Decorating is not one of my strengths when it comes to baked goods. But I'm trying to get better. I wanted to work on iced sugar cookies, so first I went in search of a good sugar cookie recipe. I tried four: "Celebration Sugar Cookies" from Big Fat Cookies by Elinor Kilvans; "Classic Sugar Cookies" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito; "Traditional Rolled Christmas Sugar Cookies" from Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum; and "Basic Decorative Cookie Dough" from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle.
All four recipes are solid, although the cookies from the Baked cookbook were my least favorite -- at least for decorating purposes -- because the cookies did not hold their shape cleanly during baking; they also did not taste particularly interesting. My favorite recipe among the group was Tish Boyle's. The cut cookies maintained perfectly sharp and clean shapes, and more importantly, this recipe yielded the best-tasting cookies. As her recipe headnote promises, the dough is "easy to work with, holds its shape beautifully, and has a delicate orange-kissed vanilla flavor that goes nicely with just about any icing or filling."
To make the dough you beat softened butter with sugar; add egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and orange zest; and add flour and salt. You chill the dough for at least 30 minutes and up to two days before rolling; I left my dough in the refrigerator overnight. It was fairly easy to handle and I was able roll the dough and re-roll scraps without any problem. I used a fairly large cookie cutter (approximately 4.25-inches square) and got 14 cookies from a batch of dough.
These cookies are so delicious. They are firm, buttery, and have a marvelous orange flavor. The cookbook version of the recipe calls for only one teaspoon of orange zest per batch of dough; by contrast, this online version of the recipe calls for a tablespoon (but is otherwise identical). I added an entire large orange's worth of zest, which was definitely more than a teaspoon -- and I'm glad I used as much as I did.
I decorated the cookies with royal icing made from 1/3 cup of meringue powder, 2/3 cup warm water, two pounds of powdered sugar, and lemon juice. I wasn't making these cookies for any particular occasion, so I went with what I consider an all-purpose "love" decoration in a blue and white color scheme. I have yet to master anything beyond the basics of decorating with royal icing, but I plan to keep on practicing. And I'm definitely going to keep using this cookie recipe.
Recipe: "Basic Decorative Cookie Dough" from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle, recipe available here at Leite's Culinaria.
Previous Post: "Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Ginger Molasses Cookies," February 10, 2013.
All four recipes are solid, although the cookies from the Baked cookbook were my least favorite -- at least for decorating purposes -- because the cookies did not hold their shape cleanly during baking; they also did not taste particularly interesting. My favorite recipe among the group was Tish Boyle's. The cut cookies maintained perfectly sharp and clean shapes, and more importantly, this recipe yielded the best-tasting cookies. As her recipe headnote promises, the dough is "easy to work with, holds its shape beautifully, and has a delicate orange-kissed vanilla flavor that goes nicely with just about any icing or filling."
To make the dough you beat softened butter with sugar; add egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and orange zest; and add flour and salt. You chill the dough for at least 30 minutes and up to two days before rolling; I left my dough in the refrigerator overnight. It was fairly easy to handle and I was able roll the dough and re-roll scraps without any problem. I used a fairly large cookie cutter (approximately 4.25-inches square) and got 14 cookies from a batch of dough.
I decorated the cookies with royal icing made from 1/3 cup of meringue powder, 2/3 cup warm water, two pounds of powdered sugar, and lemon juice. I wasn't making these cookies for any particular occasion, so I went with what I consider an all-purpose "love" decoration in a blue and white color scheme. I have yet to master anything beyond the basics of decorating with royal icing, but I plan to keep on practicing. And I'm definitely going to keep using this cookie recipe.
Recipe: "Basic Decorative Cookie Dough" from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle, recipe available here at Leite's Culinaria.
Previous Post: "Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Ginger Molasses Cookies," February 10, 2013.
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