STARTING
YOUR
SUGAR
COOKIES SNOWFLAKE COOKIES
INGREDIENTS
• 2 cups salted butter,
room temperature
• 2 ½ cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt DIRECTIONS
Yields 3–4 dozen
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to
350 degrees.
2. In a standing mixer, cream
together the butter and sugar
until fluffy. Add the eggs and
vanilla, then stir until com-
bined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine
the flour, baking powder and
salt. While the mixer is on
low, slowly add the flour mix-
ture until just combined. The
dough should be pulling away
from the sides of the mixer.
At this point, wrap the dough
in plastic wrap and let chill for
about 30 minutes.
4. Sprinkle powdered sugar so
the dough doesn’t stick, and
roll out the dough to about
3/8 of an inch. Don’t be afraid
to get a ruler so you can see
what 3/8 of an inch looks like.
5. Using your desired shapes,
cut out the dough. Make
the most out of the rolled
dough by cutting out the
shapes as close to each
other as possible.
6. Place the dough on a
parchment-lined baking
sheet and bake to perfec-
tion for 8–10 minutes, or
until the center of the cook-
ie has risen and is puffy.
7. Let the cookies cool on
the cookie sheet until com-
pletely cool to the touch.
Repeat these steps until all
your cookies are baked.
Note: The dough can be
stored tightly wrapped in
your refrigerator for up to
one week. Once the cookies
are baked, store in an air-
tight container until you are
ready to decorate.
INGREDIENTS
• Snowflake-shaped cookies
• White icing
• Sanding sugar (There is a difference between granulated sugar
and sanding sugar, so do not use them interchangeably.)
1. Cut cookies with snowflake cutters and bake. If several shapes and sizes
are available, cut out a large variety. No two snowflakes are the same,
so challenge yourself to make all your snowflake cookies unique.
Decide what color palette you would like to use. White on white adds a
glamorous element, while bright colors give a more whimsical feel.
2. Outline the edges of the cookie with white icing in a pastry bag. Take
your time piping the edges; there are a lot of small details and crevices to
follow, but after a few times around you will find your rhythm.
3. Flood the empty spaces of your cookies and then let the bases of the cookies dry completely. This is important,
because you will be adding sprinkles on top. If the base is not dry, the sprinkles will stick to the base and you’ll be left
with sprinkle-covered blobs.
4. Once your bases are dry, add the colorful snowflake patterns in white icing. Start by connecting each apex to the
apex on the opposite side. Make three straight lines to connect all six apexes. Add a mixture of dots and small lines;
some snowflakes have a more angular look, while others are softer with dots and rounds.
5. As soon as your snowflake design is complete, immediately sprinkle the cookie with clear sanding sugar.
The clear sugar allows the color of the icing to pop while adding the icy glistening appearance of the sprinkles.
6. Cover the cookies completely with the sprinkles and let the icing set for a few minutes.
7. Pick up each cookie and shake off any extra sprinkles back into the container. Repeat until all your snowflakes are
uniquely decorated.
8. Let them dry completely; at this stage, only the added detail should be wet. The cookies will then be ready to store
in an airtight container.
MITTEN COOKIES
INGREDIENTS
• Mitten-shaped cookies
• White, pink, light blue, and royal blue colored icing
DIRECTIONS
1. Coordinate the colors of the snowflakes to the mittens.
2. Outline the border of the cookie and flood with same color
icing, leaving the bottom wrist section uncovered for now.
When piping, really emphasize the indent between the fingers
and the thumb.
3. Set aside to let the icing set for about 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, practice the weave of the mittens so they
appear to be knitted. Practice on the parchment paper first.
Pipe five vertical waves. Working left to right, immediately
return to your first wave. At the same starting point, create a
second vertical wave in the opposite direction, overlapping at
the center line. This creates your basic weave pattern that will be applied to the mittens.
5. Starting at the indent between the thumb and the mitt, create a vertical line to the base of colored section (do not pipe
the wrist section). Working your way to the left, add vertical lines with small gaps between each one. For beginners, make
larger gaps to give you plenty of space to create your weave pattern. The closer together the lines are, the more precise
your piping needs to be.
6. On the thumb, to the right of the first vertical line, add lines at a 45-degree angle that butt up right to the vertical line.
This adds the realistic visual interest of a true knitted mitten.
7. Immediately start adding in the weave pattern you’ve been practicing.
8. Once all the detail is complete, outline and fill the wrist of the mitten in an alternate color icing; as you can see, I chose
white to keep all the different colored mittens cohesive.
9. Let the cookies dry completely for about eight hours before storing in an airtight container.
(201) FAMILY | HOLIDAY 2018
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