I know they’re supposed to taste like honey, and I guess they kinda do.  But they really just taste like sweet, sugary deliciousness to me.  If you’ve never tried candy corn mixed in with salted peanuts I highly recommend it; a great combination of salty and sweet.  They’re also good covered in chocolate.  You can find the chocolate covered ones at Central Market.  When I was visiting family in Austin I bought some in the bulk section.  They are evil…in a really good way.

Anyway, we have no Halloween plans.  Since we don’t have kids to take trick-or-treating and we’re not the kind of people who dress up our dog our plan is to stay home and pass out candy if we have any kids come to our house.  We haven’t spent Halloween here yet, so we don’t know how busy our neighborhood is.  I kinda hope no one comes…more Kit Kats for me!

Anyway, I get daily cookie recipes from Martha Stewart, and this is what came today.  The recipe is a small batch and I had all the ingredients so I figured I’d go ahead and make them.  They are adorable little cookies, and they taste pretty good.  So, this is how I celebrated Halloween this year.  Enjoy!

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

Makes about 36

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• About 36 candy corns

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place butter and sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Beat in egg yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Add flour, and mix until a dough forms.
2. Scoop out level teaspoons of dough, and roll into balls (chill dough briefly if it becomes too soft to handle). Place balls on baking sheets, 2 inches apart.
3. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are firm and cookies are dry to the touch (do not let cookies color), 9-10 minutes.
4. Remove from oven; gently press a candy corn into center of each cookie (surface of cookies may crack slightly). Cool on sheets 1 minute; transfer to a rack to cool completely.

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

Thankfully I am an old pro at this sugar cookie decorating thing.  Well, I am not a pro but I have all the necessary cookie equipment and I don’t make as many mistakes and I did when I first starting doing this.  I have an icing recipe I like and trust, and I know how long the process takes to do it well.  I could have used an extra day to really make a polished looking and impressive cookie, but the two days I gave myself was just enough time.

For this challenge we were to make a basic sugar cookie and decorate them with a September theme.  I am sure I am not the only one who immediately thought of fall and the changing seasons.  So, I decided to try something I had not tried before…marbling my icings.  I wanted to create a fall colored leaf with all the lovely red, orange and yellow hues that display themselves this time of year.  While some are better looking than others, I was really pleased with the results.  I simply dropped a few colors of icing on the cookie and spread them around with a toothpick to create the marbling.

I started with 5 different colors of icing using gel colors.  That is a must if you want deep colors and not the pale colors you’d get if you use the water based ones you use to dye easter eggs.  I use a Toba Garret icing recipe to flood the cookies.  It has a good consistency, it dries well, and it tastes good.  I always flavor this icing with almond extract, a little something I picked up from my mom.  She always adds a little almond extract to whipped cream and I will never do it any other way.

I enjoyed this challenge even though I had to rush to get it done in time.  It is nice to have a reason to make decorated cookies since they are a bit time consuming.  Ben’s office is getting the tray of these tomorrow!

Here is the cookie recipe from the challenge, and below is my favorite sugar cookie icing from Toba Garrett.

Basic Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
• 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
• 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
• 1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions

1. Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming creamy in texture.  Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during baking, losing their shape.
2. Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
4. Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
5. Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
6. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
7. Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
8. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
9. Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.  Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
10. Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
11. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
12. Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.  Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done.
13. Leave to cool on cooling racks.
14. Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Glace Icing

Ingredients

• 1 pound (454 g) powdered sugar
• 3/8 cup (90 ml) whole milk
• 3/8 cup (4.5 oz or 126 g) light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar and the milk first. The icing should be very soft and have a heavy-cream texture before you add the corn syrup. Add the corn syrup and mix just until combined.
2. Divide the icing into several bowls. Flavor each bowl with extracts, alcohol or candy oils. Color each bowl of icing as desired. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying until you’re ready to use it.

I brought the yummy layered salad and these cookies.  I made plain sugar cookies using left over sugar cookie dough that I’d stashed in the freezer, and some chocolate sugar cookies.  Both recipes come from the Joyofbaking.com.

The chocolate dough was easy to prepare and easy to cut out.  They baked up pretty evenly and tasted good.  I did find them a bit drier than the plain sugar cookie, but still tasty.  I made sugar cookie helmets honoring both teams, and chocolate cookie footballs.

I use Wilton gel colors for my icing.  There may be something better out there, but these have always served me well.  I HATE black icing.  It’s hard to achieve, and it makes a mess on my hands and underneath my fingernails.   So I used the blue for my fleur-de-lis instead of black, which Ben gave me a hard time for, but I was just too stubborn and lazy to color more icing and give everyone a blue tongue and lips from eating the black icing.  You know what I’m talking about.

Here are some very rough instructions on how to decorate sugar cookies.  I promise to write better instructions one of these days!

