Recipe #254: Valentine's Sugar Cookies (and Recipe #255: Butter Frosting)

To not get too far behind in posting recipes and to not be too far removed from the holiday, I will share the sugar cookie recipe I made for Valentine's day. This was totally a last minute thing, but it was fun to have a reason to make cookies. Unfortunately my kids never got to taste them (that is a long story) but we shared them with other deserving people instead! ;)

I have to say, I haven't made sugar cookie I think in the last year or two, but this recipe turned out fabulous! I found it in a real simple magazine and it will be my go to from now on! I doubled it, but this is the original recipe.

You need: 

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup butter, room temperature (I softened mine in the microwave, it is really important to have butter that is not right out of the fridge!)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla 

• in a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.
• in a mixing bowl beat butte and sugar until smooth.
• add in egg and beat until fluffy, then add vanilla.
• slowly add flour mixture and mix until just blended.
• form into a disc, wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
•  to roll out dough take to sheets of wax paper. sprinkle powdered sugar on both sheet.
• take one half of dough and flatten with your hand.
• place between two sheets of wax paper and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick.
• cut out the shapes of your choice
• place on a non stick sprayed cookie sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle some decorating sugar on top if you don't feel like frosting!
• bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.
• allow to cool slightly on pan but don't wait too long to put on a cooling rack or they will be hard to get off the pan! 
• if you want to frost cookies, see delicious frosting recipe below!

BUTTER FROSTING

I ended up frosting some of the cookies but using just a colored sugar topping for others.

Here is my go to frosting recipe. I halved it because I wasn't decorating a lot. But I am writing out the full recipe. I also now realize I totally didn't follow the directions, but it still turned out okay! 

You need:

3/4 cup butter

9 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk *you might need extra if too stiff

2 tsp vanilla

food coloring if you want to decorate with color (I did not this time!)

• beat butter until smooth
• gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating well.
• add in milk and vanilla
• gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar
• add extra milk if needed to reach spreading consistancy.

(what i actually did was put in sugar, milk, then butter and mixed it all up...it was fine, just next time i would sift the powdered sugar first)