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COOKIESFoR a !use

A collection of Sugar Cookie Recipes, Decorating& Packaging Ideas From Your Favorite “Baker Bloggers”

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SUGAR & MERINGUE PRESENTS

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world,

had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then

lay down on our blankets for a nap.”

–quoting Robert Fulghum in 1987 at Middlebury College

July 9, National SugaR COOkie Day

How cool is that? A whole day set aside to observe the food I'm most passionate about baking!

No one seems to know how National Sugar Cookie Day got started or why it's celebrated on July 9th every year, but why waste an opportunity to showcase this most versatile and delicious of cookies?

Since I'm a "Sugar Cookie" blogger - I've tried, over the past couple of years to come up with some clever ways to celebrate this happy day but all I could come up with was a Flickr® group and a little decorating contest on my blog, along with a call for other bloggers to recognize the holiday on their blog.

This year – I wanted to do something a little more fun, interesting and meaningful. I decided to call on some of my favorite, most talented baking friends and bloggers and ask them to send me their best sugar cookie recipes, decorating ideas, packaging ideas and supply sources. I've compiled all of their beautiful work into this little book.

The cause ?

To make National Sugar Cookie Day an even happier holiday for everyone – I've added donation buttons to several pages. Clicking these buttons will allow you to donate to "The Great American Bake Sale" (Share Our Strength) a national organization that

"works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry." This book is free but if you're enjoying the ideas and recipes it offers I hope you'll do what you can to make sure needy kids get some healthy food (and maybe even a few sugar cookies!).

Thanks & enjoy!!

Emily

In celebration of NATIONAL SUGAR COOKIE DAY, 2010

Making Perfect Rolled Sugar CookiesTop Ten Secrets from The Constant Baker 6

Rolled Sugar CookiesSugar and Meringue's Favorite Recipe 9

How To Flood Cookies Using Royal IcingTop Ten Tips from Sweetopia 10

Easy Button cut-outsfrom Sugar and Meringue 12

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Sugar Cookies 13

Science CookiesFrom Not No Humble Pie 14

Obi Wan & Anakin Lego CookiesFrom Sugar and Meringue 16

How To Paint Cookies From Bake it Pretty 18

ARtwork by cakespy on pages 4, 7 and back cover!

6MAKING

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“Rolling out sugar cookie dough can be tricky business if you don’t do it frequently. The following are some tips for you to keep in mind to make your project perfect!" – The Constant Baker

1 Dough that is too cold will crack and be difficult to roll. Be sure your dough yields to the touch but is not squishy and soft.

2 It’s best to roll one small piece of chilled dough at a time. It’s easier to handle and you can keep the balance of the dough refrigerated.

3 When rolling out your cookies, use a lightly floured silicon baking mat. The cutter isn’t sharp enough to cut it like a knife will, and you won’t add much flour to your dough which can make it “tough”.

4 If you are cutting dough with a cutter that has fine detail, roll the dough on parchment paper that you can slide directly on your cookie sheet. You can carefully remove the scraps and your cookies will not need to be transferred thus avoiding mangling your cut cookie.

5 If your design has an opening in the center, follow the instructions on line 4.

6 When rolling your dough, be sure to give it a quarter turn to ensure an even thickness.

7 If the dough becomes too soft while rolling, slide your rolled out dough onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate it for 5-10 minutes.

8 To prevent dough from sticking to the cutter, dip it in a shallow bowl filled with flour. Tap to remove excess flour.

9 Place dough scraps on a piece of plastic wrap and squeeze them together gently. Chill for 5-10 minutes. No need to smooth the dough; your rolling pin will do the job for you.

10 The baking time of rolled cookies varies depending on their size. Be sure to group cookies of similar sizes on your pans before baking.6

Artwork Courtesy of Cakespy

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Candy Button Molds, Bake it Pretty

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ROLLED SUGAR COOKIES

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened2/3 cup shortening1 1/2 cups sugar2 eggs2 tablespoons milk2 teaspoons vanilla4 cups flour3 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream butter, shortening and sugar until "fluffy".

