Easter Sugar Cookies
This is not a food blog so I will not be giving you a history on why you need to have chilled dough etc. if you want that you can go HERE which is where I found the recipe to make these cookies. Surprisingly I had all 7 ingredients on hand and the recipe was fairly easy to follow. I will share it at the bottom of this post as well.
Really I want to share with you the comical mess that making these cookies was for us. We are in quarantine so, I didn’t have parchment paper, no cookie cutters, and I most definitely do not own a rolling pin. I literally came up with the idea after seeing some easter colored frosting out at Albertson’s while I was making our essentials grocery run so I grabbed the assorted colors with sprinkles, did a quick internet search for an easy sugar cookie recipe, saw I had everthing to make the dough at home, and went on my way.
So, let’s start at the beginning. Nicholas wanted nothing to do with standing on the chair at the counter to use the mixer. He was TERRIFIED, but the kid stands on the chair at the table all the time; so weird.
So because of this we did all measuring and adding of ingredients at the kitchen table which he loved, and then promptly scooped some flour and dumped it onto the floor. So you know theres that mess that still needs to be cleaned up at 8:00PM while I type this out.
After I mixed everything with the mixer I realized the directions called for rolling the dough, and also the need for parchment paper. Which I then learned you actually don’t need. So if you don’t have any don’t worry, you’re fine. If like me you find yourself without a rolling pin you probably have a wine glass handy so put it to use and then pour yourself a glass.
You will split the dough in half so you’ll have to mounds of this dough to roll out. So, with no parchment paper I just made sure to flour a big wooden cutting board, flour the top of the rolled out dough, laid out saran wrap and roll out the second half of the dough on top of that. Not necessarily the right way, but I’ll have you know it still worked! I also did not have a rolling pin so this bottle of wine did the trick. I simply floured it like you would a rolling pin and it honestly worked better than I anticipated. So far I’m basically a magician in the kitchen.
Now, I did chill the dough like instructed because I like to follow most rules. I realized though while the dough was chilling that we would need cookie cutters. Yeah, I don’t have cookie cutters and since we’re in quarantine I can’t just run to the store and buy some real quick. I improvised and used cups. They worked. I let Nicholas pick where we cut the cookies so I did have to re-roll the dough a few times to make sure I used it all.
To save time I put both cookie sheets in and did not have them centered in the rack. Use the picture above as proof as to why that is not recommended. Place your cookie trays in the middle of the racks. So I had to toss about 6 cookies. That’s okay though we don’t really need 24 sugar cookies with a crap ton of frosting and sprinkles sitting around our house.
Now came the really fun part: frosting the cookies and adding sprinkles. If I’m being honest I thought Nicholas would have more fun frosting or actually want to frost the cookies, but he did not. I did all the frosting while he ate and spilled sprinkles. Again another mess that I need to clean up still. All in all I think Nicholas had fun with this activity today, but he also wasn’t as engaged as he has been with other things we have done together.
RECIPE:
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature**
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature**
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon almod extract (optional but made the cookies SO good! I used 1/4 tsp)
** I did not have this stuff at room temperature. I warmed the butter up in the microwave for about 20 seconds and just had the egg out on the counter for like 10 minutes**
Frosting
DIRECTIONS:
1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy ~2 minutes (or 5 if you have a crappy mixer like mine). Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high speed until combined ~1 minute. Scrape sides as needed to mix everything together.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be relatively soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 Tbsp more flour.
4. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Place each portion onto a pieve of lightly floured parhment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat or whatever you have available. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness.
5. Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a pieve of parchment on top. Place the 2nd rolled out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
6. Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or don’t if you can’t, it still works. Cut the dough into shaped with a cookie cutter preferrably or a cup.
7. Arrange cookies on tray and bake for 11-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
8. Cool the cookies and decorate!
This is NOT my original recipe, you can find that HERE with A LOT more detailed instructions.
