Recipes By Request

First off, I want to say thank you to all my regulars. I love knowing that people check my blog regularly and are curious what's going on in my world - or atleast my kitchen. As y'all know I've been making quite a few sugar cookies as of late, and I've gotten a few requests for my recipes. I've tried more than a few different sugar cookie recipes, and this one is hands down my favorite. The flavor is good - buttery and sweet, but not too sweet. And it creates a nice firm cookie without being hard or chewy. The recipe can be found on KitchenGifts.com No Fail Sugar Cookies 6 cups flour 3 tsp. baking powder 2 cups butter 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring 1 tsp. salt Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together. Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below) Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies. HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess -- Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies. Royal Icing 3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder 1 lb.(4 cups) confectioners' sugar 6 Tablespoons warm water Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer). Recipe makes 3 cups. In case you aren't familiar with Meringue Powder - it can be found in craft stores such as Michael's in the cake decorating isle. Or you can purchase it from cake decorating supply stores. I always make my royal icing according to the recipe, but when you are using it to decorate cookies you will have to add additional water. I just eyeball it and keep adding until the icing is thinned out enough that when pours from a spoon back into the bowl it smooths out and blends with the rest of the icing without about 5 seconds or so. Usually when it almost seems too thin is when it's just perfect for me. I pipe using a #3 or #4 tip & I start along the outside, outline the border then I fill it in. No need to let it dry before filling it in.