Spiced Sugar Cookies With Maple Glaze Food

SPICED HOLIDAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• 1. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Refrigerate dough 2 hours or overnight until firm.
• 2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface* to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into shapes with favorite cookie cutters. Place on greased baking sheets.
• 3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
• 4. For the Icing, mix all ingredients except food colors. (Stir in additional milk to thin icing or more confectioners' sugar to thicken, if needed). Place small amount of icing into small shallow bowls, using one bowl for each color desired. Stir drops of food color into icing until desired shade is reached.
• 5. To ice cookies, hold cookie by its edge and dip top of cookie into icing. (Or spoon the icing onto cookie using a teaspoon.) Place iced cookies on wire rack set over foil-covered baking sheet to dry. (The foil-covered baking sheet will catch drips.) To add decorative details to cookies, spoon tinted icing into resealable plastic bag. Snip off a tiny piece of the corner. Squeeze icing through hole in plastic bag to decorate cookies. If desired, Colored Sugar may be sprinkled onto freshly iced cookies.
• For the variations below, omit the cinnamon and the nutmeg. Use the following extract in place of the vanilla extract in the cookies:
• Almond Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Almond Extract.
• Orange Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Orange Extract.
• Lemon Holiday Sugar Cookies: Use 1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract.

MAPLE GLAZED SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• For sugar cookies:.
• Preheat the oven to 380 to 400, depending on how hot your oven is.
• Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to wet ones in batches, alternating with sour cream. Drop by Tablespoon fulls onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 7-9 minutes. cool completely.
• For icing glaze:.
• Mix powdered sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla extract in a bowl, if the glaze is too thick add more maple or some milk/water. transfer to a flat shallow dish (like a pie pan). spread glaze on cookies, and quickly top with crushed walnuts.
• ( Icing takes about an hour to harden, their less messy and taste better when the glaze is cool and hardened.).

MAPLE-GLAZED APPLE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400'.
• Cream together butter with sugar.
• Add salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, coriander and egg. Blend well.
• Stir in flour with baking soda and milk until well blended. Stir in apples.
• Drop by small spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 400' for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are light brown and spread but not overly brown (Firm when cooled and touched)
• Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets 1-2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack
• To make glaze: Stir together butter, powdered sugar, maple flavoring and milk to make a smooth glaze.
• Dot each cookie with about 1/2 teaspoons of glaze and spread to edges.
• Cool cookies and allow glaze to set before storing in an airtight container.

SARASOTA'S SPICY MAPLE, BROWN SUGAR AND BOURBON GLAZE

Steps:

• Roasted Pepper -- This is the first thing I make. Heat the oven to 450 and put the pepper right on the middle rack and roast until good and charred on all sides. Remove and wrap with a small piece of plastic wrap. After 5 minutes or so, remove the pepper, peel the skin off, remove the ribs and seeds and fine chop.
• Sauce -- To a small pot, add the butter and bring to medium heat. Add in the shallot, garlic and jalapeno (you can use 1/2 of the minced pepper if you don't want it too hot) but the roasted pepper has a mild flavor. Cook on medium just until the onion is translucent, you don't want to brown them. Then, deglaze the pan with the bourbon. Don't forget to remove the pot from the stove top when you add any alcohol. Return to the stove, reduce the heat to medium low/low and cook, 30 seconds if that. Add in the brown sugar, maple syrup, a pinch of the red pepper and a pinch of salt. Bring the sauce to a low boil (not rolling) and cook for about 5-6 minutes.
• Done -- The sauce will be thin, but will thicken upon cooling. When you remove the sauce from the heat, taste for any additional seasoning. Once it thickens, it will coat the back of a spoon. Make sure to use the glaze cooled.
• Options -- If you want, you can add in pecans at this point, but that is just an option. Just brush on the fish, meat or chicken as it bakes or grills. ENJOY!

SPICED SUGAR COOKIES WITH MAPLE GLAZE

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, stir together cookie mix, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Add butter and egg; mix until dough forms a ball.
• On floured surface with rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with assorted cookie cutters; place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• In small bowl, beat powdered sugar and syrup with whisk until smooth. Gradually add water, a few drops at a time, beating until a thick glaze forms. Spread glaze over cooled cookies. Decorate with sanding sugars, sprinkles and chocolate chips.