Decorating Cookies

1.  Outline the cookies

• First, mix up powdered sugar and water until smooth, and stiff, but still a consistency that you can pipe through a pastry bag.  I have not measured the sugar or water before.  I will try to get those measurements on here soon!
• Use a pastry bag with a plain tip to outline the cookie close to the edges.  Be sure to make a closed outline so that you can fill the cookie without any glaze escaping.
• Let the outline dry completely before filling.

2.  Fill the cookies

• I use this recipe from Toba Garrett.  The recipe can be found here or at the bottom of this post.
• Once your glaze is prepared, use an offset spatula to drop some glaze in the center of the cookie.  Tip: Use less than you need because you can always add more.
• Holding the cookie in your hand gently push the glaze to the edges, being careful not to break the outline.  Don’t worry about making it completely smooth. The glaze is thin enough that will even out on its own.
• Let this harden for a few hours before continuing with any other details.

I will be honest, this takes practice and patience.  In the near future I will take some step-by-step photos because it isn’t easy to explain all the little nuances with words alone.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups (355 grams) all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (75 grams) unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon (4 grams)baking powder
• 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.)  Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
6. Note: If you are not going to frost the baked cookies, you may want to sprinkle the unbaked cookies with crystal or sparkling sugar.
7. Bake cookies for about 10  – 12 minutes (depending on size) or until they are firm around the edges. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with royal icing, if desired. Be sure that the frosting on the cookies dries completely before storing. (This may take several hours.) Frosted cookies will keep several days in an airtight container. Store between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Toba Garrett’s Sugar Cookie Glaze

Ingredients

• 1 pound (454 g) powdered sugar
• 3/8 cup (90 ml) whole milk
• 3/8 cup (4.5 oz or 126 g) light corn syrup
• Flavor Options: 1 tsp concentrated extract, I Tbsp alcohol or liqueur, or 2 to 3 drops concentrated candy oil

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the sugar and the milk first. The icing should be very soft and have a heavy-cream texture before you add the corn syrup. Add the corn syrup and mix just until combined.
2. Divide the icing into several bowls. Flavor each bowl with extracts, alcohol or candy oils. Color each bowl of icing as desired. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to prevent drying until you’re ready to use it.

Decorated sugar cookies are time consuming, but they are pretty simple once you know a few tricks and they are a lot of fun to make.  They are also very much worth the effort.  I will write more on those tricks later.  For now, you can satisfy your need for cookie decorating tips here at baking911.com.  This is a good site, although a bit hard to navigate due to the amount of ads.

Some recipes that I have tried for sugar cookies are not meant to be a cut-out sugar cookie.  For example, this cookie was delicious, but spread too much during baking to be a cut-out.  A heart would end up looking an amoeba.  No good.  ”I ‘heart’ you!” is not the same as “I ‘amoeba’ you”.

The dough for a cut out cookie has to be firmer so that it can stand up to rolling, cutting and baking without losing its shape.  This usually means less butter and more flour.  You also do not want a lot of leavening because decorating a cookie that had risen too much in the oven can be tough to decorate.

This cookie recipe was perfect for my bird cookies.  The cutter I used is quite large, which can be troublesome when transferring a cut-out piece of dough to the cookie sheet, but this dough was so sturdy!  I got the recipe from Joy of Baking.  This site has a lot of delicious sounding recipes with the majority including pictures, which, in my opinion is very nice. I look at the site quite a bit but I haven’t tried many of the recipes.  I plan to try more things from now on.  Let me know if you try something delicious from the site.

I have made some lovely cookies in my time, but these birds are not the best.  They are just OK.  I used mini chocolate chips for the eye.    My mistakes include:

1. Frosting them at 10pm
2. Using old gel colors (resulting in the neon hues)
3. Thinking no one would see them

Give yourself some time to decorate your cookies and make sure to let them set before trying to add more detail or transporting them.  I also make extra cookies to practice with so that I can see what’s going to look great and what isn’t.

I usually like to outline my cookies first, then fill them with glaze.  But I didn’t have the time with the birds which is why the one above is spitting up purple.  Keep up with my blog for the secrets!  I always use a glaze of powdered sugar, water or milk, corn syrup and almond extract.  I also am committed to Wilton gel colors.  They provide a vibrant color, so be careful!  Pink can become PINK too quickly!

These cookies are what I aspire to create some day.  Aren’t they beautiful?  I really love the natural colors and details.  The eggs are adorable.  You can get all the details about these cookies here and about Eleni’s in New York who made them here.  My neon pink birds will do for now!  At least mine tasted good.  That is one of the most important things isn’t it?

Cut Out Sugar Cookies

• 3 1/2 cups (460 grams) all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon (4 grams)baking powder
• 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated whitesugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. For Sugar Cookies:  In a separate bowl whisk together the flour,salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.)  Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter
6. and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.  Note: If you are not going to frost the baked cookies, you may want to sprinkle the unbaked cookies with crystal or sparkling sugar.
7. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes (depending on size) or until they are brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling before frosting.