Foodie Friday (Christmas Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing)

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember my grandmother has made her famous "Santa Cookies" and in fact, the last time I was at her house two or so week's ago, she had her apron on and was icing cookies. So, in the Christmas spirit of my cookie-baking grandmother, I thought I'd try my hand at it. Two sugar cookie recipes and three batches of Royal icing plus icing bags and squeeze bottles, food coloring, decorator tips and endless research has led to lots of Christmas goodies.

 

This came from Betty Crocker's Best of Christmas Cookbook.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth-Sugar Cookies

Prep: 25 mins.; Chill: 2 hrs; Bake: 8 min per sheet; Cool: 30 mins

Makes about 5 dozen

 

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 

Beat powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed or mix with a spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

 

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease the cookie sheet. Divide dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

 

Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool completely. Then proceed with the decorating.

 

Note: I will say this -- Make sure you put in the cream of tartar. I didn't and I had a sticky mess but I got through it by adding more flour while rolling the dough out. You can live without the almond extract if you don't have any. Some people like lemon in their sugar cookies. I just stuck with the vanilla. I don't think I got 5 dozen cookies but that depends on the size of your cookie cutters.  

Now, the challenge -- Royal Icing. This recipe comes from Sweetopia. I looked at several recipes and all are basically the same.

Royal Icing
3/4 cup warm water
5 tablespoons of meringue powder
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2.25 lbs. of powdered sugar

Hand whisk water and meringue powder for 30 seconds; add cream of tartar and whisk for 30 seconds; and finally add all the powder sugar and use the electric with paddles and slow mix for 10 mins. Separate and tint with food coloring. To prevent drying, place a damp towel over the bowl to prevent drying out.

Notes: In this state, you should be able to remove the paddle and turn it upright and a stiff peak (like pie meringue). This is the perfect consistency for outlining your cookies with your icing bags and tips (No. 2 tip). And once that's done, don't touch your cookies.

About 30 mins. later, you can fill them in but you need to thin your icing a little. Do this in 1/2 teaspoon increments.  Bake at 350 has a great post on this.

And you get this....

And the final result...

If you don't like crispy, crunchy cookies, I suggest using this recipe for Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. It makes a lot of cookies. You've been warned!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and fun making cookies. My sister, niece and I are going to be decorating some on Monday. She's almost 2 so it's going to be interesting.

Christmas Cheer

 

I'm a little late to this party but I've been up to my eyeballs in cookie dough and icing. So here a look around the Dees home for the holidays. I really worked hard on the tree this year. I said I wanted more stuff and less tree! I think I got it.

 

 

Our kitchen Christmas tree with our Mickey and Minnie bobble heads located on top of the fridge. We love Disney and every time we go, we return with a ornament.

 

My grandma gave me that Santa musical wind-up so that one day when she's gone I'll have something to remember her by. I think her exact words were "When I'm dead, you can say my grandmother gave me that." She's still very much alive at 82. The photo stays up year-round of Paul and I from our honeymoon to Disney Word. We were on a carriage ride at Disney through the decorated campground for the holiday season.

 

Part of the only thing I collect -- Snowbabies.

 

One of our sweet kittens, Phoebe, hiding in the deco mesh. She even took a nap while I was decorating and she hide from Scout, our cocker spaniel. 

The mantle with the remaining snowbabies on the mantle. Also, this is before the adhesive hooks holding the garland caused it to look less than perfect.

This is probably my newest piece of Christmas décor. A vintage Santa cookie jar that I bought at our monthly antique auction and it came from a personal collection of a well-known Kosciusko resident.

 

We do have a bathroom Christmas tree up on a shelf and its gold and covered in N.O. Saints ornaments.

 

 

 

And here's what you missing in Leslie's world...

1. We survived Paul's 25th football season (My 10th, well actually 9 1/2) and we won our last two games for a total of three wins on the season (one more than last year). We've had lots of ups and downs -- disciplinary problems and lots of injuries. That makes it hard in 1A football with 32 players but I'm proud of the way they continued to play hard and work as a team. There are also lots of players that aren't on the field that help make each Friday night an reality from our stat keepers to the parents to the wives and teachers on duty and of course, the cheerleaders and band. What really, really stinks is that I don't have many photos from the season since I am no longer working at the newspaper.

2. Over Thanksgiving Break, we took a trip to Branson. We had a really relaxing and chilly time. We did a lot of Christmas shopping and saw The Texas Tenors (They were on a season of America's Got Talent) and a capella group -- The Cat's Pajamas. We also did a little antique shopping and I got some metal cookie cutters just like my grandma's. Also, I have a great love of vintage Christmas decorations.

3. I am starting to assemble and make my own jewelry! I've been doing it for years for gifts and such and while, I'm still doing that this year I've toyed with the idea of selling some too. Maybe an Esty store or something. I love these!