Sunday, March 4, 2012

Picture Perfect (and oh-so soft and delicious) Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Please forgive the delayed posting of this recipe, I very wrongfully assumed(yeah, yeah, we all know the saying...) life would slow down after Christmas and I'd be able to catch up my blog with all the great recipes I've been dying to share...but I'm here now, and I'm updating, so enjoy!! :)
A few great friends and myself wanted to get together and do something "festive" at Christmas time, so we decided on baking and decorating sugar cookie cutouts! Abbey and Katie offered to provide the dough, claiming it was perfect for cutouts...boy, were they right!! It was beautiful, it rolled out nicely, was not sticky, didn't tear easily, and baked to perfection in 10 minutes exactly. Abbey was kind enough to share the recipe from her friend over at "Food, Friends, and Fun!" http://foodfriendsandfun.blogspot.com/2008/07/sugar-cookies.html and Beth was kind enough to let us invade her kitchen(and spread the powdered sugar love! Haha!) I provided the Fluffy Buttercream recipe(shared below) that paired with cookie decorating perfectly!(Also great for anything else that needs frosting, but that's for another post!) These recipes are not just for Christmas! Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, Spring, Easter, Fall, Halloween, all great excuses...err-opportunities, to make some awesome cutouts! Enjoy!
Perfect Sugar Cookie Cutouts

1 lb.(4 sticks) Margarine
2 Cups Sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
6 Cups Sifted Flour 

*Make sure you sift first, that way they don't get hard during rolling and re-rolling
Cream margarine and sugar. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla. Add baking soda to flour and then add 1 cup at a time to the sugar and margarine mixture. Wrap dough in waxed paper (I separate into 2 halves), then refrigerate for at least an hour (I do overnight). Roll out on floured surface, cut into shapes.

Bake at 350 for 10 minutes- exactly. Let cool completely on cookie sheet! Transfer when cooled and frost and decorate with buttercream frosting(recipe to follow) 

Enjoy! Seriously, these are the easiest to make, and our family and anyone we have made them for just love them. They turn out to be a softer cookie, so sometimes they break when you frost them, but it is worth it!
This makes about 6 dozen or more, depending on the size of your cutter. I have halved this recipe before, and used 2 eggs (everything else divides evenly). Cute and easy!

Fluffy buttercream:

*Roughly....* (I say this because sometimes my TBSP's are heaping and not just a true TBSP but close)
4 TBSP butter(we used salted)
4 TBSP Crisco
1tsp vanilla
2-3 TBSP Milk
Powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want(Probably 3-4 cups?)

In a mixer, cream butter, crisco, vanilla. Add milk, then slowly add powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency.
The Betty Crocker Momsters, sporting our awesome new, coordinating aprons, made with love by Katie!