As M and I have said previously, I have a freakishly good memory of my childhood, especially when food is involved. What can I say…I have always been a foodie! My family likes to play this game with me and quiz me on what I had to eat at specific times in my life.
I had a cup of Kool-Aid in my cabbage patch mug before my third birthday party. Then, when I was nine my mom took us to Friendly’s and I thought I was too old for the kids menu. I really wanted to order from the adult menu so I could get the slice of their watermelon ice cream cake that came with the meal. My mom had me split a BLT with her and then also split the watermelon roll. For my 10th birthday, we were in Annapolis MD because M was going to a lacrosse camp and I had popcorn shrimp and chocolate chip cheesecake at a nice restaurant near the water…. Need I go on?
When I think of Valentines days, I automatically think of two things. One, chocolate covered potato chips that my dad use to bring home for us…. mmmm. Two, the heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink buttercream frosting and red sprinkles that my mom would make for us for when we got home from school that day.
I love all the variations of sugar cookies that are out there now. We have the soft sugar cookie with buttercream frosting and then the cut-out sugar cookie with the beautiful royal icing. Although my royal icing skills are getting a lot better and I was able to teach my sisters how to decorate cookies with royal icing over Christmas,I have to say that I am a little piped and flooded out. Plus, I made four batches for a baby shower in August. I have been meaning to show you how they turned out:
So I decided to make cookies like my mom use to and boy were they amazing. I actually ate them instead of drinking wine for the whole weekend and worked out extra to eat more. Now that’s a special cookie because I love my wine and don’t really enjoy working out. So with that being said, you need to make these cookies because they are delicious and super easy.
Plus, if you have children they will remember them forever and get a little weepy when thinking of how much they miss their mom across the country. Oh yeah, I went there. Happy Valentine’s Day Ya’ll. Also, I am thinking about everyone back East without power still from the storm (M being one of them 
) . Hope you get your power back to so you can get your house heated up and make these cookies, exactly in that order.
- 2 stick of unsalted butter (1 cup), at room temperature
- 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 1 egg
- 1½ tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2½ cup of flour
- ½ stick of butter (1/4 cup), at room temperature
- 1½ –2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tbsp. milk
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract.
- In a mixer bowl, beat the butter until smooth.
- Add powder sugar and continue to mix. In a separate small bowl, beat egg.
- Mix in beaten egg, both extracts, salt, and flour until combined.
- Make dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap, and then flatten dough to a disc (this will help it to chill faster in the fridge.) Place dough in the fridge until hard.
- Preheat the 375 degrees.
- Once the dough is ready, place on a well floured surface and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
- With cookie cutter, cut into shapes and place them on a greased sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until set, do not allow to brown.
- Place cookies on wire rack to cool.
- This makes around 20-24 cookies.
- Cream butter in bowl of mixer, add in 1 cups of confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla on medium speed. Beat until smooth and creamy, making sure to scrape down the sides to incorporate all of the ingredients. Gradually add in remaining confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is a good spreading consistency. Beat on medium high speed until light and fluffy, making sure not to over beat.
- Add in food coloring to make desired color.
- Spread frosting on cooled cutout cookies with an offset spatula or butter knife.
- Sprinkle with your choice of sprinkles.
Source– Cookie adapted from Annie’s Eats, and frosting is a 2 Sisters 2 Cities’ original
Hi, I tried this recipe and the cookies did turn out well; very tasty. However, they lacked height or depth. I was almost expecting them to raise until i realized that the recipe doesn’t have any baking powder. If you don’t mind can you tell me the reason why the recipe doesn’t have bp and since it was my first time baking sugar cookies, do you find that the lack of bp affects the taste and texture of the cookies? Just an inquiring mind seeking your expertise
Hi! So glad your cookies were tasty! From my experience cut out sugar cookies don’t rise so they maintain their crisp shape from the cookie cutter. Sometimes a flat cookie or one that doesn’t hold it’s shape can be because the dough wasn’t rolled out thick enough, or the dough gets too warm before going in the oven, or there is not enough flour in the cookie dough. I also try to wait for the cookie sheet to cool before putting the next batch on it and sometimes even refrigerating the cut-outs before putting them in the oven so they retain their shape. As for taste without the baking powder/soda I am not sure I can tell the difference. It is a pretty basic cookie so that it pairs well with icing or frosting. I searched for other sugar cookies on google to see if any added baking powder and one of my favorite cookie reference uses baking powder in her basic recipe (the blog- bake at 350 “perfect every time” cut-out cookies.) That might be a recipe to try if you are missing that taste. Hope that answers your questions! Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting our site!
-k
Hi! So glad your cookies were tasty! From my experience cut out sugar cookies don’t rise so they maintain their crisp shape from the cookie cutter. Sometimes a flat cookie or one that doesn’t hold it’s shape can be because the dough wasn’t rolled out thick enough, or the dough gets too warm before going in the oven, or there is not enough flour in the cookie dough. I also try to wait for the cookie sheet to cool before putting the next batch on it and sometimes even refrigerating the cut-outs before putting them in the oven so they retain their shape. As for taste without the baking powder/soda I am not sure I can tell the difference. It is a pretty basic cookie so that it pairs well with icing or frosting. I searched for other sugar cookies on google to see if any added baking powder and one of my favorite cookie reference uses baking powder in her basic recipe (the blog- bake at 350 “perfect every time” cut-out cookies.) That might be a recipe to try if you are missing that taste. Hope that answers your questions! Have a great weekend and thanks for visiting our site!
-k