Valentine's Day Cookies

We've been cooped up inside for the last few days due to weather. A rare event in Dallas! We finally got above freezing today and what did we do? Made it another pajama day and baked cookies. :) My absolutely favorite cookies are my mom's sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. YUM!

This is a NON-refrigerated dough. When I make cookies, I like to make them right away, not wait for my dough to chill, then come back to partial room temp. Here's our super-secret family recipe.

Gram's Sugar Cookies
1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
1 tsp butter flavoring



Cream together margarine & sugar, then add the egg and butter flavoring.

Mix together 2 cups of the flour and the baking powder, then add them in slowly to the sugar mixture. I take it off the mixer and mix in another 3/4 cup of flour by hand. If you're keeping track, we have used 2 and 3/4 cups of the flour so far. Keep the other 1/4 cup set aside. We'll work that in as we roll out the dough. Putting in the entire 3 cups, plus using more as you roll it out can over-flour your cookies and make them dry.

Allow some time for a little Quality Control:

Next, you want to roll out your cookies. My mom taught me this neat trick for rolling out your dough so that it is a consistent thickness. Take a dowel rod and cut it in half so you have two dowel rods approx the same length. I use a 5/16" dowel rod. Tape one dowel rod to the counter. Place your rolling pin on top of it so you can see how far apart you want your second one to be. Once you have figured that out, tape down the second dowel rod.

Of course, if you have rolling pin bands, this isn't necessary, but I don't have any, so this is my method. :)

Flour your working surface with part of the 1/4 cup of flour that we held out. Be sure to give your rolling pin a little flour too. Take 1/4 to 1/3 of your dough and roll it out. Keep the edges of your rolling pin on the dowel rods and all of your cookies will be the same thickness.
Take your favorite cookie cutters and start cutting out as many shapes/sizes as you want.

With the "extras" you have leftover, work it back into the dough instead of continuing to roll it out over and over until it's all gone, then starting with a new part of the dough to roll out. If you keep working the same dough into more and more flour, it will make your cookies hard.

Once you have your baking sheets filled up, bake at 400 degrees for 7-8 minutes. At the 7 minute mark, check one of the cookies and just as it is starting to get very, very, very lightly brown, take the cookies out of the oven and immediately move them onto a cooling rack. Keep in mind, if you leave your cookies on the baking sheet, they will continue to cook, so get them off ASAP.

Don't they look pretty? This is how my husband likes his cookies. I think there might be something wrong with him...he doesn't like icing!

Use whatever icing recipe floats your boat. I'm a buttercream fan, so that's what I used on these.

Happy Valentine's Day!

...9 days early. :)

Linking up at Tatertots & Jello.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Every year, I attend at least a couple of holiday cookie exchanges. This year, my step-mother wins the award for having hers the earliest...November 13th! She has pretty specific rules for her cookie exchanges: no chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, bar cookies or snickerdoodles. I don't know about you, but she just cut out all of my favorites (except for oatmeal raisin...eww!)! This makes me have to be creative, though, and that's not a bad thing. :)

This year, I came up with a cheaters version of snickerdoodles. Please don't tell her! LOL Cinnamon Roll Cookies!

Here are some quickie directions on how to make these.

Take your favorite sugar cookie recipe. It can be from scratch, a package mix or even a pre-mixed dough log from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Take about 1/2 of a scratch recipe or 1 package or log and roll it out into about 1/8" thick rectangle shape onto a well-floured surface (ding, ding ding...this is KEY! Also, if you are using a premade log, I would recommend kneading in about 1/8 cup of flour so they don't spread out too much.) The thickness part is not an exact science, but keep in mind that you don't want it to be too terribly thick since we're going to roll this up like a pinwheel.

Once you have it rolled out, sprinkle the top of it liberally with cinnamon. Then, starting at a long side of the rectangle, start tightly rolling the cookie dough onto itself, creating a long pinwheel. I would recommend putting the rolled log into the refrigerator for at least an hour, but overnight would be best. You can take that advice or leave it, but if you're not in a hurry to get them done, I would definitely refrigerate.

Once your log has been in the fridge for at least an hour, take it out and start slicing one of the ends, making them approx 1/4" thick. See? You're just making your own slice and bake cookies! LOL Bake your cookies according to their package directions.

For for the glaze, mix together 1 and 1/8 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. Once these are mixed together and it's nice and smooth, pipe it in a zig-zag motion onto the cooled cookies.

Don't they look delish? They are!

Linking up at Tatertots & Jello