Cookie Craft

Category: Cookies > Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies

If you are very interested in learning how to make fancy sugar cookies, the following book is a pretty good one. It covers all your basics and has a ton of pretty pictures to give you lots of ideas for your own cookies.



Cookie Craft by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer

If you like the book, there is also a special Christmas edition. I don't own this one so I don't have much to comment about on it.

Autumn / Halloween Sugar Cookies

Category: Cookies > Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies

Fall is coming, fall is coming - my favorite season of all! So... I decided to make some Autumn and Halloween theme sugar cookies to celebrate. The craft stores has just put out all their Halloween/Fall cooking stuff so if you are interested now is the time to pick the cute stuff up before it's all gone.

I ended up picking up some cute cookie cutters! I couldn't help myself.

Here are my cookies after I baked them but before they have been decorated:



Here are my cookies after I have glazed them. Glazing cookies is really simple and they look good just like this. If you don't want to go through all the trouble of doing the detail work, something simple like this is still really eye popping.



And here are my cookies after I put the details on them with royal icing:







Glaze Recipe:

• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  
• 1 tbsp. Light Corn Syrup
  
• 1 tbsp. Water
  
• Few drops Flavoring
  

Mix everything up in a small bowl with a spoon. Taste your icing and add more flavoring if you want. I never add more than 1/8 tsp. of my flavoring. Your glaze should be thick so you can control it when you put it on your cookie. If your glaze is running on your cookie, it is too thin. If you let the glaze sit for a little bit, it will thicken up.

Add food coloring to the glaze for different colors.

To apply glaze to a cookie, take a spatula and place a little bit of glaze on the middle of the cookie. Use the spatula to spread the glaze around cookie. Add more glaze to the cookie as needed. Glaze will dry with a smooth shiny look in a few hours.

Royal Icing Recipe:

• 2 cups Powdered Sugar
  
• 1-1/2 tbsp. Meringue Powder
  
• 3 tbsp. Water
  
• 1/2 tsp. Flavoring
  
  

Make sure your mixing bowl and beaters are oil free. Place everything in your mixing bowl and beat together for 7 to 10 minutes until thick and fluffy.

You should mix in about 1 tsp. of piping gel to help the royal icing flow when you are using it for details on cookies. Add food coloring as desired for different colors.

Royal icing starts to dry out quickly so your icing should always be covered in an air tight container. Don't let it sit out.

Cookies with royal icing should be allowed to dry overnight.

Spookay Bouquet

Category: Rolled Cookies > Sugar Cookies > Cookie Bouquets

A while back I signed up for a cookie bouquet making class. Autumn is my favorite season so I really wanted to do a bouquet with a Halloween theme. My brother dubbed my idea the "Spookay Bouquet". Isn't that cute? So I stuck with it.

The Spookay Bouquet:



This is the bouquet my mother made.

Flower Bouquet:


We used crumbed up chocolate cake for dirt and put little gummy worms in it.

Flower Bouquet's "Dirt":


Theses are other bouquets that were made by other people in the class.

Floral Bouquet:


Ghost/Halloween:




Shoes:


We decorated the cookies with a glaze, fondant, and royal icing.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

• 1 cup Butter; softened
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 1 tsp. Vanilla (or flavoring of choice)
  
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
  
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
  
• 3 cups Flour
  

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add flour slowly mixing well. Blend the last of the flour by hand.

You don't need to chill the dough. When ready, roll out dough 1/4" thick and cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters. A trick is to roll out your dough between two pieces of parchment paper. It keeps things cleaner. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookie cut outs on parchment lined cookie sheets. If making a cookie bouquet, place cookies upside down on the cookie sheet. Press a stick, like a skewer, into the cookie. Make sure you place the stick high enough to cover about 3/4 of the cookie. Cover stick with a little bit of cookie dough, pressing the cookie and the little piece of cookie dough firmly together. Place cookie sheet in freezer for about 5 minutes. Flip cookies over so they are right side up. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until done. Let chill on wire rack.

Once cookies are cool, you can decorate as desired.

Baking Tips:

• If you decide to make a cookie bouquet after you baked the cookies, you can add sticks to the cookies by using royal icing to "glue" the stick to the cookies.