Sugar Cookies

Last Valentine's Day, I thought I'd try my hand at some sugar cookies. Armed with a seemingly easy recipe from rasperri cupcakes (all it contained was butter, flour and sugar!), this ended up taking me a ridiculous amount of time, with my only solace coming from my mother, whose experience with various amounts of dough (because making roti every morning is the same as working with cookie dough, right?) allowed her to help me combat the sticky butter-laden dough. The cookies came out okay in the end, but the recipe was resigned to the deep-dark graveyard of recipes to never again be revisited.

While trawling through Joy of Baking one day, I came across a new sugar cookie recipe, which despite requiring more ingredients than the previous one, seemed much more reliable. I've used this recipe a few times now, and the results are always amazing. The cookies are light and crispy and the dough yields heaaaps of cookies (I'm talking 80+ using a regular sized cookie cutter). I never make the cookies all in one batch, I generally use half - two thirds of the dough in one go, and refrigerate the rest to use a few days later. If you don't need that large of a batch I suggest halving the recipe when making it so as not to waste much. 

As for the topping, I find just dusting them with icing sugar works well, but I experiemented with some royal icing on the second batch and this was also quite excellent... even if I do say so myself. Which I do.

Sugar Cookies (Adapted from Joy of Baking)

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla essence

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (approx. 2-4 minutes).
3. Add the eggs and vanilla essence, beating to combine.
4. Add in the flour mixture and beat mixture on low speed until mixture begins to combine.
5. Turn out contents of bowl onto the counter-top and knead until a soft, pliable dough is formed.
6.  Divide the dough in half, covering each half in cling wrap before placing in the fridge.
7. After chilling for at least an hour (can be left for a few days if you don't wish to bake the cookies on the same day), roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface into a thickness of approx.1cm (I usually do mine a little thinner as this produces a crispier cookie).
8.  Use a cookie cutter to press dough into shapes, placing cut-out cookies on a greased and lined baking tray as you go.
9. Place baking tray in the fridge for ten minutes (this prevents the cookies from losing their shape while baking) and preheat oven to 180 degrees.
10. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (be mindful of the thinner cookies as they will brown easily).
11. Allow cookies to cool on baking trays for five minutes before moving onto wire racks to cool completely

** If desired, dust the cookies with icing sugar once out of the oven. Royal icing can be added once the cookies are completely cool.