Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Decorated Butter Cookies

I have wanted to try decorating cookies lately with some new recipes. This week is cookie week on Martha so I became inspired. Plus, today is BabyGirl’s, “1 month til she is 2” birthday. Since we learned in an earlier post that powdered eggs give me the hebe gebes I don’t really like a traditional Royal Icing on my cookies. I looked far and wide for a smooth glossy icing that did not include egg whites or meringue powder. The cookie recipe is a basic butter cookie from Wilton. However, the icing recipe came from Allrecipes which over 550 gave it a good review so I thought it must be good.
The cookie by itself was very tasty. A cross between a sugar cookie and shortbread. It baked up very nicely and the dough was easy to work with. It goes without saying that I was so excited to see that the dough did not need to be chilled. Yea.
The icing was a little hard to mix, but it does spread on the cookie very well. Do not think that I mistakenly put teaspoon when it should say tablespoon. The measurements are correct. You will see.

Wilton’s Butter Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400°F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix flour and baking powder; add 1 cup at time to butter mixture, mixing after each addition. The dough will be very stiff, so blend last flour in by hand (if dough becomes too stiff, add water, a teaspoon at a time). Do not chill dough.
Divide dough into two balls on a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutter into flour before each use. Bake cookies on a cookie sheet on middle rack of oven for 6-7 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Let cookies cool before decorating.
YIELD: Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

Cookie Icing
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup (Karo)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla extract (your choice)

In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk. Beat in corn syrup and extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Decorate by dipping cookies, putting icing in a plastic bag with the corner cut off, or paint them with a brush.

2 comments:

Kelli said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kelli said...

Update on Icing: The icing remained glossy the rest of the day and was only slightly sticky. This morning I checked them and they were no longer as glossy and had more of a matte finish to them. The frosting was dry to the touch; somewhere between hard and tacky. Both cookie and icing tasted good and were soft.