Vanilla - Almond Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Today was a nice day with my daughter and mother-in-law as they came over and decorated Christmas cookies.  Frosted cookies are a favorite of ours.  Every year I go searching for the perfect recipe and  I'm  excited to say  I finally found the recipes I will use for cut out cookies and royal icing for now on.  I found the recipe on the blog Bake at 350.  The dough is easy to roll out and it doesn't have to be chilled first.  The icing uses meringue powder instead of egg whites (purchased at Michael's Craft Store), it's easy to work with and sets up nicely on the cookie. Most importantly they taste good with a touch of almond flavoring.  You'll have to check out the amazing blog, Bake at 350,  it's written by Bridget.  She has great step by step instructions about decorating and baking cookies.  Also here is a video showing Bridget making the cookie dough, video on University of Cookie.

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar
 2 sticks (salted) butter, cold & cut into chunks
 1 egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.

Roll on a floured surface to about 1/4" to 3/8" thick, and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.


Royal Icing
(This will cover 2-3 dozen)

4 TBSP meringue powder
1/2 c. water
1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp light corn syrup
few drops almond extract

Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy.


Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. (Do NOT skip the sifting!)


Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. ( The corn syrup helps keep the icing shiny.)

Increase speed to med-high/high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.

Do not overbeat.

Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing if not using right away or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

This "stiff" icing is perfect for outlining and detail decorating. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of stiff syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding.


I didn't use piping decorating bags but instead I used squeeze bottles (purchased at Michael's craft Store) to decorate.  If using squeeze bottles don't use the "stiff" icing but thin out a little but not too thin.  With the squeeze bottles you can't do the fine detailed work but  otherwise work GREAT! 

Pecan Tartlets

My Mom gave me this recipe. They are like eating a miniature pecan pie.  These are my husband favorite Christmas cookie. 

INGREDIENTS:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter (melted)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. To Make Crust: In a medium mixing bowl blend softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter or margarine until thoroughly combined. Add flour and mix well. Place in refrigerator to chill. (1 hour is enough)

3. In a medium mixing bowl combine brown sugar and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Add egg and vanilla, pinch of salt and blend well. Stir in pecans.

4. Shape dough into 24-1 inch balls (sometimes I only get 22). Press into bottom and up sides of ungreased nonstick miniature muffin tins. Pour in filling, distributing evenly between all cups. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Hint: You should use nonstick miniature muffin pans for these to come out perfect.

I have this neat tool that I got from Pampered Chef.  Makes this step a lot easier but you can do this by hand because they are worth the effort.

Fill cups with filling almost to the top.  Not too much so they don't overflow when baked.

Using a  non-stick pan they will pop right out. 

Pecan Crescent Cookies

I've been making these cookies as long as I can remember or should I say my Mom has. They are my Dad's and husband's favorite. They have many names, Mexican wedding cookies, Swedish tea cookies and as I like to call them pecan crescent cookies because of the way I shape these cookies. They are buttery, nutty, not too sweet and a perfect cookie for the holiday.

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 c. butter softened

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. all-purpose flour

1 c. finely chopped pecans

pinch of salt

Powdered sugar


Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. Add flour, pecans, and salt. Mix until dough holds together. Shape into crescents. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. Cool slightly; roll in powdered sugar. Cool completely; roll again in powdered sugar. Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.