Cut-out Cookies: Recipes

I've been feeling so dreadful this week that I thought the only thing I'd be using my measuring spoons for was cough syrup...but thank goodness for Myprodol! I actually managed to do quite a bit of baking: lots, and lots of cookie dough and a big batch of Royal Icing (I use this recipe). I also attempted some cookie decorating, but despite the drugs - or maybe because of them : }  - I just couldn't get my head and hands to co-operate. And Royal Icing isn't very forgiving. Oh, well. We'll just have to eat the evidence....

The reason for all the batches of cookie dough is that I have a couple of cookie decorating classes coming up, and my son's 4th birthday. 80-90 biscuits for each cookie class, and about 50 for the birthday boy.

I've been having some trouble with my cookie dough recently, though. Lots of surface bubbles. They taste great, but they just aren't the ideal canvas for decorating. So, I went to the experts: two of my favorite, inspiring (so good they are positively intimidating!) cookie decorators are Marian at  Sweetopia, and Sweet Sugar Belle . I've been reluctant to try their standard cookie recipes because they both use icing sugar instead of granulated sugar in the dough. Why that didn't appeal, I can't really say! I'm just not into super sweet. Well, I was being super silly!

I went with Sweet Sugar Belle's basic sugar cookie recipe - made up a couple of batches and popped it into the freezer to roll-out and cut-out later. Then I went back to read her notes, and to my disdain read that the dough doesn't refrigerate or freeze well!! Damn!!

The recipes I regularly use all call for refrigeration of the dough and the cut-out cookies before baking to prevent spread. So, this was different. It certainly was easier to roll out dough that hadn't been in the fridge, but then moving the softer shapes to the baking trays was a bit trickier...I was cursing, a little...again.

Anyway... A couple of Myprodol and an hour later, the dough was rolled out, cookies cut out and all baked.

They did spread a little more than my other doughs do, but it was a pleasant Salon-blow-dry kind of volume rather than an eighties-hair-all-over the-place kind of thing, if you get what I'm saying....?!
And they tasted good. Very good.

Now I just have to box and freeze the baked cookies (which do apparently freeze well!) until I'm ready to decorate them. When the virus and drugs are out of my system.

I've also tried out a new Mocha cookie recipe...but that dough is in the freezer. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Pink animal print, inspired by Sweet Sugar Belle

xxM