Frosted Sugar Cookies

Another must-have at Christmastime ... sugar cookies topped with frosting and as much nonpareils and paraphernalia as your heart desires 🥰

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

3 tbsps milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl cream the butter, gradually adding sugar. Add egg yolk and mix well. Add dry ingredients alternating with milk and vanilla.  Cover and chill dough then roll on floured surface, about 1/4" thick. Cut with your favourite cookie cutters. I used a few drops of green gel colouring in half the dough. Tapped some trees into coarse green sugar too.

Space the cookies about 2" apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake  at 375°F for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.

(Recipe from Five Roses Flour Cookbook.)

Then use a buttercream frosting to decorate. Basically it's just creamed butter, a little vanilla, a bit of milk or cream and enough icing sugar to make a good consistency. I don't measure my ingredients for icing but it's about 1/4 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, 1 1/2 tbsps of cream and 1/2 tsp vanilla. If you want to colour your icing use gel colorants. Spoon into plastic zip baggies, snip a corner off and pipe away. Add any sprinkles and stuff immediately before the frosting starts to set.

Have fun, go crazy!

Oh, and that egg white that's left over? Try some Meringues.

Choco Mint Meringues:

1 egg white

pinch cream of tartar

1/8 tsp peppermint extract

2/3 cup white sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Add extract and slowly add the sugar, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Add in the cocoa. Drop by spoonfuls or use a piping bag and fancy tips onto a parchment lined sheet. Bake at 200°F for 40-45 minutes. then turn off oven but leave the meringues in for another 30 minutes.