Christmas Sugar Cookies

“Here comes Santa Claus!
Here comes Santa Claus!
Right down Santa Claus Lane!
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer
are pulling on the reins.
Bells are ringing, children singing;
All is merry and bright.
Hang your stockings and say your prayers,
‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight.

Here comes Santa Claus!
Here comes Santa Claus!
Right down Santa Claus Lane!
He’s got a bag that is filled with toys
for the boys and girls again.
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle,
What a beautiful sight.
Jump in bed, cover up your head,
‘Cause Santa Claus comes tonight “
Sugar Cookies

For the Dough :

3 cups Flour/Maida
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (about 225 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar (powder granulated sugar)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Sift flour and baking powder and keep aside.

In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar till fluffy and creamy..say roughly 3-4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat. Then add the flour/baking powder mixture 2-3 tablespoons at a time till all the flour is used up.

Then knead the dough till it is nice and soft (say about 5 minutes of kneading is required). Cover with a plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Place the dough on a clean work surface and keep a wax paper on the dough and roll it. My rolling pin has two plastic dowels which allow me to roll to required thickness. The wax paper on the dough is a great idea coz the dough does not stick to the rolling pin and you don’t need to add more flour to ease rolling.

Cut the dough with your choice of cookie cutters. And place the cut ones on a wax lined cookie sheet. Keep in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Preheat over to 350 deg F and bake for 10-12 minutes till they turn a light cream colour. Remove and cool on a cooling rack.

After they are cooled, the cookies can be decorated royal icing.

Royal Icing

3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder (I use Dr. Oekter Brand)
4 cups icing sugar
6 Tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients until stiff peaks form. (I prefer to sift the icing sugar prior so that there are no lumps in the icing). The bowls should be completely grease free. You will get about 3 cups of royal icing with above, which is very white in colour. Put separately in small bows so that you can colour as required.
Outline the cookies with royal icing and then used thinned royal icing to flood the cookies. (For thinning the icing for flooding, add 1 teaspoon of water per cup of royal icing –till it reaches the proper consistency).

I made some Christmas Tree Cookies and some other Christmas cookies like snowflakes, pears, gingerbread man, snowman, bells.

It’s a very time consuming but very satisfying job at the end.

Tell me how you liked them.

I’d like to wish my family, friends and relatives a joyful Christmas.

Celebrate,  have fun, eat, drink and be jolly.   And do remember,  that a “Cookie”  a day,  keeps that stress away  !!!!!!!

About these ads