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I love to bake. For years I've searched for the best cut out cookie recipe. A friend of my "cookie loving son Brian" gave me this recipe and it is the only one I will use. It is the easiest dough to work with and needs hardly any refrigerating before rolling out. The icing was my idea and makes the job much faster. My family likes a thick soft cookie but not a lot of icing. I hope you enjoy it too.
Cut Out Sugar Cookies
1 cup margarine
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk with 1 teaspoon Baking soda added (do not let this set long - it will foam up)
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ½ cup flour
Cream margarine and sugar, add eggs, buttermilk mixture, and vanilla. Mix well.
Add dry ingredients and mix until well blended.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
Roll to desired thickness (1/4" works well).
Bake on baking mats or lightly greased cookie sheets at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes. Cookies should be light in color with just a slight brown on the underside. Cool on wire rack. Depending upon how much time you have to make cookies you can freeze them at this point and frost them later.
Easy Dipping Icing
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons margarine
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
Vanilla or Almond extract to taste (about ½ teaspoon)
Food Coloring
Use Wilton Icing - Color "White-White" - to make the icing more firm and white when needed - especially if you want to paint your cookies.
In a microwave safe bowl, cook the sugar, milk, and margarine for 2 minutes.
With a wire whisk add the flavoring, color and powdered sugar.
[You will work with this icing warm so use it at once.]
Dip the tops of the cookies in the icing, letting some icing drip off, then place then on wax paper to dry.
I leave them out to dry overnight sometimes. If there is a lot of runoff you can use a small knife to "carve" the drips off. Trust me, it's not as much work as it may sound. Then the cookies can be stored in containers with wax paper between the layers, or frozen until ready to use.
Suggestions:
The icing should stick to the cookies and not all run off, so you can adjust the amount of sugar or milk as needed. It should dry smooth and not have spreading marks. Before you dip a cookie you may have to stir the icing just to break the skin on the top of the icing, allowing it to stick to the cookies. If the icing gets too cool you may have to microwave it a few seconds or add a few drops of milk. After you get used to this icing you will love it and will be able to make a double or triple batch of one color. You may also spread this icing if you need different color accents.
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