HAPPY HALLOWEEN, JOLLY ROGER COOKIES & A POEM FOR MITCHIE!

The night is dark

The owls they hoot

Black cats are mewing

and no Mitchie to toot

It’s Halloween and our

Boy is sick  - so grab a

Bag and fill for him

‘cause  missing Halloween

Is almost a sin!
jd

Sugar Cookies

2 cups AP Flour, plus Wondra flour for dusting the dough while rolling

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter (1stick) room temp 

1 cup granulated sugar, I prefer the super fine but regular is OK

1 large egg (room temp, always when baking)

1 tsp vanilla extract

In large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture, beat until combined.  Divide dough in half, flatten into disks.  Wrap each in plastic, chill until firm, at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325°degrees

Either use Silpat mats or line cookie sheets with parchment.  Remove dough from fridge and let stand for about 5 minutes.  Roll out dough between sheets of parchment, put a little Wondra on the dough.  Depending on your oven bake 10-18 minutes.  If you notice that they are getting more done on one side than the other, rotate the pan in the oven half way through the cooking time.

After you have rolled out your dough, very carefully cut out your cookies and place on the Silpat mat.  It is a little tricky when using these big cutters so just be patient and careful.  I only made (8) cookies so I put the leftover dough in the freezer and it will keep up to three months - let it thaw out overnight in the fridge.

Take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes on the Silpat mat and then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool.

Now for the frosting - most cookie decorators will flood the cookies with royal icing, in this case white, and then go back with colored royal icing for the detailing. I find that I have better luck flooding the cookie with a simple icing of just powdered sugar and water, no recipe, just until I get it to the consistency that it will spread but not run on the cookie. Let the icing completely cool and then go back and do the detailing.  I will then do the detail work with royal icing which is what I did last night.  Having said that I tried using icing bottles for the first time and did not have a good experience and went back to the pastry bag.  Will try again later and share with you then.  Here is link to Good Things by David royal icing recipe, it is a great recipe, no fail:

http://www.goodthingsbydavid.com/2013/07/perfect-royal-icing.html

Happy and safe Halloween and thank you for stopping by. 

Resource:

Silpat Mats, available at all cooking stores, Williams Sonoma, Amazon

Jolly Roger Copper Cookie Cutter by coppersmith Michael Bonne on Etsy