Well, I know some of these cookie choices look very familiar (fall ’09), but for our Daring Bakers’ challenge this month we were asked to pick cookies that personally represent the month of September. Of course I had to make a barn since we make multiple treks each fall to our local pumpkin patch:) There we also pick apples and enjoy the colorful array of changing autumn leaves:) Fall also means football, especially since my son-in-law coaches for a local high school’s J.V. team. I love all the fall COLORS and wanted to make sure that these cookies reflected that aspect of fall! I really enjoyed this challenge!
I have baked (and iced) many sugar cookies using my favorite “No Fail Sugar Cookies” recipe and Royal icing recipe. This recipe was unusual in that it did not call out for any baking soda or baking powder. The reasoning behind omitting them was to better help the cookies keep their shape. As you can see these cookies did hold their shape well, but when it came to eating them, they were too dense and heavy for my taste. I’ll stick with my tried and true recipe, but it was nice to experiment with an alternative.
The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.
Basic Sugar Cookies: (Daring Bakers’ challenge recipe, and tips from Mandy)
Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4″ Cookies 200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature 400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour 200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar 1 Large Egg, lightly beaten 5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces. • Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch) • Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface. • Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife. • Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up. • Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. • Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly. • Leave to cool on cooling racks. • Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.
• Tip: If wrapped in tinfoil/cling wrap or kept in airtight containers in a cool place, un-decorated
cookies can last up to a month.
Thanks Mandy, for a fun challenge! Now I’m really feeling the spirit of fall!
Wrap-up from Sue: We could use the Royal Icing recipe of our choice. I used the one that I have linked above.
P.S. I used a Wilton #3 tip to outline the cookies and to add the details after flooding. To flood, I used a spoon. Also, for the football grass I used Wilton tip #233, and chocolate sprinkles on the squirrel’s tail:)
This post is linked to Alicia’s (A Beautiful Mess) “Tasty Tuesdays”and
Tidymom’s “I’m Lovin’ it Fridays”
