I have found my new favorite sugar cookie. You know those grocery store, Lofthouse style cookies? The big, thick ones with lots of frosting and usually sprinkles. Those are the ones. I recently found a recipe for them that I think is great. I actually don’t remember the last time I ever ate one of those grocery store cookies—25 years ago, maybe? But who doesn’t love a good sugar cookie? And I particularly like them soft, not crunchy.
I recently hosted a baby shower for a neighbor and got it in my head while trying to think of things to make for it, that I wanted to make cute, little button sugar cookies, but soft and thick. That was when I found this recipe and made them for the first time. That was about two weeks ago and I’ve now made the cookies three times.
Cute, huh? While I was frosting them, I started with the pink ones. Kevin came in the room and I asked him if he knew what they were supposed to be. Yeah, you’ll probably guess what he said.
If you guessed that he said pig noses, you’d be right. And then from then on, I even had a hard time seeing the cute “buttons”. Oh well, they looked cute on the plate and for the shower, all the pink, yellow and blue pig noses. (eyeroll, sigh)
Then, Taylor’s birthday was last week and he had some friends over for a zombie party. Suppose I must brag about one of my creations again (though I’ve already done so on Facebook). Just want to keep it for remembrance and posterity, you know. ;) Taylor wanted a zombie pinata. Yeah. You try to find one. I looked and couldn’t even find anything Halloween related—no ghosts, pumpkins, nothing. So—look at this—I drew one and put it on a different pinata that I bought.
Free hand drew that guy from looking at the smaller picture. Taylor didn’t want his brain sticking out. I was happy with how it turned out—on the Hello Kitty pinata I got. You couldn’t tell, could you? Until I told you, now you see it. Taylor made us all swear we wouldn’t tell his friends that it was originally a Hello Kitty pinata. Here’s what we did for the back.
Anyway, back to the cookies. For the party, we also made zombie cookies. Each of the boys got to pick out chocolate eyeballs, plastic teeth, noses (Skittles) and put red icing (blood) gel on their cookie. So again, I made the Lofthouse cookies and cut them in about 3 1/2 inch circles.
Parker’s cookie won for the grossest, with the eye hanging out. The Lofthouse cookies were perfect and the boys had fun with them.
Today I decided to make the cookies again to share them here for the 4th week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. So I had fun making some 2 1/2 inch round cookies with white frosting and some green, red, and white sprinkles. A bunch of them are in the freezer (unfrosted) ready for another use sometime soon.
Lofthouse Sugar Cookies, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!—don’t know where original recipe started, I adapted it quite a bit
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 grams) light sour cream (you can use regular, but I never do, always use light)
2 3/4 cups (330 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg, vanilla and sour cream and beat on high speed for a couple minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the cream mixture and beat on low just until combined. Put the dough in an airtight container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. (Can also refrigerate the dough for a couple days, if necessary.)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough out on a floured surface—not too thin, at least 1/4 inch thick, maybe between 1/4-1/2 inch. Cut with shaped cookie cutters and lay each cookie on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies just look dry on the tops. Let cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost the cookies and add sprinkles, if desired.
I don’t have a specific vanilla frosting recipe, I actually just kind of make it up as I go—Couple of cups of powdered sugar, some butter, a pinch of salt, some vanilla and cream/milk—beat in the mixer until it is the desired consistency. Sorry, I often don’t measure. I didn’t with the white frosting for these cookies. Here is a link for a great buttercream frosting recipe that I have used before for cakes and it is similar to what I end up getting when I make up my own. ;) http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/
You can find out about the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats on our host, Brenda’s blog, Meal Planning Magic and check out all the other treats this week—we’re at week 4, can you believe it—counting down the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. Don’t freak out yet! ;)
