best sugar cookies!

So, I have always wanted to make some homemade sugar cookies with icing like you see in bakeries. You know... the hard kind that looks glazed. We get them at bean traders and they melt in your mouth. So, today after seeing the cute ones they had for mardi gras... I decided to give it a shot Valentine style! I started by looking up a homemade sugar cookie recipe that rolled well. I went with a variety of a few that I saw...

I mixed the butter and sugar first until it was smooth and then added in the rest. I used my standing mixer to make sure it was mixed well. After making the dough, you need to let it sit in the fridge for a good hour. Here is the recipe:

• 1.5 cups of butter
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
2. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

For the icing, I googled "cookie frosting that hardens"- haha. This is what I chose. But I totally altered it because it wasn't looking right. Here is what it said to use:

• 2 cups powdered sugar (sifted) *to do this, I just put it in the mixer and turned it on for a few minutes before I added anything.
• 1 tb of milk- I used 2%
• 1 tb corn syrup (I used light kyro syrup)
• 1/2 tsp almond extract (*I did NOT use this)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

So... This looked lumpy and nothing like icing... I added a little more milk, a little more kyro syrup and a little more vanilla- welllll, I actually spilled the vanilla in it, so there was a lot more vanilla. Therefore I added more powdered sugar and some more milk and several more drops of kyro syrup. Then I added my coloring.

As you can tell, my recipe was started with the one above, but I just played with it and kept tasting until I liked it.

Then I used a paint brush to paint the icing on. If you want to add sprinkles to it immediately as it dried QUICKLY~

I can't wait to make some for St. Patrick's day!

I hope you enjoy my yummy cookies!!! Please share if you make them/ change them/ etc. I am always looking for something new!

xoxo

~let go laughing!