Old Fashioned Cut Out Frosted Butter Cookies Food

OLD FASHIONED SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a second large bowl and mix well. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture 1 cup at a time. Chill the dough for 3 to 4 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Roll out the dough and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters or a knife. Place the shapes on the prepared cookie sheet. If decorating with colored sugar, brush the cookies with milk and sprinkle with colored sugar (if using royal icing, leave unfinished). Bake until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.
• Remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely. If using royal icing, decorate the cookies as desired.
• Combine the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl. Mix slowly with an electric mixer until stiff enough to form peaks; the icing should be pure white and thick, but not fluffy and bubbly. If the frosting is over-beaten, it will get aerated which makes it harder to work with. If this happens, let the frosting sit to settle, and then use a rubber spatula to vigorously beat and smooth out the frosting.
• Add up to 1 tablespoon food coloring and mix with a rubber spatula until the color is uniform. Gels are best with royal icing. You don't want to thin them with liquid colors. Be careful of adding too much color, which reduces the sheen of the frosting and can break down the consistency of the frosting over a couple of days. Store the icing at room temperature, covered, with plastic wrap on the surface.
• Yield: 3 1/2 cups icing

OLD-FASHIONED FROSTED BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• FOR THE COOKIES
• Pre-heat oven to 400* F
• Combine dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fully incorporated. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to stir (or mix in a stand mixer) until fully incorporated.
• Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet and stir or mix until fully combined. The dough will be stiff, but this is ok!
• Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic and put in the fridge to cool for at least 20 minutes (up to a day or two).
• When the dough has chilled, remove half of it from the fridge and place onto a well floured surface. Using a floured rolling pin, gradually roll the dough to your desired thickness. I make mine fairly thin (about ⅛ inch). Don't panic if the dough cracks, just press it back together with your fingers and continue to roll.
• Using cookie cutters, stamp the entire surface of the dough. Make sure to collect the scrap dough to re-roll. Keep the surface you're working on well-floured and use a spatula to lift the cookies if they start to stick at any point.
• Place dough cut outs onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. The cookies don't spread, so you can really squeeze them onto the baking sheet.
• When you've finished rolling and cutting the first half of the dough, remove the second half and repeat until all the dough has been used.
• When your first baking sheet is full, place it into the preheated oven and set a timer for 5 minutes (up to 7 if you make your cookies thicker)
• When the cookies are finished baking, remove them from the oven and immediately transfer them to wire racks to cool until you are ready to decorate them. The plain cookies can also be frozen and decorated later!
• FOR THE FROSTING
• By hand or in a stand mixer, combine softened butter, vanilla extract and milk. Slowly add the powered sugar and mix to fully combine. Add more milk if necessary, but a thin consistency will allow you to get a nice smooth finish on your cookies!
• *Frosting tip - with a regular knife, place a small dollop of frosting onto the center of the cookie. Use the tip of the knife to "push" the frosting to each edge of the cookie. Add colored sugar, sprinkles, etc and set aside to dry.

CUT-OUT BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Divide dough in half; form into two 1/2-inch-thick disks. Wrap in plastic; chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a piece of floured waxed paper, roll one disk to a thickness of 3/16 inch; chill. Repeat with remaining dough.
• Flouring cutters as you go (to prevent sticking), cut dough into desired shapes; carefully transfer to baking sheets. Re-chill rolled-out dough if difficult to work with.
• If decorating, brush with egg wash, then sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles. Bake until edges are firm (not brown), 15 to 20 minutes for 3-inch cookies. Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets; cool completely on a wire rack.

OLD-FASHIONED CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, milk and vanilla. Gradually add flour and mix well. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with 3-in. cookie cutters dipped in flour. Sprinkle with additional sugar. , Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Reroll scraps if desired. Bake at 375° for 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

OLD FASHIONED BUTTER COOKIES WITH BUTTER FROSTING

Steps:

• Beat 1 cup softened butter with white sugar in a large bowl until creamy. Beat egg, whole milk, and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract into butter mixture until smooth. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl and gradually stir dry ingredients into moist ingredients to make a smooth dough. Chill dough in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Dust a pastry cloth or kitchen towel generously with flour.
• Divide dough into thirds and roll each third out 1/8-inch thick on the prepared pastry cloth. Cut shapes out of the rolled dough with cookie cutters. Place cookies onto ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are barely browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.
• Beat 1 cup softened butter, 3 cups confectioners' sugar, 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract, and evaporated milk in a bowl until smooth. Gradually stir 6 cups confectioners' sugar into mixture until combined. Beat frosting hard until fluffy; stir in additional evaporated milk or confectioners' sugar if needed to reach desired consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

OLD-FASHIONED CUT OUT FROSTED BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg, milk and vanilla.
• Now blend in the dry ingredients flour, baking powder and salt until dough is formed. If desired you can chill for an hour for easier handling. I've never done this and the dough always rolled out fine for me.
• Divide the dough in thirds. On a lightly floured board roll out the dough to about 1/8th inch thickness. Using cookie cutters cut into shapes and place on a cookie sheet.
• Bake in oven for about 5 to 8 minutes until lightly golden brown. Cool on a rack.
• SPECIAL NOTE: You can use vanilla extract but I think vanilla paste makes these cookies taste even more special using vanilla paste.
• I use vintage Christmas cookie cutters where i found on Ebay. I bought vintage cooper cookie cutters instead of the aluminum ones due to safety concerns regarding the use of aluminum. But you can use modern cookie cutters and you can make these anytime not just for Christmas.
• Please see my recipe for Creamy Vanilla Frosting where I will be giving some decorating suggestions. =).

CUT-OUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Form into a fat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place disk of dough on it, and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the cookies a little apart on 2 parchment or silpat lined baking sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 12 minutes; obviously it depends on the shape you're using and whether they are on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but set while they cool.
• Remove the cookies with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack. When they are fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of not-quite-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved confectioners sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Color,as desired. I think pastes are much better than liquid, not just because the range of colors is better but because they don't dilute the icing as they tint. Ice cooled cookies, as desired.

OLD FASHIONED SUGAR COOKIES AND FROSTING

Steps:

• Make cookie dough: Cream butter, adding sugar gradually. Cream until soft and fluffy. Then add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift dry ingredients together. Alternately add ingredients and cream to egg sugar mixture. Mix well.
• Chill 3 hours or overnight. Roll out on a well-floured board or countertop to 1/4-1/2 inches thickness. Shape with floured cookie cutters. Bake on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet at 350 for 8-10 minutes. (They won't be brown at all when they are done - if the cookie springs back when pressed down lightly, it is done.).
• Make frosting: Whip softened butter and softened cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar mixing until well combined. Add milk to bring frosting to desired consistency. When cookies are completely cool, frost. Add sprinkles if desired.