Sugar Cookies

I love the idea of beautifully decorated sugar cookies for every occasion, but I usually steer clear of roll out cookies because my cookie decorating skills are severely lacking.  A little nagging voice in my head says, “If you can’t make them look pretty and perfect, then just don’t bother!”  I’m working on ignoring that mean little voice.  This year, I really wanted to do a cookie decorating activity with The Littlest Apple’s class for their Christmas party.  Since I still hadn’t found my go-to sugar cookie recipe, I went searching online and found a simple recipe that also happens to be egg-free for my egg-allergic little guy.  The dough was nice and thick, not sticky at all, and rolled out perfectly.  The cookies were crisp and buttery and held their shape extremely well. The cookies themselves turned out fantastic.

Getting a room full of 2 year olds to decorate the cookies, on the other hand, was a little less successful.  My plan was to give each child  several cookies with frosting (I definitely wasn’t going to set them loose with a bowl of frosting and knives), and a little cup full of various candy toppings (which were painstakingly searched for and selected).  We included M&Ms, red hots, some star shaped candies, and other small, colorful candies.  There were also some rainbow Twizzlers, cut in small pieces to be used as scarves for snowmen or decorations for stockings or trees.  After prepping all the cookies and cups of candies, I decided to test run this little project on The Littlest Apple the night before the party.  Why I didn’t do a test run sooner, I have no idea.  Any guesses on what happened?

The Littlest Apple ate the candy straight out of the cup, and licked the frosting off the cookies, even after I tried to show him what to do.  (Except the red hots…after one bite of those, he was screaming and wiping his mouth out with a napkin.)  But, this WAS my activity for the class party, and there was no going back now.  Besides, The Littlest Apple tends to be the one kid not following the rules and doing his own thing.  My little free spirit.  So maybe all of the other kids in the class would enjoy this activity more than my guy?  Nope.  As soon as they saw the cups of candy, they just started gobbling it down, despite the adult encouragement to put the candy on the cookies first.  A few kids may have taken a bite or two of a cookie, and many of them licked the frosting off of their cookies.  Sigh. Maybe next year.

Even though my party idea was a big flop, the cookie recipe is definitely a keeper!  I’m hoping to work on my royal icing skills with these cookies for next year!

Egg-Free Sugar Cookies

from C&H Sugar via Gourmet Mom on the Go

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup egg substitute (I used Ener-g Egg Replacer.  You can also use 1 egg, if you don’t need them to be egg-free)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Cookie Dough: In large bowl, mix sugar and butter. Beat in egg substitute and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix in flour and baking soda.

If freezing dough for later use, divide dough into halves. Shape each half into roll about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

To Bake Cookies: If cookie dough is frozen, defrost to a chilled temperature before baking. Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place on cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on wire rack Cookie dough can also be rolled out on a lightly floured surface, and cut out with cookie cutters. To decorate: frost cookies with Royal Icing and add sprinkles.