The Humble Sugar Cookie
Today we are going to start with the humble Sugar Cookie. This week I was invited to a rather large garden-type party. I signed myself up to bring some cookies and decided I would pull out my pastry bag and make some flower cookies to celebrate the arrival of spring. Now what recipe to use? I was hunting through my old cook books when I decided to twitter @allrecipes. To my surprise they quickly answered and provided a link to their number one rated sugar cookie. When I clicked on the link the first thing that popped out at me is the recipe had a whopping 4364 reviews! It has been a long while since I had visited a recipe sharing website like Allrecipes.com, and oh have things changed! Allrecipes.com is easy to navigate, has a recipe for everything imaginable and has cool features like your own online recipe box. With so many reviews, you get a really good idea if the recipe is going to work for you or not.
The recipe for “The Best Roll Sugar Cookies” did not disappoint. It was easy to whip up without much fuss in my old Kitchen Aid mixer. It was Home Economics 101 with creaming the butter and sugar, adding the eggs and vanilla, then adding in the flour, salt and baking powder. Simple as pie! Well actually much simpler than pie. I am old school so I used real butter as I do in all my recipes, just call me Paula Dean. I then formed the dough into two disk shapes. This is an old trick I learned from watching Martha Stewart. If you form cookie dough into disk shapes, it chills far faster then if the dough is in a ball and is ready to roll out when you take it out from the fridge. I refrigerated the dough for just over an hour. It rolled out easily and and I cut out my shapes. The dough was extremely easy to work with and would be a good recipe to make with a child. The cookies were done to perfection in my convection oven in the 8 minutes indicated in the recipe.
Now for the decorating. Since I was on a roll with allrecipes.com, I clicked on Sugar Cookie Icing that was linked in the sidebar on the page with the cookie recipe. The thing I liked about the recipe was that it didn’t contain raw egg white like most royal icing recipes so I decided to give it a whirl. Again I was not disappointed. The simple recipe worked for the most part just as promised. I did add a teaspoon extra of milk because I wanted the recipe just a little thinner for using in my pastry bag. The addition of corn syrup ensured the frosting stayed nice and shiny and while it dried hard it wasn’t crack your tooth hard like Royal Icing can often be. I had to make three recipes to cover all the cookies I had made. Because the majority of the cookies were going to be eaten by adults I just outlined most of the cookies in the frosting to keep the cookie from tasting too sweet. I did completely fill in a few cookies just so the platter would look pretty. For the frosting I used Wilton number 6 tip to both outline the cookies and fill the petals in on the cookie.
At the end of the day I give these Allrecipes.com recipes a 5 pies up on a scale of 1 to 5! Quick, easy, tasty, and not to mention they were the hit of the party. Exactly the kind of recipe I love.
Wooo whooooo Congrats to the PIE!!!!!!
Pie,
Way to go, are you sharing a plate of them with all of us at IW?? They look good and so easy to make with the directions you gave us. If we can’t have the cookies, can we have the wine that is in your frig?? Just kidding!! 🙂
Wiping tears from my eyes over the news of your new venture/foray into the food arena! (Can’t tell if it’s with joy or laughter, but both are good! 😉
And may I just add, LOVELY job! 😉
Welcome Patty Pie! I am looking forward to this. The sugar cookies sound delicious. I will have to give up my bag of Betty Crocker mix next time I want to whip some up. Especially, w/the 5 Pie rating and being the hit of the party.
/
When it comes to home cookin’ I feel like I’ve been there, done that, and cleaned the dishes up afterwards. But now is the time for all good funks to come to and end.
/
I know you are not alone in feeling like this. I think it is the most common complaint of us cookers. Looking forward to what you have to show us.
That isn’t wine – it’s beer and I moved so it would be in the picture in the fridge just for you all! …lol
I am confessing to staging the fridge pictures so my sister-in-law doesn’t start complaining on some blog that my pictures aren’t real!;-)
just sayin’
Yummy!
Can you come to my house and show me how to bake? Just askin’
Congrats on the new job! 🙂
Pattypie, those cookies look awesome! Thanks for the motivation! Hum, wonder how much tweaking I would need to do to make them gluten-free. I’ll work on that…missing the enjoyment of sugar cookies.
Pie,
I’ll have a beer than. 🙂
I have home cooked for years and still enjoy it. Christmas candies are my special, but am going to try your sugar cookies. They sure make a great picture for spring. Cold here this am again. I want warm temps!!!
Will you come clean my frig too???
