sugar cookies
Jul. 7th, 2010 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI am extremely talented. Normally I think of myself as foolish and irrelevant, but there are some things at which I am astoundingly talented.
Today, I synthesized 3 sugar cookie recipes (found by Googling) on the fly. I wrote them all down on one sheet of paper, and pretty much used the aspects of each one that I thought would be the most useful.
I think it's very impressive to be able to do that without pre-planning it.
Rolled Sugar Cookies that mostly hold their shape and which are easy to roll.
I ended up using these ingredients in these ratios:
1.5 C butter (3 sticks, salted) at mostly room temperature.
2 C sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
4 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1/2t almond extract
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
5 C flour
What I did:
I measured out the 5 cups of flour, then sifted it. I scooped a couple cups back into the sifter then added the baking powder and salt and resifted. This was set aside.
Into a large stand mixer bowl, I put the 3 sticks of butter. I beat this with the paddle until it looked like marshmellow fluff. I had to scrape the bowl down a lot because my butter wasn't really room temperature. I poured the sugar in slowly in a thin stream. After it was mixed, I scraped down the bowl Then I let that beat until it looked like whipped cream. I cracked one egg into a dish and added that. Then I turned around, cracked the second egg into the dish and added that. Then I scraped the bowl down. Same with the third, then fourth egg. So probably 20 seconds between eggs to let them fully incorporate. While this was beating I found the extracts and (actually measured it) added them. I used my spatula to scrape down the bowl and through the bottom to make sure the mixture was homogeneous.
Now I put the mixer on low and added the flour mixture slowly. In the same thin stream as the sugar, one cup at a time, scraping the bowl down as needed (like 5 times, it really sucked.) The dough was REALLY gloppy and wet. So I followed the advice and divided the batter into 6 sections, each wrapped in waxed paper. I refrigerated these on a tray (they were too gloppy to sit as disks unsupported) for about 90 minutes.
All the recipes say to roll out on a floured board. Well, that never works for me, so I rolled them out on floured parchment paper, using the waxed paper wrapper as a top layer, to a quarter inch thickness (yes I measured it.) Then I measured and cut them (I'm making flags that are officially 2:3.) I inverted the parchment paper onto the cookie sheet and just slid them into position after removing the paper backing. Each section of dough makes about 6 cookies plus a varying amount of scrap to be re-rolled later. I refrigerated the shaped cookies on the tray before baking them for 9 minutes at 375F. Then the cookies rested on the tray outside the oven for 2-3 minutes before being carefully removed to a cooling rack.
The cookies will be fully rested (probably for 24 hours) before they will be iced.
linkages:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1910,142164-224201,00.html
http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Recipes_ep_68-1.html#recipe01
Today, I synthesized 3 sugar cookie recipes (found by Googling) on the fly. I wrote them all down on one sheet of paper, and pretty much used the aspects of each one that I thought would be the most useful.
I think it's very impressive to be able to do that without pre-planning it.
Rolled Sugar Cookies that mostly hold their shape and which are easy to roll.
I ended up using these ingredients in these ratios:
1.5 C butter (3 sticks, salted) at mostly room temperature.
2 C sugar
1/4 C heavy cream
4 large eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1/2t almond extract
1/2 t salt
1 t baking powder
5 C flour
What I did:
I measured out the 5 cups of flour, then sifted it. I scooped a couple cups back into the sifter then added the baking powder and salt and resifted. This was set aside.
Into a large stand mixer bowl, I put the 3 sticks of butter. I beat this with the paddle until it looked like marshmellow fluff. I had to scrape the bowl down a lot because my butter wasn't really room temperature. I poured the sugar in slowly in a thin stream. After it was mixed, I scraped down the bowl Then I let that beat until it looked like whipped cream. I cracked one egg into a dish and added that. Then I turned around, cracked the second egg into the dish and added that. Then I scraped the bowl down. Same with the third, then fourth egg. So probably 20 seconds between eggs to let them fully incorporate. While this was beating I found the extracts and (actually measured it) added them. I used my spatula to scrape down the bowl and through the bottom to make sure the mixture was homogeneous.
Now I put the mixer on low and added the flour mixture slowly. In the same thin stream as the sugar, one cup at a time, scraping the bowl down as needed (like 5 times, it really sucked.) The dough was REALLY gloppy and wet. So I followed the advice and divided the batter into 6 sections, each wrapped in waxed paper. I refrigerated these on a tray (they were too gloppy to sit as disks unsupported) for about 90 minutes.
All the recipes say to roll out on a floured board. Well, that never works for me, so I rolled them out on floured parchment paper, using the waxed paper wrapper as a top layer, to a quarter inch thickness (yes I measured it.) Then I measured and cut them (I'm making flags that are officially 2:3.) I inverted the parchment paper onto the cookie sheet and just slid them into position after removing the paper backing. Each section of dough makes about 6 cookies plus a varying amount of scrap to be re-rolled later. I refrigerated the shaped cookies on the tray before baking them for 9 minutes at 375F. Then the cookies rested on the tray outside the oven for 2-3 minutes before being carefully removed to a cooling rack.
The cookies will be fully rested (probably for 24 hours) before they will be iced.
linkages:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/Detail.aspx
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1910,142164-224201,00.html
http://www.karenscookies.net/Cookie-Decorating-Recipes_ep_68-1.html#recipe01
no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 06:12 am (UTC)I haven't made sugar cookies in years. :( I miss making cookies.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 06:35 am (UTC)Sure they're good sugar cookies (well, actually they're a bit bland and unsweet, but I'm going to smear them with several giant globs of icing each, so that's as designed.) But it's not that hard to resist compared to cookies I actually like.
I ended up with something like 5 dozen cookies out of this recipe. That is, approximately what was expected.