I was chatting with my friend JeeJee over at CuteZCute cutters the other day, and she was asking me about my cookies and how I make them. I sent her my recipes that I use for the cookies and royal icing. We were just chatting away and then she came up with the brilliant idea that I should make tutorial for my blog.
Let me just say this: I am still cookie-er in the making. I'm still learning. =) I'm barely going into my 4th month of making cookies as I type this out. I haven't had any formal training (although I would love take some classes) and honestly have learned through reading different cookie blogs. Oh...and A LOT of trial and error! A LOT.
These are by no means the set way to do cookies, but these are the recipes and techniques that work for me. You eventually find out what works for you and what doesn't work for you in terms of recipes and when it comes to decorating. You just gotta try it out and find your groove!
I guess what you'll need first is a recipe. I'm sorry I don't have the original link for this. I wrote it down while searching for recipes online and didn't save the website or link at all. But who ever came up with recipe...THANK YOU! I've gotten so many compliments that the cookie didn't taste like your normal sugar cookie. The cookie itself is moist and chewy and not overly sweet. And do you want to know why...it has cream cheese in it! Yes! That is the secret ingredient. Whenever I make these cookies, my cousin always asks me if I have any extra because she likes to eat them just as they are. You want the cookie to the be STAR and the royal icing to be it's supporting role.
Here is the recipe which yields about 30 medium size cookies. It really depends on the size of your cutter though.
- 8 oz of cream cheese (room temp)
- 1 stick of unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1 egg
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 cup of sugar
With a mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and continue to mix.
Add in 1 cup of flour at a time. You don't need to sift the flour. Add baking powder in between the cups of flour and continue to mix until it starts to form into dough.
Your dough is going to be a little sticky once it's been mixed and that's ok. I can tell that my dough is done mixing when I touch it and it sticks just a little bit to my finger. Place the dough in a gallon ziplock bag and refrigerate for atleast 8-10 hours.
Here is a picture filled tutorial on how to make cookies using CuteZCute cutters!
Once you're ready to start making cookies, dust your work area and rolling pin with flour. Roll out your dough about 1/4 inch thick. (I usually do it in handfuls at a time because it's too much dough to roll out at one time). You can also dust your cookie cutter with flour to keep it from sticking to the dough.
Take your cutter and cut out as many cookies as you need.
Next, take the stamp and place it onto your cookie. Make sure to use the side of the stamp that makes the imprint and don't press too hard. You only want to place an imprint of the face and not cut out the actual dough.
Your cookie should look like this when you're done.
Make as many and different animal faces as you like. Have fun with it!
Place wax paper on a flat plate that will fit in your freezer. Next place, your cookies onto the wax paper. You can add another piece of wax paper on top of cookies and layer them if you make a lot of cookies. Place your cookies in the freezer for about 30 min. THIS IS IMPORTANT especially with this recipe since there is a lot of fat (butter, cream cheese) in it.
Freezing the cookies will help them keep their shape while they are baking. Trust me on this.
Place your frozen cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Your oven may vary so if you're making this for the first time, keep any eye on the cookies while baking and adjust accordingly.
Tada!! When you cookies are done baking, let them sit for a few minutes on the baking sheet before you transfer them to a cooling rack. Sometimes, they are still a bit too soft to move immediately from baking sheet to rack. I normally let my cookies sit for 24 hours before decorating.
But you can decorate the cookie as soon as you wish! Just make sure they have cooled down completely.
Remember how I mentioned it's important to freeze your cookie before baking it? This is why. See how well the cookie kept its original shape and size?
When the cookies have cooled, you can leave them as is or you can decorate them using royal icing or any other confectionary goods! I use Sweet Sugar Belle's royal icing recipe to the T. Here are the cookies I decorated and I noted some little important tips to remember when working with royal icing.
And there you have it! A cookie recipe and how to make CuteZCute Animal Cookies.
One day I'll try to create a tutorial on royal icing when I perfect it. But if you're interested in learning more about it now, check out my favorite cookie blogs below:
If you have any questions, please fee free to ask below in the comments!!
Thanks for stopping by and happy baking!
