the top of the heart. Once again, repeat this on all the cookies and let them dry.
18) Flood the top part of the heart with the thin pink icing, using a toothpick to spread it out. Immediately after, sprinkle on some rainbow sprinkles. Repeat on the rest of the cookies.
19) Using the thick beige icing, pipe several criss-crossing lines onto the beige part of the cone. Let dry.
Here is the finished product! Happy Valentine's week everyone!
The sugar cookie recipe is based off of the one by Cindy Mushet, but I've changed it slightly based on personal experience. I also double the recipe, because I always need more cookies.
The royal icing recipe is by Alton Brown, but I shortened the steps and did one and a half recipes.