Today's recipe will give an insight about how to prepare basic sugar cookies and how to decorate it. You don't need any special equipment other than Convection oven and Hand blender. It doesn't require any special skill too. Just go ahead and start your Christmas celebrations!!
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup (Maida)Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Baking Powder - 1/4 tsp
Egg - 1
Vanilla Extract - 1/4 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Procedure:
- Sieve well All purpose flour, Baking powder and salt together. Powder sugar and take 1/2 cup of it. Butter should be at room temperature when you are using it for preparing cookies. Take egg out from fridge 30 minutes before you start off with the procedure.
- Take a bowl. Add butter to it. Beat it till it becomes creamy. After that add powdered sugar. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes so that sugar mixes well with butter.
- Now add an egg to the bowl. Beat for some time till the batter turns fluffy.
- Add vanilla essence to batter. Now add sieved dry ingredients to batter in small instances and start folding in dry ingredients with a help of a spatula.
- Your cookie dough is ready now. Cookie dough will be wet only as of now. Once stored in fridge, dough will get little dry.
- Separate the dough into two parts cover it with a cling wrap and store it in fridge at least for an hour. The cookie dough stays good even for 3 days when stored in fridge.
- Take out the dough from fridge only when you are going to prepare cookies. Even now, if your dough is wet, you can add little all purpose flour to dough and knead it.
- Make a small ball out of the dough and roll it with the help of flour. Cut it in desired shapes using cookie cutter and place it in a greased tray.
- If you don't have cookie cutter, just make a lemon size ball and place it on a greased tray. Press it using a fork. By this way, you can make round shaped cookies easily.
- You can also cut the cookies in the shape you wish by directly cutting the dough with a help of fondant knife. I prepared Christmas shapes by this method only.
- Pre-heat the oven in convection mode at 180 degree Celsius and bake cookies at 180 degree Celsius for about 10 minutes.
- When you are taking out from oven, cookies will be soft only. It will turn crunchier in some time. So after baking, allow cookies to cool off so that it will turn crispier. Now our sugar cookies are ready.
Christmas Decorations:
For Frosting:
Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Cold Milk - 1 tbsp
Vannila essence - 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Procedure:
- keep the vessel in which you are going to prepare frosting and beater hook in fridge for at-least an hour.
- After an hour take out vessel, hook and start whipping the Butter. And when its fluffy add Powdered sugar and vanilla Essence.
- Whisk well.. After some five minutes, add cold milk and start whisking again.
- The frosting should be of free flowing consistency. If the frosting is too thick, add in 2 tbsp of cold milk or more. Adding milk is purely optional. Frosting should be easily spreadable. If the frosting is too thin, it won't stay on cookies. So be careful, while adding milk. Whisk until it becomes creamy.
- You can add edible food colors to Buttercream icing to get desired colors. Use small piping nozzle for making outline designs and use little bigger nozzle for filling the cookies.
- Let the cookies sit in fridge for some time so that icing sets well and serve the cookies after frosting has been completely set. Enjoy your specially decorated Christmas cookies,