My family makes the most delightful, thin, delicate, crispy, cookie cutter sugar cookies. They are fabulous! But they also take much patience to roll out and to watch carefully in the oven, ensuring the exact baking time without any browning.
Last week I gathered with a few friends for a cookie-making afternoon. It was the kind of day that was meant for more fun, imperfect decorations and libations. Not the right time for precision.
So I chose a cut-out sugar cookie recipe by Sarah Kieffer; one that keeps its shape while baking. These roll-out sugar cookies eat light but bring a bold buttery flavor. And they hold their shape thanks to a little coconut oil.
I shared two frosting options, a glaze that can be colored and a simple piping frosting. Get creative and just have fun; imperfect decorations taste better!
Happy eating,
~Monique
Classic Cookie Cutter Cut Out Sugar Cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour (plus a bit more to roll out with
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups butter, room temperature
3 tbls refined coconut oil, room temperature
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
1 tbls vanilla extract
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 cookie sheets with additional ghee or butter.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and soda, set aside.
Cream the butter, coconut oil and sugar (ideally in a stand mixer). Cream in the egg and egg yolk then the vanilla. Mix in the flour mixture until well combined.
Work with half of the dough at a time; wrap the other half of the dough in a syran and place in the fridge. sprinkle a little flour on your countertop and pat out the dough, ensuring the dough is still moving and not sticking to the counter. Add additional flour under the dough as needed. Now sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough or spread a bit of flour on your rolling pin and start to roll out the dough to desired thickness. There’s no right or wrong, we did about 1/4′ thick (thinner cookies will be crispier throughout.)
Use your cookie cutters to cut out the cookies. Use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to trays. Place the cookie trays in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then bake for roughly 12-16 minutes; the bottoms should just begin to brown.
Let cool for a few minutes before moving to a cookie rack. Cool the cookies completely before frosting. Cool the cookie trays before reusing.
Simple Sugar Cookie Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbls ghee or butter melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt (two pinches if using ghee)
~1/2 cup water
Optional: Suncore Powder food coloring
Melt the ghee. Whisk in the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Add enough water to create a glaze.
For the watercolor look, separate the glaze into a couple of bowls, sprinkle with powder color and lightly stir, leaving streaks of color and non-color in the bowl. Drop a cookie into the bowl, top-side down. move it slightly in the frosting to ensure it gets covered, shake off the extra and set aside to dry.
Note: the glaze will thicken and might get a little crusty top as it sits on the counter. Stir and add a spoon of water as needed.
Sugar Cookie Piping Frosting
3 tbls cream
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Whisk together the cream and powdered sugar. Adjust for desired texture (more cream if too thick, more powdered sugar if too thin) as necessary. Spoon into a pastry bag and decorate away.