Is that Sierra Nevada? My favorite. Save one for me!
.
Do you have one of those SIL’s too? Always up in somebody’s business? Sigh.
.
Lovin the new column and can’t wait to see what else you cook up for us! 🙂
I am gaining weight just looking at these. Oh My!
Sounds like Snickers would make a good guest columnist here on Slice of the pie— doesn’t it Pam?
Anya there’s always a beer at my house with your name on it! 😉
@Pam me too, don’t dare get on the scales today! Those cookies look so good! @Pattypie how soon until you bake a pie? 🙂
Peggy that gluten free can be tricky can’t it? I see some GF cookie recipes on Allrecipes.com
I am confessing to staging the fridge pictures so my sister-in-law doesn’t start complaining on some blog that my pictures aren’t real!;-)
just sayin’
LOL, I guess I am not the only one as interested in the fridge as the cookies! They are beautiful cookies, by the way. The flowers look yummy.
.
Welcome, Patty Pie. It will be great having you around more often.
Any ideas for spicing up our lunches?
LOL Ann – Just so you know that egg near my mixer didn’t just happen to roll into the picture by itself either! LOL
I think in future I am going to use my food shots to send secret messages!
1free2spirit -I see many pie recipes in the future.
As for lunch ideas the only think I can think of off the top of my head is trader joe’s salads 🙂 See the food funk isn’t completely gone! 😉
Thank you pattypie looking forward to the pies (found some gluten-free frozen pie crusts & looking for motivation to make a pie) & thanks for the heads up on the Trader Joe salads especially the Lemon Chicken Salad!!!
Congrats Ms Pie! I am looking forward to your cooking tips. Nice pictures. The cookies look wonderful..I bet they were a big hit.
Congratulations PattyPie! I’m looking forward to seeing more recipes from you.
‘A Slice of the Pie’… a ‘Twist of Kate’….hmmm, PP I think you’ve found your calling!!!! (Darn, that sparkling frig looks unlike any I’ve ever seen!) ;0)
PP, I would love to have snickers and any others contribute to this column. That would be fantastic. Pattypie is in charge and if you would like to contribute or have any ideas for her you can email her at pattypie@imperfectwomen.com.
Who knew our very own pattypie was a domestic diva?! Those cookies look too pretty to eat. I would love to have that container of strawberries I see hiding in her fridge, although I suspect they are long gone. I’m looking forward to Ms. Pie’s next contribution to this column.
Thanks pattypie for the invite to share some good things!! (blushing)
I will share later on, looking forward to some pie!! Also any good fresh fruit drinks???
Thanks pattypie. I checked out Allrecipes.com & found a peanutbutter cookie recipe that I will try. Looks super easy!
Hi PattyPie…long time no see.
Congrats on the new cooking column. I still read regularly at Sage’s site.
I am looking forward to some great recipes from you.
Congrats again!!
Hey Julie!!! So good to see you!!
Those look awsome, Pie! I’m going to try it for sure, I’ve been searching for the perfect sugar cookie recipe for years, with some mixed results.
I could use some tips on getting my fridge that clean too ;0
wow p pie your fridge is really clean
Please note. Fridges on camera are not as they appear in real life.
just sayin’ 😉
I love a simple sugar cookie, especially the soft ones. And can I say that picture is perfect- I thought it was a professional “stolen” photo!
All original pictures. Taken by Pattypie and MrPie. 😉
That’s even my hand in one of the shots. I was going to hire a hand model but Pam said it wasn’t in the budget.
But seriously …These cookies stayed nice and soft. Just don’t roll them out too thin or cook them too long. 😉
Pattypie, congratulations! Can’t wait to try the sugar cookies, which look spectacular!
I also can’t wait to see your recipes! They are much needed in my house as I keep going to the same old same old. Help! Get me out of my cooking rut! 🙂
One thing I was going to say if you all think my fridge looked clean you should have seen my oven – it was in one of the pictures but I think Pam has oven envy and didn’t post it.
just sayin’ 😉
Who boy, I should learn to read ALL the comments before I try decorating with food like PattyPie. I’ve been rolling eggs on my counter for 2 days trying to stage my kitchen like pies cute picture . Now I’m out of eggs and my floor is a sticky mess.
That’s what I get for being a Pie wannbe ;).
Pie if you think that story is sad and feel bad you can make it all up to me by sending a cookie my way.
I just saw this! Congrats to Pie. When are you coming over to make me some?? 😉
Love, CMO3