I've never really been into sugar cookies. They're too plain, too unwaveringly sweet. But, I've always failed to see the point of a chocolate-less cookie anyway. Peanut butter cookies make me thirsty, snickerdoodles are boring, molasses cookies really gross me out, and shortbread only tastes good when topped with Nutella. Anyway, this holiday season, I finally warmed up to the sugar cookie. They're so simple to make, even I aced them, and they're easily moldable and made into decorative creations worthy of your Sandra-Lee-style tablescapes. This year, I did two very different sugar cookie projects that were both quite delicious.
I found my recipe in The Joy of Cooking. My mom hates that book, citing that it "has recipes for rabbit and stuff you'd never make," but it does have a whole section on roll cookies, with several recipes and tips (like using powdered sugar instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin). No matter what book you use, though, making sugar cookies is easy. It's mostly butter, with a few other ingredients like flour and sugar. Give it a spin in the Kitchen Aid, and then chill discs of dough in the fridge until they're firm enough to roll out and create shapes.
This actually all began when my boyfriend Nick wanted to bring Christmas cookies to his office at Bethesda Softworks. He had an idea to make them look like the Vault Boy, a character from the studio's signature game, Fallout. To create the shape, we basically modified a ginger bread boy cookie cutter. (The hardest part was to find one with long enough arms) and then further molded the resulting doughy cut out. We worked on these all night. It took a while to nail down the process, but once we got on a roll, we cranked out quite a few. Nick chronicled the whole thing on Bethesda's blog, and we also got featured on Gizmodo.
Because I wasn't sure how far my dough was going to take us, I made several double batches. We were driving back home to Michigan the next day, so I packed my lunchbox full of dough-discs and hoped they'd stay cool in the trunk for nine hours. When I got home, my mom pulled out some snowflake cookie cutters she'd bought years ago. She saw someone on TV stack the different sized snowflakes to make a Christmas tree. So, we had another project. Ultimately, the frosting stuck the cookies together so severely, that it was impossible to pull off an entire cookie. You had to sort of crack off a corner. Not practical, or particularly aesthetically pleasing, but it tasted all right. Though I probably wouldn't do that particular project again—or the Vault Boy one since I don't really like video games, hah—I could see the possibilities for next time, and I would absolutely do sugar cookies again.
I found my recipe in The Joy of Cooking. My mom hates that book, citing that it "has recipes for rabbit and stuff you'd never make," but it does have a whole section on roll cookies, with several recipes and tips (like using powdered sugar instead of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin). No matter what book you use, though, making sugar cookies is easy. It's mostly butter, with a few other ingredients like flour and sugar. Give it a spin in the Kitchen Aid, and then chill discs of dough in the fridge until they're firm enough to roll out and create shapes.
This actually all began when my boyfriend Nick wanted to bring Christmas cookies to his office at Bethesda Softworks. He had an idea to make them look like the Vault Boy, a character from the studio's signature game, Fallout. To create the shape, we basically modified a ginger bread boy cookie cutter. (The hardest part was to find one with long enough arms) and then further molded the resulting doughy cut out. We worked on these all night. It took a while to nail down the process, but once we got on a roll, we cranked out quite a few. Nick chronicled the whole thing on Bethesda's blog, and we also got featured on Gizmodo.
Because I wasn't sure how far my dough was going to take us, I made several double batches. We were driving back home to Michigan the next day, so I packed my lunchbox full of dough-discs and hoped they'd stay cool in the trunk for nine hours. When I got home, my mom pulled out some snowflake cookie cutters she'd bought years ago. She saw someone on TV stack the different sized snowflakes to make a Christmas tree. So, we had another project. Ultimately, the frosting stuck the cookies together so severely, that it was impossible to pull off an entire cookie. You had to sort of crack off a corner. Not practical, or particularly aesthetically pleasing, but it tasted all right. Though I probably wouldn't do that particular project again—or the Vault Boy one since I don't really like video games, hah—I could see the possibilities for next time, and I would absolutely do sugar cookies again.
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