Add eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix well.

Add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until well mixed.

Chill (for at least 2 hours).

Roll dough to 1/4" thickness and cut with desired shape cookie cutter.

Bake at 375º for 6 - 8 minutes or until very lightly browned.

from Sugar & Meringue

Decorating Techniques using Royal Icing shown on pages 10 & 11

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6oz. (3/4 cup) warm water5 tablespoons meringue powder1 teaspoon cream of tartar1 kilogram (2 1/4 pounds) powdered icing sugar

ROYAL ICING

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

1 Use a good icing recipe. This is one Sweetopia likes from Antonia 74

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sweetopia.net

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2 One of the most important things I’ve learned about cookie decorating is that if your icing isn’t at the correct consistency or thickness, the experience can be very frustrating. The trick I use to make sure my icing is just right is called the “10 second rule”. Drag a butter knife through the surface of your royal icing and count to 10. If the icing surface becomes smooth in anywhere between 5-10 seconds, then your icing is ready to use. If it takes longer than approximately 10 seconds, the icing is too thick. Slowly add more water. If your icing surface smoothes over in less than 5-10 seconds, it is too runny. Mix your icing longer or slowly add more sifted icing sugar to thicken.

3 For tip sizes, my favorite tip is #2; it’s great for outlining and filling in. For larger cookies use tip #3 or #4 and for smaller cookies use tip #1.

4 Seal the top end of your piping bag closed with an elastic band for less mess.

5 Practice piping on your work surface or parchment paper before you begin your cookies, so that your hand gets the feel of it. I usually find I need a few minutes of playing around before my piping improves. Decorate your least favorite cookies or extra cookies first; that way if you make a mistake it won’t matter as much!

6 When you’re outlining the cookie, about a centimeter in begin lifting the piping bag away from the cookie, so that the icing just falls onto the surface. You’ll be able to control your piping easier that way.

7 If your hand is shaky, rest your arm on the edge of your work surface while decorating.

8 After you’ve finished applying the icing to the cookie, shake it gently to help settle the bumps.

9 If you notice any small air bubbles, pop them with a toothpick or pin right away. If you don’t, the air bubble usually pops on it’s own and leaves a hole in your icing.

10 Let your cookies dry for at least 24 hours before you package them. They won’t get stale as the icing acts as a sealant for freshness.

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EASY BUTTON CUT-OUTS1. Add food coloring to rolled sugar cookie dough

2. Roll and cut with a circle cutter (1 3/4" - 2" diameter)

3. Poke holes with a toothpick (make them a little bigger than you'd think they should be)

4. Use a smaller circle cutter to mark an inner circle

5. Bake (as directed by recipe)

6. Use bakers twine to sew cookies to card stock printed to look like vintage button cards.

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Vintage Button Card (PDF)

Fun Ways to Present Your Sugar Cookies:

Put them on a pretty vintage plate - you can usually find them at garage sales, flea markets and the like for a couple of dollars. When giving cookies as a gift the plate then becomes a part of the gift - an eco-friendly option!

cupcake liners, tucked inside a gift box.

cellophane bags tied with a bow and gift tag for a nice little gift or favor

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OLD-FASHIONED SOUR CREAM SUGAR COOKIES

1/4 cup shortening1/4 cup butter1 cup sugar1 egg1 teaspoon vanilla

2 2/3 cups flour1 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon soda1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 cup sour cream

Heat oven to 425º. Mix shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla. Blend dry ingredients,

add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream. Divide dough; roll out to 1/4"

thick on well-floured pastry cloth. Cut with 2" cutter: place on greased cookie sheet.

Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 8 – 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

from Sugar & Meringue (shown on cover)

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SCIEN

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You will need:2 dozen square sugar cookies, fully cooled

pink food coloring

blue food coloring

2 piping bags fitted with small round tips (use an Ateco #2 or #3)

Donate * Donate * Donate * Donate *

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Directions:Tint 1/3 of a cup of the icing pink to make the markers and the remaining 1 and 2/3 cups with royal blue and pink to create a background that will vaguely simulate what the gel looks like under ultraviolet light.

