Thursday, December 13, 2012

Rolled Sugar Cookies

Rolled Sugar Cookies
Baking Christmas cookies for the class has become a fun, end of the year tradition. Last year we baked gingerbread and sugar cookies just enough for the class party, which was about 3 dozen cookies. This year we decided to give the cookies in a treat bag to each of the kids in her class. We ended up making 9 dozen sugar cookies with 4 cookies in each treat bag. Once we got the dough ready and refrigerated, we were on a roll!

We used the same recipe that I had from last year.
I did want to try decorating the cookies with some icing. I made it by mixing icing sugar with a few drops of  milk. I tried it on a couple of cookies then gave up. With the volume of cookies that we had on hand, it was just too ambitious. We just drizzled some red and green colored sugar on each cookie and were quite happy with our finished product. We still have a long way to get the perfect looking sugar cookies-the ones that we see online or in cookbooks. However, with the way our cookies turned out, I'd say it's a start. Here is the recipe for simple rolled sugar cookies.

Rolled Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup Butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Confectioner's sugar
1 egg
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Cream the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and almond extract in a large bowl. In a separate bowl add the rest of the dry ingredients- flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients mixture into the wet mixture until it forms into a dough. If the dough is too sticky, you can add a little flour. Divide this dough into two portions and cover it with a plastic cling wrap and then refrigerate for about an hour. If you are in a hurry, try the freezer and take it out when its nice and firm. When the dough is cold, the cookies tend to retain their shape better.

Once the dough is firm and cold, roll it out on a floured surface and cut desired shapes. Place the cookies about an inch apart on a cookie sheet. If you are decorating the cookies with colored sugar, now is the time. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees and let the cookies bake for about 6-8 minutes or until you start seeing pale brown edges. Remove from the oven and let cool. Enjoy!



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