Low Fat Holiday Sugar Cookies With Icing That Hardens Food

SUGAR COOKIE ICING

Steps:

• Stir together the sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, corn syrup, and vanilla in a medium-sized bowl until combined.(If icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon of milk, until the icing is thick but pipeable. If it's too thin, add a little more powdered sugar until desired texture is reached. If you drizzle a little of the icing with a whisk, the ribbon of icing will hold for a few seconds before melting back into the icing. That is when you know it's the right consistency and is ready to use.)
• If coloring the icing with different colors, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
• Transfer icing to a piping bag with a piping tip (I use Wilton 5.)
• Pipe icing onto cookies and decorate, as desired. (If using sanding sugar or sprinkles, they need to be added before the icing starts to set.)
• Allow icing to completely harden at room temperature before enjoying (this can take anywhere from 3 hours to overnight depending on the consistency and thickness of your icing.)
• NOTE: Don't miss all the coloring and decorating tips in the full article!
• NOTE: This recipe makes enough to decorate 40, 3-inch cookies. Calories calculated are for the icing only and do not include cookies.

LOW-FAT HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES WITH ICING THAT HARDENS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Beat margarine and sugar until well mixed, adding egg white and vanilla as you go.
• Whisk baking powder, flour, tartar, and salt in another bowl. Mix bit-by-bit into egg mixture, not adding any more if the dough is too thick.
• Knead dough 3-5 times on heavily floured surface until smooth and at your desired consistency.
• Roll dough out on the heavily floured surface with a floured rolling pin, and cut shapes out. Place them on a cookie sheet, covered in parchment paper. (Don't sub the parchment paper for oil, butter, or cooking spray. Bottoms will crisp).
• Bake in oven for 7-10 minutes until tops of cookies have firmed, checking every few minutes to make sure they don't brown (these are best light and soft).
• Take out of oven and place on cooling rack.
• While cooling, mix powdered sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and vanilla until shiny.
• Add food colouring to icing if you wish, and ice the cookies once they have cooled. ENJOY!

PERFECT HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
• Beat in the egg yolk and extracts.
• In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda-gradually add to the creamed mixture.
• Divide into two equal portions and wrap well.
• Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
• Note; Refrigerating your dough and baking sheets is the secret to perfectly shaped cut-out cookies/ The cookies won't"spread" as they bake- in other words, the shapes will be well-defined/ The points on the stars will be sharp, etc/ Also, your dough will be much easier to work with and won't stick to your cookie cutters, so the extra chilling time is well worth it.
• When dough has chilled, remove one half from refrigerator.
• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• While oven is preheating, place cookie sheets in refigerator to chill.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to less than 1/4 inch thickness.
• Cut with 2 1/2 inch floured cookie cutters.
• Reserve trimmings for re-rolling.
• Remove cookie sheets from fridge (do not grease them) and place cookies on them, 1 inch apart.
• Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
• Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.
• Repeat with remaining portion of dough.
• Don't forget to put your cookie sheets back in the fridge once they have cooled/ They only need to chill for about 10 minutes.
• For your frosting, in a large bowl, beat confectioners' sugar, meringue powder, and water until stiff, about 5 minutes.
• Tint frosting with paste food colorings if desired.
• Keep tightly covered to prevent from drying out.
• Note; Of course you can use the regular food colorings you find in the supermarkets if you desire/ If you haven't tried the paste colorings, the colors are much more vivid than the regular food colorings/ Your X-mas trees will be much greener, Valentine hearts a brilliant red, etc/ Although they're somewhat pricier, a drop or two goes a long way.
• For detailed decorating, you can use decorating bags with small pointed tips/ You may need to thin frosting a bit to obtain right spreading or piping consistency.
• I sometimes collect pictures of decorated holiday cookies from my favorite magazines to give me some ideas.
• After decorating the cookies, set on wire racks to allow frosting to dry.
• Store in airtight, covered containers.
• Note: I am updating this recipe just to let you know about a little tip I just saw in a magazine. The person had cut out their cookies, placed them on baking sheets, and THEN refigerated them for about an hour before baking. You can do it this way also but I'd still chill your dough beforehand too, as it's easier to work with.

LOW FAT SUGAR COOKIES OF GOODNESS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Combine apple sauce and sugar until well mixed.
• Add egg and vanilla and continue to mix.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. Add gradually to egg mixture.
• Take roughly a tablespoon size portion of dough and place it onto a lighty greased cookie sheet. Works best if pressed flat (the dough when making the cookie).
• Bake in oven for 10 minutes.
• Take out of oven and remove from cookie sheet.
• To make the frosting, in an electric mixer preferably, combine powdered sugar and butter and vanilla. Add water according to consistency of frosting.

HEALTHIER SUGAR COOKIE ICING

Steps:

• Combine white sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat, simmering until dissolved and a sugar syrup is created, about 5 minutes.
• Stir together confectioner's sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Beat in almond extract and 2 teaspoons of sugar syrup until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more sugar syrup.
• Optional: Divide icing into separate bowls and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies or paint them with a brush.

KITTENCAL'S BUTTERY CUT-OUT SUGAR COOKIES W/ ICING THAT HARDENS

Steps:

• For cookies; in a large bowl combine butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract; beat using an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
• In another bowl combine the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the butter mixture until well blended.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
• Set oven to 400°F.
• Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (do not grease cookie sheets use parchment paper only).
• On a very lightly floured surface roll out the dough into about 1/4-inch thickness.
• Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters.
• Place cookies 2-inches apart on cookie sheet.
• Bake 4-6 minutes.
• Remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely before icing.
• For the frosting; in a small bowl mix the confectioners sugar with milk (start with 1-2 tablespoons, you will likely need more milk for the perfect spreading consistency).
• Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth and glossy (if the icing is too thick add in a small amount more of corn syrup).
• Divide into as many separate bowls as you wish for different colours.
• Add in food colouring until desired intensity is achieved.
• Paint the icing over the cookies using a brush, or dip edges of cookies into icing.
• Allow to set on waxed paper.