Decorator's Dream Cookies

I liked the sugar cookies I made last week, but I decided to try a different recipe this time. I found that the dough I made with the Martha Stewart recipe wasn't as uniform as I'd like. That may be due to slight user error, but just in case it had more to do with the recipe, I thought I'd try another one. This one is from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. This recipe has its variations, but the following is what I did for this round.

What You Need
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten w/ 2 tbsp water
3.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1. Cream the butter, sugar, and corn syrup until light and fluffy.

2. Add in the extract and salt.

3. Add the egg and 2 tablespoons of water.

4. Add the flour and beat until smooth.



5. Divide the dough in half, wrap them up in plastic, and flatten each slightly. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

6. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Take one piece of dough and roll it out as thin or thick as you like. I like my cookies on the thicker side, since I don't like crispy cookies.

8. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and transfer them to cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

9. Bake the cookies until they're slightly brown around the edges, around 12 minutes (less if they're thinner).

10. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for several minutes and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

11. Repeat steps 7-10 with the remaining dough.

For the icing, I didn't make my own. I used Wilton's white cookie icing.

Banana Muffins w/ Chocolate Chips

This is one of my favorite recipes and it's from Nigella Express. The original recipe calls for butterscotch chips and it's divine! However, in a pinch, chocolate chips can be substituted, and it's good, but not as good as butterscotch chips. Butterscotch chips is not something I usually have stocked though, I only buy them to make these muffins. I didn't have any when I went to make these. :(

What I Used
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas (2-3 ripe bananas)
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Measure the oil into a large measuring cup and beat in the eggs.



3. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl.



4. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.



5. Fold in the chocolate chips.



6. Divide the batter equally and bake for 20 minutes.

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

I was organizing a baby shower at work for Stephen and I decided to make onesie sugar cookies as the treats. Since the chocolate cookie cutouts were such a success, I decided to try this recipe.

What You Need
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.



2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.



3. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture.



4. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.



5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes.

6. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a 4-inch one-piece-shaped cookie cutter. 

7. Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

8. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.

9. Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Tea Cookies

I've made this recipe a few times and it's super easy. I like that you can change the tea for different flavor profiles. I've never actually made this cookie with earl grey tea.

For the Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons tea leaves, from approximately 6 tea bags
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

The normal directions are as follows:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. Pulse together all the dry ingredients in a food processor until the tea leaves are pulverized. Add the vanilla, 1 teaspoon water, and the butter. Pulse together until a dough is formed.

3. Divide the dough in half. Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a 12-inch log, about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

4. Slice each log into disks, 1/3 inch thick. Place on parchment- or foil-lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake until the edges are just brown, about 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks.

What I did for this batch was a bit different. I actually made the dough for these cookies around Christmas. I thought I was going to include it with my Christmas Cookies Extravanganza, but I ran out of room for them. So I chucked the dough in the freezer, and gave myself 2 months to use it up for something.

I decided to make these for my book club meeting and decided to roll out the dough and make heart-shaped cookie cutouts for the occasion. I would normally leave these cookies unfrosted, but I decided to try it out to see if it would be good.

Since I've never frosted cookies before, I did some research to see what I should use. I decided to try the meringue-based frosting, which I've never tried  before. I used Martha Stewart's Small-batch Royal Icing recipe from her Cookies book. (If you clicked the link to the Umbrella Sugar Cookies, it's step 6 for the royal icing.)

For the Royal Icing
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
7 1/2 tsp meringue powder
1/4 cup chai tea*

* You're supposed to used water, but I decided to try chai tea to reinforce the flavor in the cookies.

1. Mix all the ingredients with an electric mixer using the whisk attachment. Beat on low speed for 10 minutes.

2. Use immediately.



The royal icing didn't taste much like chai tea, just a lemony taste, which I suspect is how meringue makes everything taste.

Pear and Ginger Muffins

The original recipe is from Nigella Express.

What I Used
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white wheat flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup Tofutti sour cream (fake sour cream for those lactose-intolerant or vegan types)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tbsp agave
2 eggs
2 pears, diced (left the skin on since I was lazy)
some Baking Spice

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper cups if you're going to use paper. I decided to just spray the tin with Baker's Joy.

2. Whisk the sour cream, oil, agave, and eggs together. I should've waited to add the pears after I mixed the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, but I didn't.



2. Mix the dry ingredients together.



3. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.



4. The recipe calls for sprinkling the brown sugar on top of the muffins, but I used Baking Spice instead.





5. Bake for 20 minutes and remove to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Cookie Cutouts

I've never made cutout cookies by myself before. For some reason, the whole idea seemed intimidating. I participated once in a Halloween cookie decorating party where I researched and passed along the sugar cookie recipe that we used (Alton Brown's) and brought my piping tips. I helped cut the cookies and decorate once they were done, but I didn't actually roll out the cookie dough or even made any of the cookie dough.

I was asked to make 4 dozen sugar cutout cookies in the shape of a brain for an open house work function. I figured it was time to get over this irrational fear.

So, to user test the process, I decided on the chocolate cookie cutouts. The recipe as it appears in Martha Stewart's Cookies only had nonpareils as decoration, which seemed simple enough to do.

These cookies turned out really well and are pretty amazing. Everyone really liked them, and they have a good flavor.

What You Need
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt and cinnamon into a bowl.

2. Cream the butter and confectioners' sugar.

3. Mix in egg and vanilla.

4. Gradually mix in flour mixture.



5. Wrap dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

6. When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick.

8. Cut out cookies with your preferred cookie cutter.

9. Transfer shapes to a baking sheet. I sprinkled with nonpareils, colored sugars, and jimmies at this point. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes.

10. Bake cookies until crisp, about 8-12 minutes, depending on the size of your cookie cutter. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.



Lessons learned:
Nonpareils don't stay on this cookie. I had to kinda press them in to make them stick. That's when I decided to try the colored sugars and jimmies. Jimmies worked great, and the colored sugars didn't show up since the cookie was so dark in color.