Sugar cookies

Decorated sugar cookies are kind of my specialty. I've been making them for most holidays the past few years. And I admit, I'm more into the decorating than the cookie itself. I usually buy sugar cookie mix to save myself a step in the process. But now that I have my mixer and I've been into baking these past few months, I decided I can't cheat anymore and need to make the cookies from scratch, which means finding a recipe to use.

I went to King Arthur Flour and Martha. I'm sure their recipes are good enough, but I didn't want to use either for some reason. I turned to one of my vintage books, Betty Crocker's 1963 Cooky Book. She has two recipes on p. 18, Ethel's sugar cookies and Mary's sugar cookies. Ethel's used granulated sugar, which I'm used to, and Mary's used confectioner's sugar, which I had never used in a cookie recipe before. I would have gone with Ethel, but the former owner of my book had annotated some of the recipes in this book, noting which recipes she liked, and those she didn't. She gave Mary's cookies a "good" beside the recipe. I'll trust her I guess.

Before I give the recipe, I guess I should note the reason I was asked to make these cookies. One of my co-workers leaves for her maternity leave next week, and her supervisor decided to throw her a baby shower. I of course offered to bake anything, and another co-worker requested the sugar cookies I usually make for the Christmas party. So that's why the cookies are in the shapes of baby carriages, bottles and circles (which I will draw onesies on.) Okay, now here's the recipe (oh, and like my other Betty Crocker book, this book has been reprinted and is available on Amazon)

Mary's Sugar Cookies (from Mary Herman, who apparently worked for Betty Crocker in the 1950s)

1 1/2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter (or margarine), room temp
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Instructions
-cream butter and sugar
-add egg, vanilla and almond extracts, mix well
-mix dry ingredients separately, slowly add to wet mixture

-refrigerate dough at least one hour

-roll dough to about 3/16" thick, cut out desired shapes

-bake on lightly greased or parchment lined cookie sheet, 7-8 minutes, until edges are lightly golden

These cookies are really good. Because of the almond extract they take on a different taste than regular sugar cookies, but the almond isn't overpowering. It provides a good flavor. Now to decorate them.

I use a royal icing that uses confectionery sugar, meringue powder, water, vanilla, and food coloring. It's not an exact recipe, but I guess it'd be 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tsp meringue powder, 1/4 tsp vanilla, as much water as you need adding one tbsp at a time, and food coloring. It's also best to make two batches of each color, one that you will outline the cookie with and the one you will flood with. To outline, the icing should be a little thicker, and the flooding icing should be a little wetter, easier to spread onto the cookie without help from you. I use a toothpick to spread the icing and pop any air bubbles that may occur. Another thing to remember is that the more meringue powder you use, the faster the icing will dry.

-another tip I have, add vanilla to the water. That way you can add it in one step. I once added the vanilla to the sugar and powder...bad idea. The vanilla clumped to the meringue powder and I had to toss it. So now I always mix the water and vanilla to make sure it all mixes smoothly!

I drew the pram wheels first. Always do one layer at a time. Make sure the first color is completely dry before adding the next.

Here they are all done! They went over very well at the shower. One of my co-workers even asked which bakery they came from!