Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies

Who doesn't love a good soft frosted sugar cookie? I mean, really? It's simple sweet colorful goodness. These cookies are in the vein of Lofthouse Cookies.The cookie itself is pretty comparable -- soft, somewhat bland, but tasty -- and the frosting has more of a butter flavor than the actual Lofthouse cookies. All-in-all, a very satisfying homemade option.

I'd like to say more about these, but you're probably here for the recipe anyway, so here it is. Also check out Preppy Kitchen because they have LOTS of great recipes there, and that's where I got this recipe. The only thing I changed, really, is subbing cake flour for half the all-purpose flour.

Here you go.

Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Preppy Kitchen

Cookie Ingredients: 

• 135 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) cake flour
• 135 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg @ room temperature
• 1/4 cup sour cream @ room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
• 240 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 tablespoons milk
• gel food coloring (optional)
• sprinkles

Instructions:

Measure out the dry ingredients -- flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cornstarch -- and mix completely with a whisk.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Add sour cream and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Lay a large piece of plastic wrap on the counter and scoop dough into the center. Fold the sides up to enclose the dough and flip over. Press dough into a flat square, and gently roll with a rolling pin to push dough into the corners, taking care to not press too hard and squeeze dough out of the plastic.

Refrigerate dough for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sprinkle a cutting surface with a little flour. Unwrap the dough and roll it out on the counter to 1/4-inch thickness.

Use a pizza cutter and a ruler (preferably) to cut dough into 2-inch squares. Depending on how you roll it out, you will end up with 24 to 30 perfect 2" squares. Re-roll or bake scraps as desired.

Place squares on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 1 1/2" apart.

I like to bake mine one sheet at a time. Bake each pan of cookies for 8-9 minutes -- do not over-bake. You don't want much, if any, browning at all on the edges.

Remove from oven, allow to cool on pan for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool. (I usually slide the whole sheet of parchment with the cookies onto a wire rack.

While cookies cool, mix the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth and creamy. Add more milk or powdered sugar to adjust consistency to your liking.

Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting onto each cookie and sprinkle immediately with sprinkles.

Store cookies in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen 2" cookies

Whisk dry ingredients together

Dough plopped onto plastic wrap.

Fold plastic wrap so you have square corners.

Flip plastic-wrapped dough over and gently roll dough into corners,.

I place my dough on a small sheet pan before placing in the fridge.

I no longer waste my time and cookie dough with round cutters.

New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies

New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies

I normally don't follow food trends and believe the cookie everyone says is the BEST really is the BEST, but this one is the exception. These cookies are really the ideal crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle cookie that most people just adore in a chocolate chip cookie. They're even still great the next day, which is something I very rarely say. 

I think I found this recipe on 3 different websites, but am linking We Are All Magic here because it's a sharp looking website. I did add salt to the dough, which at least two of the sites I went to did NOT include. They both did have Maldon Sea Salt as an option to sprinkle on top of the cookies though. Additionally, I browned 3/4 cup of the butter because my favorite chef Claire Saffitz does that frequently in her cookie recipes.

I highly recommend you use the best chocolate you can find & afford because it does make a difference. And do take the time and effort to to brown the butter because it also takes these cookies to the next level. Do it.

And enjoy.


New York Times' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from weareallmagic.com

Ingredients:

• 8.5 ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons)
• 8.5 ounces bread flour (1 2/3 cup)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond Crystal; if using Morton's use 3/4 teaspoon)
• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces or 2 1/ 2 sticks) butter
• 10 ounces packed light brown sugar (1 1/4 cup)
• 8 ounces white sugar (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1.25 pounds good quality chocolate chunks or chips (about 3 1/3 cups -- I use Nestlé Dark Chocolate Morsels)
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (toasted), optional

Instructions:

• Place 4 ounces (1 stick) of the butter in a large mixing bowl. Brown 3/4 cup (6 ounces or 1. 1/2 sticks) of the butter by heating it in a heavy bottomed pan over medium low heat, stirring almost continuously. When the butter solids are a deep golden brown, carefully pour the melted browned butter over the other butter in the butter in the mixing bowl, making sure to scrape all of the browned butter into the bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature before using. You can stir the butter to speed this up a little.

• While the butter cools, sift together the flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

• Add the brown sugar and white sugar to the butter in the mixing bowl. Beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. 

• Add eggs and vanilla and beat again until light and fluffy again.

• Add the flour, soda, baking powder, and salt mixture and mix on low just until combined. 

• Stir in chocolate chips/chunks (and nuts, if using) to distribute evenly.*

• Line a rimmed baking sheet with wax paper.

• Scoop dough in about 2-3 tablespoon dollops/balls and place on wax paper in prepared pan. Smoosh each ball down into a thick disk. When all dough has been portioned, cover and refrigerate or freeze. If you plan to bake the next day, just refrigerate. If you want to have dough on hand to bake a few at a time, freeze and then transfer frozen dough to zip top freezer bags. Bottom line: the dough is best when chilled for at least 12 hours.

• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes.

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place dough discs on the parchment-lined pan, about 2 inches apart. 

• Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-15 minutes or until edges are starting to turn golden brown.

• Remove from oven and allow to cool on pan for about 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

• Store baked cookies in an airtight container and consume within 2 days for best taste. 

Makes about 3 dozen 4-inch cookies

*Today I divided the dough in half and added half of the chocolate chips to one half of the dough. To the other half of dough, I added a fourth of the chocolate chips and probably 1 1/2 cups of chopped pecans. I like to give people choices.

Weighing the ingredients works best for me.

Browned butter and sugars

The butter and sugars didn't quite get fluffy today.

After the addition of eggs

With nuts and without

Ready to bake

Post-bake

Ready for the freezer

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've got a LOT of chocolate chip cookies on this blog, and right now this one is my favorite. The recipe all started when I wanted to make sugar cookies using my new Heilala Vanilla. Long story short, I had to use some of the dough for chocolate chip cookies, and wow. These were so good. 

Sweet & chewy with layers of caramel and browned butter flavors, with creamy dark chocolate chips. Mmm. A cookie exceptional enough to warrant its own post here. 

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients 

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
• 1/4 cup Crisco
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 ½ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 10 ounce bag of Nestlé Dark Chocolate Morsels
• 1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)

Instructions

1. Prepare the browned butter by placing 4 tablespoons of the butter into a small heat-safe mixing bowl.  Place the remaining stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir with a silicone spatula until it's foamy on top and you can see the butter solids turn a deep golden brown color. Pour hot browned butter over the 4 tablespoons of butter in the small bowl. Allow to cool completely before proceeding. 

2. Cream cooled butter, Crisco, egg, vanilla, & water in a medium size bowl. (This may take a little while for the wet ingredients to emulsify and turn creamy.)

3. In a large bowl, stir together with a whisk the sugars, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.

4. Combine the creamed mixture with the dry mixture just until it comes together (do not over mix). Add the chocolate chunks and pecans & mix to incorporate.  Refrigerate dough two hours or over night. (I also scoop all my dough and freeze the dough balls on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Once frozen, I transfer them to a gallon zip-top bag.)

5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Scoop dough into balls that are about 2 tablespoons and place them one inch apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. 

6. Bake 8-11 minutes, or until puffed and light brown around the edges.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Butter -- some browned, some not

All of the wet ingredients get mixed together first.

I love seeing all of the flecks of browned butter at this stage.

Sugars, flour, salt, soda, and baking powder get mixed.

Nestlé Dark Chocolate Chips are my current fav.

I almost always scoop and freeze my choc chip cookie dough.

Some of these have nuts and some don't. All delicious though.

Pecan Praline Butter Refrigerator Cookies

Pecan Praline Butter Refrigerator Cookies

This recipe started with Cupcake Jemma's Vanilla Pecan Cinnamon Buns. I've made those two or three times, and they are spectacular. Part of the recipe involves the pecan praline butter that's in this recipe. You end up with leftover pecan praline butter, so I decided to mix some into one of my favorite cookie recipes, Colorful Sugar Cookies/Chocolate Chip Shortbread. 

This was the result, and I love them. They are crisp, buttery, nutty, sweet. Mmm. So good. 

So, if you love pecans and crisp cookies, these may be for you.

Pecan Praline Butter Refrigerator Cookies

Ingredients:

• 14 tablespoons butter, softened

• ½ cup pecan praline butter*

• ¾ cup granulated sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 egg

• 2 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

• ¾ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ cup chopped toasted pecans

Instructions:

• Cream butter, pecan praline butter, and sugar.

• Add vanilla and egg.  

• Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture.

• Stir in nuts.

• Divide dough in half and form each half into a log and wrap in parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour and up to a week.

• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

• Unwrap the dough log and using a sharp knife, cut ⅜” to ¼” slices.

• Arrange slices about an inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.

• Bake at 325°F for approximately 18 minutes. 

• Remove to wire rack to cool.  Then store in an airtight container.

  
  

  Makes about 4 dozen small cookies

*Pecan Praline Butter:

• 150g toasted pecan halves

• 150g light brown sugar

• pinch salt

Place a non-stick pan over medium-low heat. Add the 150g light brown sugar. Heat sugar until it melts. You can stir it with a silicone spatula, but be careful to scrape off any sugar build up along the way. Sugar needs to be completely liquid. Add the 150g pecan halves and pinch of salt to the melted sugar and stir to coat the pecans. Once pecans are basically covered in molten sugar, carefully scrape all of it onto a parchment-lined pan and allow to cool completely.

Once praline is completely cool, break it apart into the bowl of a food processor, and process until you have a relatively smooth paste. Scrape into a bowl or clean pint size mason jar and set aside.

Makes about 1 cup

I keep the leftovers in a mason jar in the fridge.