Sugarbelles Perfect Sugar Cookies Food

OLD SCHOOL SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a big bowl, combine the butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt and vanilla and mix until smooth and fluffy. Stir in the baking powder, taking care to mix well. Add the eggs and egg yolk and stir well. Add the flours and gently stir until a smooth ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet (or sheets) with parchment paper (no cooking spray).
• On a floured surface, roll out tennis ball-size pieces of dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out the shapes you want. Lay them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 1/4 inch between each cookie.
• Bake for 8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack, then decorate them however you like with Royal Icing and your favorite sprinkles.
• Using a stand mixer and the whisk attachment, whip most of the powdered sugar with most of the other ingredients. Whip for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the royal icing holds its shape and is bright white (not translucent). If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add a bit more liquid, drop by drop. If you are using only one color, add a few drops of the color at this point and keep whipping until you have the shade you want; otherwise, proceed to the next step.
• To store royal icing, the ideal way is to scrape it out of the bowl and into a plastic, disposable piping bag, then leave it at room temperature. Don't cut the bag until you're ready to use the royal icing, and don't overfill the bag--you want enough room to tie the back of the bag off to keep the royal icing airtight. If any air comes into contact with the royal icing, it gets hard and that part of the icing is useless. Never attempt to mix the hard bits back into the royal icing--you'll ruin the whole batch. The other accepted method of storing royal icing is to scrape it into a plastic or ceramic bowl, and cover it with a wet paper towel. This method works, but it wastes both paper towels and royal icing. It's also just annoying. When you're piping small designs, you want to use very small parchment piping bags. It's easy to stick the nose of a large piping bag into a smaller one and extract exactly how much you'll need. When the icing is in a bowl, you have to use a spoon to get it out. The spoon is difficult to get into a piping bag, and you'll keep using spoons and wasting royal icing. Get with the times people. Do it right and don't waste food.

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.

SUGARBELLE'S PERFECT SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream together softened butter and confectioner's sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl, and add the flavoring. Add that to the butter sugar mixture and mix until the egg is thoroughly incorporated.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add little by little to the mixture. **You can tell the dough is ready when most of it sticks to the paddle. When you touch it, it has a little give, but does not stick to your fingers. The dough will stiffen up as it rests, so wait 5-10 minutes before working with it.**
• Roll out on parchment to about 1/4 an inch thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut your shapes. Remove the extra around your cookies and transfer your cookies on the parchment paper to a baking sheet.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes until tops appear dry rather than shiny. Do not brown. Freshy baked cookies will be slightly fragile. If you can, let them cool for 4+ hours before moving them into an airtight container.
• About this recipe: -Day-old cookies make easier decorating . They are less likely to leach oil back into your icing if they have had a day or two to "dry out". They are still soft, however. -The dough DOES NOT need to be refrigerated. -Do NOT soften your butter in the microwave. Take it out of the fridge, and it will be ready in about 2-3 hours. Or cut it into smaller pieces, and it will be ready in about 30-45 minutes. -Baking times are approximate. Watch them the first few times you bake them. Do not over bake. If the cookies are browning you have gone too far. -Start with with 2 1/2 cups of flour. Add another 1/4 of a cup if the dough seems too sticky.
• -The recipe doubles well. -This dough can be flavored any way you like. -The cookies freeze well. -This recipe does spread a little. If you don't like that add a little flour. -If you don't like salt, leave it out altogether. -If you only have salted butter, use that and reduce the salt.

A PERFECT SUGAR COOKIE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter, oil, confectioners' sugar and white sugar until well blended.
• Stir in the eggs, vanilla and lemon extracts.
• Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until well blended.
• Roll the dough into walnut sized balls.
• Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheet. Flatten cookies to 1/8 inch thickness using the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Colored sugar may be used if you do not plan to frost cookies later.
• Bake for 9 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are golden brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.