Cut-out Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Since it is getting close to December, I thought we'd have a fun little starter to the season. Okay, so I love making cut-out cookies. I like to use the Christmas cookie cutters. It just reminds me so much of being little and setting out cookies for Santa. I don't really know why, but it just does. So I know your probably doing an overview of this recipe and you may be thinking," Man, this looks like a lot of work." I really don't think it is that much work, its just a long recipe. But making these is a great activity to do with your kids and family. I have to say my favorite part is decorating the cookies with the royal icing. I put them in squeeze bottles and make them different Christmas colors, like red, green, white, and blue. (For things like snow) When I say squeeze bottles I mean like mustard and ketchup bottles you can seriously buy anywhere. I like doing that because it you can do some really cool designs on the cookies. Instead of just scooping icing on them with a knife. So I really hope you decide to make these cookies because they are really just a fun thing to do around the holidays.
Cut-out Sugar Cookies
You will need:
3 C all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. milk

1. Sift together flour baking soda and salt; Set aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine.
3. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture, and beat until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove one wrapped pack of dough from fridge at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath to make sure it isn't sticking.
6. Cut out dough to desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place shapes on parchment paper lined cookie sheets, one-inch apart. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the just start to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time.
7. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removing them from the oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Royal Icing
You will need:
3 ounces pasteurized egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 C confectioners' sugar

1. In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy.
2. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5-7 minutes.

3. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. if using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I decided to go back to the basics this week. I mean, seriously, who doesn't like a chocolate chip cookie? I absolutely love me some chocolate chip cookie. I could probably eat about 20 if you let me, but I don't because...well you know why. But what makes this cookie more special than a regular one, is seriously just the taste. They are just SO GOOD! I seriously couldn't believe how good they were! I thought "Oh. wow. A chocolate chip cookie.Look at that." But looks can be deceiving! I think what really made these cookies for me was the 2 teaspoons of vanilla. It really made the cookies yummy. So I highly suggest these cookies because they are SO easy to make, and they taste FANTASTIC!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
You will need:
2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C butter, softened
3/4 C brown sugar
1/2 C sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl with a stand mixer, cream together butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, and an egg.
4. With mixer on low, slowly add in flour mixture. Mix until just combined, then add the chocolate chips. Scoop by tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until desired doneness. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. (About 10 minutes) Store in airtight container.

Red Velvet Thumbprints

I'm really hoping that when you see the title of this post you will be wanting to make this recipe. Why? Well, their red velvet! Duh! I know that sometimes when people think of red velvet they thing that it is this super fancy thing. But let me tell you, they are not that hard to make. It is something super delicious, though. When I was making this recipe, I thought that I was doing something wrong. I thought this because the batter for these cookies is very dry. I thought that I must have misread, or something. But really the batter made perfect cookies! So I must have been doing something right! It ends up, that I didn't realize that you are supposed to roll the batter into balls. I was the whole time making the right thing! So, please just make these cookies. You won't regret it. I promise.
Red Velvet Thumbprints
You will need:
1 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. red food coloring
1 tsp. vanilla
2 C white vanilla baking chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in flour, cocoa and salt until blended. Add the food color and vanilla; beat well.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. On cookie sheets, place dough 2 inches apart. Press thumb into the center of each cookie to make indentation, but do not press all the way to the cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 12 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes; quickly remake indentations with the end of a wooden spoon, if necessary. Move the the cookies from the cookie sheet onto a cooling rack. Cool completely, about 10 minutes.
5. In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave white baking chips, uncovered on high, for about 30 seconds. Stir, then microwave again for 30 seconds, or until they are stirred smooth. Spoon the melted chips into a large plastic bag, seal bag. Cut off tiny corner of bag. Twist the bag above the melted chips. Squeeze the bag to fill the each thumbprint on the cookies. Let them stand until set.

Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies

Have I really not blogged for almost 2 weeks? Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry for my awfulness. My house has just been full of too much food, so I had to wait before I was allowed to make anything else. Well anyways, about the cookies. Can you please say yummy? These cookies are so delicious! They are a great combo of salty and sweet, crunchy and chewy. All week (Okay, not all week) I have been looking for a recipe using pretzels. See, last week I was going to make a blog update with yogurt covered pretzels. So I went to the store and bought this great big bag of pretzels just for the occasion. I found a recipe online that I thought was going to work great! Yeah... it didn't. Unfortunately, the frosting wouldn't stick to the pretzels. So then I tried adding more sugar to the frosting! Also, a bad idea. Eventually all that went completely in the trash. But I still had all those leftover pretzels. Can you say genius? I found a great tasting way to use all those pretzels! YUM.
Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
You will need:
3/4 C butter, softened
3/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/4 C plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 C chocolate chips
2 C crushed pretzel sticks (cookie friendly pieces)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; gradually add to the butter mixture, beating until blended. Beat in chocolate and pretzels just until combined. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto baking sheet. (If baking sheet is not non-stick, put parchment paper on the baking sheet.)
3. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes or until desired doneness. Remove to wire racks, and cool completely before storing. (about 15 min)