Using your purple icing, pipe a square outline on each of the cookies and allow it to set (Giv-en the consistency of your icing should take about 10 minutes, probably longer). Then, thin the remaining purple icing with a little bit of water and flood each of the squares. Before the purple icing has set, use the pink icing to pipe in the little lines to create the markers.

That's it!

You've got Gel Electrophoresis Cookies! Now, the markers on my cookies are completely ran-dom DNA gibberish of course. I'd love to do these and replicate actual microbiology gels.

Salmonella cookie anyone? Yum!

More Science Cookiesat notsohumblepie.blogspot.com!

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OBI W

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You will need:Lego mini-figure cookie cutter

Several Pastry Bags

Several small writing tips & couplers

Frosting coloring: Ivory, Black, Peach, Copper, Brown & Royal Blue

A new, very small/fine artist's liner paint brush

Royal Icing (see recipe on page 10)

LOTS OF TIME!

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Begin by outlining Obi Wan's vest with royal icing. Then flood inside the ouline with thinned icing. Follow the same procedure to outline and flood Obi Wan's pants, sleeve and head.

NOW STOP!!! At this point you need to let the icing dry completely before going on to the next step so that the colors don't bleed. You may want to let them dry overnight

Outline and flood belt with brown. Allow to dry. Then use a #1 tip to pipe on the black de-tails and a #2 tip to pipe the eyes.

Dab a tiny bit of royal blue coloring on some waxed paper and then, with your paint brush, paint the eyes

Pipe on hair and eye-brows. Outline then flood beard and mustache. When beard and mus-tache are dry, use paint brush to paint on the black lines. Use ivory col-oring to paint details on the shirt/vest.

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From Bake it PrettyHOW TO PAINT COOKIES

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Start by baking up a nice batch of sugar cookies.

After the cookies have cooled down you can draw an outline in white royal icing, then “flood” the middle to make them nice and white.

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bakeitpretty.com

Now you must wait for the cookies to dry overnight so you have a smooth and durable surface to paint on. Don’t worry about leaving them out, they shouldn’t get dry, (mine were fine.)

Now for the fun part! Use gel food coloring and water to paint your cookies. It’s very similar to using watercolor paints, and a little of the gel color will go a long way. We used small plates as “pallets” and I bought a fresh pack of assort-ed paintbrushes for this project.

You can use food coloring pens instead of the paint, They work beautifully. The pens are great for doing small details.

You can even get fancy and mix a little dab of luster dust into the gel color for a super-shimmery effect. The photos really can’t capture how iridescent the luster dust is, it’s just amazing.

Let your cookies dry completely (shouldn’t take more than a few hours,) and you are ready to enjoy your edible works of art. Although, after all of that effort, it might hard to actually bite into them. But you’ll get over it!

Notes:

You don’t need a huge assort-ment of gel colors, put those kindergarten skills to work and mix your own custom colors!

I recommend buying new brushes. Old ones might have paint residue and you don’t want that in your cookies.

This project is fun, but a lot of work. Plan ahead and start the cookies in advance. Bake them one day, flood the next day, and paint them later.

Using dark gel color on the cookies will temporarily stain your teeth/lips when you bite into them! Keep that in mind if you are going to serve these at a fancy party. Your guests could be irritated.

Fancy isn’t always better. Simple dots, stripes, etc. will look gorgeous. You don’t have to be an artist to have fun painting cookies.

Did I mention how fun this was? It was awesome. You should try it.

19bakeitpretty.com

THank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONTRIBUTORS:Bake it Pretty

Cake Spy

The Constant Baker

Not So Humble Pie

Sweetopia

In celebration of NATIONAL SUGAR COOKIE DAY, 2010

Artwork Courtesy of Cakespy