Over the weekend, there was a huge blizzard, so I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. I was inspired by tons of pins like this one, so I decided to give it a go, and bake some cute Valentines Day cookies. I learned some lessons along the way, but also found a sugar cookie recipe that I wanted to save for myself, and share with you all, because it came out so well! The consistency of the dough holds its shape, and it it’s the perfect amount of sweet and chewy! The recipe I am sharing is based off of Sally’s Baking Addiction, but I did make a few tweaks.
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
For icing:
confectioners sugar mixed with food coloring and water
Recipe:
Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat until combined. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients and mix on low until they are well combined. The dough was a bit sticky, but still malleable.
Break the dough into two flattened balls, wrap in plastic wrap, and let refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Pull the dough out of the refrigerator, and let it soften for a bit, about 10-15 minutes.
Dust a work surface with flour, and roll out the dough into about 1/4 thickness, and using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Repeat with both pieces of dough. I place the cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet, so they don’t touch once they expand in the oven.
Bake for about 15 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies – bake for less time if your cookies are smaller). Let cookies cool for about 5 – 10 minutes before decorating.
Decorate the cookies using the confectioners sugar icing. For the icing, I like to use the least amount of water possible mixed with the confectioners sugar, so the icing is a bit thicker. I also only used 1 drop of food coloring for each color, so it has more of a pastel shade to the color. I used this same icing to write the words on the cookies, using a decorating bag, but in hindsight I think I would have used a writing gel, so it doesn’t spread out as much as it dries.
There you go!! My cookies are definitely less than perfect, but they were very fun to make, and Hudson helped with every step except writing the words! It’s such a fun project to do at home for a Valentines Day date, or with your kids!
