Sugar Cookies Made Easier

All our little reindeer lined up in a row,

ready to go to a party!

I am no expert at royal frosting sugar cookies,

but to my friends - I am pretty good.

Don't ask me to make them for money -

I am not that good, but I have fun with them

and my daughter and her kids love to come

and make them with me.  My daughter in law

at Me Oh My Couture first taught me how

to create royal frosting cookies.  

My sister Joni, my oldest daughter and I went to

Cookie Con a few years ago, and I learned a lot

there, but forgot a lot too!

So although I am no expert, I wanted to share a tip

that made my cookie making a lot easier this year as

I made cookies for four different parties in one

week.

(Printed on icing sheets with a Canon Edible printer -

only about $160 and so so much fun!

I even printed a four pictures of a friend for

his surprise birthday party!  You can print

anything you can create.

Most recipes have you chill your dough for at least an

hour.  I took a cookie making class from The Bakeaholic

locally and she shared a tip from Haniela.com - to glue

two painters sticks together as your guide for

rolling out the dough.  This makes a really nice thick

cookie - which is the kind I want to bite into.

After a batch or two, I decided to take the whole

batch of dough and roll it out to the proper thickness

and then wrap it and chill it!  Wow, what a difference that

made.  I no longer had to wait for the dough to come back

to a room temperature to roll it out.

I know some recipes don't call for chilling the dough

but it does help it keep its shape as it bakes.

After rolling it out, I wrapped it in plastic so that

it could have a little rest in the fridge - about

an hour.

I was making a lot of cookies, so I wrapped and chilled

three batches.

After unwrapping it and placing it on parchment paper,

it took just a few minutes before I could cut the cookies out.

I love thick, moist sugar cookies.

The cookies were then popped into the freezer

for about 12 minutes, until you can't leave a

finger print on them and then into the oven at 375 for

about 8 minutes - just until they look dry on the top!

No brown cookies for me!!

Haniela.com has a lot of cookie tutorials that 

helped me refresh my memory if you want to try

royal frosting cookies.  

I told my daughter one of the tips and she said, 

"Mom, we learned that at Cookie Con!"  I

replied that I forgot a lot of what we learned!!

The videos were a great reminder.  I also use

her recipe for the sugar cookies, which The Bakeaholic

also gave us.  Amy from the Bakeholic recommended

flavoring the dough with 1 T. Princess Cake and Cookie

Emulsion which you can find at Hobby Lobby and most

stores with cake supplies.  I love its flavor and then I

flavor my frosting with Almond flavoring.  The two go

together well.

(Click here for this adorable Angel Wing Cookie Cutter.)

Amy also suggested Satin Ice fondant.

I had always made mine and have a recipe

on the blog for a marshmallow one, but I

tried this and it stores for an amazingly long

time and is so convenient that I keep some on hand.

Rolled fondant that is impressed with a print and

then glued on with a little frosting makes a very

impressive and easy cookie for those who want to

give cookies a try!

I hope this encourages some of you to try making

these fancy cookies!  Haniela will almost hold your

hand as your enter this world of cookie making!

But be careful - your friends will want cookies

for everything - and worst of all -

NO ONE WANTS TO EAT THEM

BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO PRETTY!

I just told them they would be stale if they

just took them home and sat them on the

counter!