My FAVORITE Frosted Sugar Cookie Recipe

I have to admit that I have a love hate relationship with decorated sugar cookies. I LOVE the way they look and I LOVE to eat them--but I hate all the time they take and the mess in my kitchen when I am done. So if I am going to take the time and effort to make them, they better taste as good as they look. Some people use royal frosting (made with egg whites or meringue powder) to get that amazing professional looking decorated cookie. They are beautiful cookies, but I don't think that frosting tastes good. I wanted to find a recipe that still looked great, but also tasted great! I think this recipe is the best of both worlds! These sugar cookies are so good--and you can still get the pretty glazed look by piping an outline around the cookie with frosting in a pastry bag and then "flooding" or filling in the outline with frosting that you have thinned a little. You can notice in the picture above that I did that with the white and red frosting. I left the pink frosting pretty thick and so they look like the traditional frosted sugar cookie while the others look glazed. The end result was a very messy kitchen--but oh my these cookies were so GOOD and cute:) So while I won't be making these often, I am happy that I have found the perfect recipe for when I am in the mood!

Happy Valentines Day everybody!

Ideas for celebrating Valentines Day with your family here.  

Favorite Sugar Cookies
submitted by Melanie

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~approx 2 dozen cookies.

Powdered Sugar Glaze
Recipe source: cartzine.com

This frosting will harden upon standing, giving cookies a glazed surface.
Ingredients
2½ cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp butter, softened
½ tsp almond extract
Food coloring optional

Directions
In small mixer bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, butter, and extract. Beat at medium speed until smooth, adding additional milk, if necessary, to reach the desired spreading or "flooding" consistency. Color with food coloring, if desired


You can see in the picture that I had the red and white frosting thinned enough for the flooding technique, but the pink was still too thick. They still tasted great--but the pink was too thick to "flood" or fill in the outline, so I ended up spreading it.

Perfect gift for a friend:) Yum!