We love giving cookies as gifts, but it can be troublesome! The thought of having to decorate them with pretty icing, then cracking your head on how to pack it before all that icing melts away? Finally, we have a beautiful Sugar Cookie recipe without all the hassle to make & share this Valentine’s. The best part – you can pre-make the dough way ahead, a definite plus for the busy cookie lover.
Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Group A
1 cups salted butter
1 cups sugar
Group B
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Group C
3 cups flour
1.50 tsp baking power
0.25 tsp salt
Group D
Red Food Colouring
Instructions
1
Preheat oven before baking.
2
Cream Group A ( butter and sugar) together until light and fluffy
3
Add Group B (eggs and vanilla)
4
Mix well and scrape the bottom of mixing bowl to make sure properly incorporated.
5
Mix Group C (flour, baking powder, salt) together, and add to wet mixture a bit at a time until completed mixed in and the bowl is clean when you form a ball with the dough.
6
Proportion the dough into 2 parts.
7
Using a clean toothpick pick up some colour and poke into 1 portion of dough. You need to add in 4 more pokes at least 4 pf the red colour as the dough will lighten in colour when baked. (IMPT: Use a new toothpick for each dip to avoid contaminating the colour bottle.)
8
Knead the colour in after you have poked until even and nicely hued.
9
Chill for 1 to 2 hours depending on your fridge.
10
Once chilled take out one dough at a time.
11
Roll and cut dough with cookie cutters.
12
You may cut different shapes with the cutters. (see below for suggestions on different shapes)
13
Once cut, place the cut raw cookies, onto the tray lined with parchment sheet and place back into chiller or fridge to firm up. This should be about 10 to 15 minutes.
14
Take out once cookie seems firm and place immediately into the middle rack of the oven and bake at 170 degree Celsius for 8 to 10 minutes or until edge start to turn brown.
15
Cookies will seem soft when out of the oven, do allow it to cool before you store them
Tips:
16
Use a heart cutter and cut out shapes from the red cookie dough and set aside.
17
Using a round cutter cut shapes of round cookies, making sure round cutter must be slightly bigger than the heart-shaped cutter.
18
Using same heart cutter then cut into the middle of the round cutters to have a hole in the middle the shape of a heart.
19
Here’s the fun part, press in the cut out red hearts into the middle of the non-coloured round cookies.
20
Now you have a dual coloured cookie that brightly coloured yet, without the sugary icing.
21
You may do other variations with this technique as you prefer.
22
When all cookie dough is cut, remember to place them into the chiller to chill and firm up.
- Tags: #christmas, #cookies
