Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

Had a full day of classes today, but luckily I had no piano lessons (yes, I teach piano too!) so I still had plenty of energy to make some Valentine's Day cookies. I decided to take a lot more photos this time because I felt like my last tutorial was lacking in the photo department. 

This is the recipe that I use for all of the rolled sugar cookies at the bake shoppe. It's a pretty standard sugar cookie recipe with adaptations here and there. One of the most surprising ingredients is the almond extract which gives it a shortbread-like flavour (in my opinion). This cookie is tender and when combined with my special icing glaze, it is irresistible for any cookie monster out there. 

A few suggestions before we begin: if this is your first time making and icing sugar cookies, make sure that you have plenty of time, patience and energy! The dough itself takes a while to prep as it needs to be refrigerated and decorating sugar cookies for the first (or even the tenth) time can turn into a frustrating disaster. You have been warned, but don't give up, it will get better! 

The Ingredients (makes around 50 medium sized cookies):

·         2 cups butter, softened (the whole block)

·         3 cups white sugar

·         4 eggs

·         1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·         1/2 tablespoon almond flavored extract

·         6 cups all-purpose flour

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         A pinch of salt (if butter is salted you can omit this)

The Method:

1.     Cream butter and sugar (keep butter at room temperature before use; chop into small chunks; when sugar and butter are properly creamed it should have a pale colour)

2.     Add eggs and flavorings and mix well (try and get rid of any lumps or chunks of butter).

3.     Stir flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to batter and mix well. (when adding the flour do it in small increments to avoid puffs of flour; FOLD in mixture with a wooden spoon rather than stir to avoid toughness of the cookie; at this point the mixture may seem incredibly dry, but keep lightly kneading the dough with your hands; avoid over-handling; after all the flour is incorporated the dough may seem quite sticky, but if the dough looks smooth and the bowl is clean then it’s ready)

4.     Cut the dough in half and individually wrap in plastic wrap.(it is far easier to work with two smaller lumps than one giant one)

5.     CHILL in refrigerator for a minimum of four hours or if you're not planning on using your dough in the next couple of days, FREEZE your dough

      Now for the fun part! Take your dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes so it can soften up. If you froze your dough, you may have to thaw it for a few hours depending on the temperature of the room. Generously flour a clean and sanitized surface and lightly knead one of the balls of dough (feel free to cut the dough into a more manageable size). 

      The dough should still feel cold at this point so that you can get more perfectly cut cookies. Take a rolling pin (I use a marble one) and roll out the dough until it is fairly thin. Although some may enjoy a chunkier cookie, I have found that these cookies do not bake properly if they are not rolled out thinly. You could probably get away with going a little bit thicker than I did, but I personally always get the best baked cookies when they are this thin.

      For cutting out the cookies, I lightly flour the cookie cutter before making my cuts. For these cookies, I used a regular heart shaped cookie cutter, a pair of lips, a mustache and some butterflies to further beautify my heart shaped cookies.

:     Place your cut out sugar cookies on a parchment paper lined sugar cookie sheet. These cookies do not spread, so feel free to put them close together (but not touching) in an oven preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes or when you notice that the edges are turning slightly golden brown. They should like this when they are ready:

Note how there are no bumps on the tops of the cookies. If you spot a lumpy sugar cookie, it wasn't made properly! The back should be a nice light golden brown. Let the cookies cool completely before icing.

The Ingredients:

Okay, I will apologize in advance for the fact that I have no exact measurements, but I have not once measured the ingredients for this icing. 

This is NOT royal icing though it does harden so that you can stack the cookies after they are fully dry (overnight drying required; no shortcuts here!). I came up with this icing when I continually grimaced when I ate royal icing. Although the detailing can be impeccable when a cookie is adorned with royal icing, it just doesn't taste all that nice to me. Plus, I don't like the idea of using raw egg whites in something that will not be cooked. Although there is the alternative of meringue powder, I found it made the taste even worse! If you like the taste of royal icing though, use it because you will get amazing results in the decorating department. 

Icing Sugar

Light Corn Syrup (the dark stuff will tint your icing)

Milk (I like to use 2%)

The Method:

The way I decorate my cookies is I always start with piping the outline of the cookie and then flooding it with a base ice. For the piping icing, I use a lot of icing sugar, a small amount of milk and a squeeze of corn syrup. The best way to control the consistency of your icing is to start with pouring some icing sugar into a bowl, add a dash of milk and mix the mixture. If it's still too thick then you need to add a little bit of milk, but do this very sparingly and slowly as a little bit of milk goes a long way. Once the consistency is smooth and mixed (but still thick) add a squeeze of corn syrup which gives the icing a shiny quality. At this point, your icing should still be able to stick quite easily to the spoon without dripping off. If it is drippy, add some more icing sugar. Many set recipes make a giant amount of icing, but as you can see in the picture below, I make very little at a time so I don't waste.

After the icing is at the preferred consistency, fill a disposable piping bag fitted with a small round tip with your icing. 

Make sure to push all of the icing down to the bottom of the bag to avoid air bubbles. Nothing is worse than piping a glorious creation and then having an air bubble deflate and ruin your design. In this photo, I am using a scraper, but you can just use your fingers or a card if you don't have one.

Pipe on your outline or design. I like to use white for borders (especially the first few times) because white is a very forgiving colour. If you mess up on the outline, you can just use a toothpick to scrape the icing away and try again.

Wait until the outlines are fairly solid before trying to flood the cookie. Usually by the time I am finished outlining all of the cookies, the first cookie is hardened enough for me to start flooding.

To make the base icing, just add a little bit more milk and corn syrup until it is at the proper consistency. I personally find it easier to work with the icing when it's still slightly thick. Spoon a small amount of icing directly on the cookie and move the icing around with a toothpick.

To get the vividly bright colours, I use soft gel and gel food colourings. You can use the food colouring sold in your average grocery store, but you won't get a vibrant colour. 

Eventually...your cookies will look something like this:

When the icing is still wet you could also generously sprinkle on some sanding sugars to give your cookies a sparkly look. Do not press in the sugars and make sure the cookie has time to set before shaking off the excess sprinkles:

After the cookies are fully dry, pipe on some more detailing. In future I will make a separate tutorial solely dedicated to piping techniques. Here are some of the designs that I came up with:

Visit our Facebook page to see some more Valentine's Day cookies! I would also love to see your Valentine's Day creations so feel free to post those as well.

Beautiful Baking Sweeties