Happy Hunger Games

A little sugar never hurt anyone, or so I like to tell myself. The holidays this year were filled with sugar cookies for my family. I finally discovered fool proof methods and recipes that I was able to duplicate and have the same result. This is a first for me. Surprisingly, I have the hardest time with cookies out of any baked good. Mostly, I end up with very flat cookies. Well, I didn't see the part of the recipe that said magic, but apparently, when combining all these ingredients, that's what I get every time!  

This cookie recipe is borrowed from allrecipes:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 

2 cups white sugar 

4 eggs  

1 teaspoon vanilla extract   

5 cups all-purpose flour  

2 teaspoons baking powder  

1 teaspoon salt

Cream together butter and sugar until smooth (I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer) . Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  Once I'm done mixing, I like to take a spatula and pour the dough out onto plastic wrap, wrap it up, and put it in the freezer for a while. The dough must be chilled for at least an hour, or else it becomes unmanageable.

Take it out of the freezer 10-20 minutes before you want to roll it out, and put back what you don't need while rolling out some of it. The great thing is, this dough does not spread like others that I have used, so long as it is chilled. When I roll it out, it's maybe 1/4 in thick, almost where I think the shape of the cookie will be lost in baking. Just before I put them in the oven, I like to sprinkle them with sugar because the dough is almost like a shortbread. I bake them at 375 until the edges are just the slightest golden color.

Some family fun with the sugar cookies! For the icing, I used powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. The consistency was much like Elmer's glue--slightly runny, but controllable. I paint it on with just a normal, very small tip paint brush. The icing will set up in 10 minutes or so, but should sit longer if you are wrapping them up.

A designed set for the Moorer family

A pastel Christmas

Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds ever be in your favor!

xoxo,

alexis