Cute!

Lucky GS. :) Happy St Patrick's Day to you too. :)

Tartan plaid cookies! Over the top cute!

Bet your grandson was thrilled with that big one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am saving this picture for next year. Thank you.

Oooooh delicious looking.

Well, I'm impressed, lovely cookies.

Love 'em! Cute and yummy looking!

so good to see what must be a very good sugar cookie.

plz post the recipe. I might try it - I get hungry for a good sugar cookie and

bought cookies aren't very good.

Thank you all! I make a lot of cookies, but since my kids have grown up, rarely make decorated cookies. It was fun to get creative again. Steph, I used the recipe for Ethel's Sugar Cookies from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book, which was published in the days when butter was considered bad, and vegetable shortening was thought to be better for our health. Opinions have changed, so I use half butter and half shortening--I would use all butter, but I don't want the cookies to be too crisp. I short the sugar by about 2TBS per cup, especially if I know I'm going to decorate with icing or candies. I made a 4-batch recipe, so I chilled the dough overnight, and returned the remaining dough to the fridge, while the first batches were baking. (I definitely recommend a stand mixer for large batches.)

_______________________________

3/4 cup shortening (part butter)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring or 1 teaspoon vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon salt

Cream shortening and sugar; beat in eggs and flavoring. Combine flour,
baking powder, and salt, and blend into egg mixture. Chill dough for at
least 1 hour. Roll out dough to ⅛-inch thickness on a floured board. Cut
into desired shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6
to 8 minutes at 400 degrees F, until cookies are a delicate
golden color.

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Exact baking time will depend on the size of cutter you use, so check the first batch often after 5 minutes--you just want to see a slight browned edge, no color on the top. I rolled mine a little thick, because I didn't want too much icing-to-cooky ratio, and of course, the big cooky, which was made with 3 large heart-shaped cooky cutters, took longer to bake.

The pre-baked dough also makes a good base for no-bake cheesecake, and no-bake fruit tarts. I rolled out a large circle, put it on another round pizza pan, then added a rolled-rope edge, and baked it for ap 12 minutes. When it was cool I spread a can of cherry pie filling (with a couple of TBS of blueberry PF, which was left over from some pastry tarts I made last week-end), then drizzled with the last of the white icing, for a more 'grown-up' dessert than sugar cookies. I could have made a fancier fluted edge, but by that time, I was tired of working with cooky dough. Canned pie filling get dis'ed by a lot of cooks, but I can eat it with a spoon, straight from the can. ;)

Here is what remains of the fruit tart:

eam44, are you by any chance Maltese? ;) Those brownies look so good and gooey! I made some last week-end, but they don't last long around here.

No kidding mama! They look more like a Maltese cross than clover of any kind. I'm still learning, but I just started dating a sweet Irish guy (who did not point out my mistake or my inept frosting abilities, so he gets an A+) so I'll learn. The recipe is amazing. Alice Medrich is a genius.

He sounds like a keeper!

I checked out Alice Medrich's basic recipe. It's very similar to my favorite recipe using powdered cocoa. (Mine uses an extra egg and 1/4 c. more flour.) I'm impressed by a gooey-chewy brownie, because since I hate the thought of raw eggs, I tend to over bake. Since finding the recipe that doesn't include baking powder, it's been easier to get a better result. And since finding out how many people consume raw cooky dough, I've relaxed a little on the raw(ish) egg issue.

Raw cookie dough is my heroin. :)

Those cookies are amazing looking, MamaG. Lucky GS! I bet they taste as good as they look.

Eam, those brownies look so yummy that I wouldn't care if you put a swastika on them, lol.

Now I want to try both your recipes even though they are totally off my food plan. Oh, Temptation, you do vex me so. I just knew I shouldn't open this thread.

Those are beautiful! Your grandson must have been so excited! I hope my Easter cookies turn out that pretty. :)

Thank you! The cookies are really good, soft and dense, with a very mild taste, and not too sweet, since I decreased the sugar. Something I noticed about the cooked buttercream icing is that it can be made ahead, refrigerated, then softened in the MW. After it softens, it can be whipped again to a smooth consistency, and a little milk added to thin it for piping. I've also used lime juice to thin it.

As I mentioned, I used some left-over icing that had been refrigerated for a few days. Once the softened icing was colored, thinned, and piped on, it eventually became firm (I put the tray in the fridge for a short time), but not crunchy or gritty like royal icing, nor cloyingly sweet like powdered sugar buttercream. I couldn't stack the cookies, but the piped icing held it's shape, and covering with plastic wrap did not affect the designs.

After a couple of days, the icing has stayed very smooth textured, although the colors have intensified slightly--it kind of has the consistency of a firm gel--maybe because it's made with a pudding base. I would imagine a thin layer could be spread on the cooky, allowed to become firm, then designs could be piped on top. Freshly made, it's delicious, light, and creamy--I can eat it by the spoonful, and I've decided I'm never again making powdered sugar buttercream, or royal icing.

The following link has the recipe, and if you enjoy frosting cakes and cookies, read on about the author's testing of the different methods of making buttercream.

Cooked Buttercream, and the Battle of the Buttercreams.

Kids taste-testing different kinds of buttercreams--hilarious!

thx mamag! I have the big BC cook book but not just a cookie one. I don't think. I have a lot of them so it could be I just don't remember. it'll be a bit of time (like not this week) before I make them. I don't have a mat to roll 'em out or rolling pin any more either. will have to look for those when I'm out. I do have 1 rather small cookie sheet tho.

do you sift the flour? I don't have a sifter anymore so I hope not.

I used to be able to buy good sugar cookies at a local store but they changed their vender - and no more of those awesome cookies!

salted or unsalted butter? so, all butter would make them crispier? I'd have to buy shortening too. gee, so many things I'm not used to having here anymore!

steph, I don't usually sift flour. I know--tsk, tsk.

I sift the flour if it has obvious hard clumps, and the same for sugars (hard, lumpy brown sugar gets a few seconds in the MW, then whisked), and I usually pour the salt and BP through a wire sieve--it's worse to get a lump of salt or bitter baking powder in a bite of something that's supposed to be delicious.

I use salted butter, but in almost every recipe I make, I decrease the salt, and my family is accustomed to adding their own salt to foods other than baked goods. (Or not--the kids don't use much salt.)

I used salted butter in the buttercream recipe, but in that one I omitted the added salt.

Using all butter makes cookies crisper than using part, or all, shortening, but, really, a crisp sugar cooky is still yummy!

I can totally see Easter cookies with pink and green plaid icing...how cute!

Thank you, bp. Plaid eggs, chicks and bunnies would be adorable.

I decided to test the frosting method before going all out on Easter cookies. I'd cut out some in the shape of eggs (using an empty food can, squeezed into an oval shape), when I made the other cookies, and I still had a small amount of green icing in the fridge--I'd mixed the left-overs of both green shades. I warmed it slightly in the MW--just enough to make it easy to stir, but not enough to melt it. I stirred it briskly with a spoon, then carefully spread it on each cooky, leaving a border. The cooked frosting doesn't flow like the royal icing, but it spreads easier than regular buttercream. As I mentioned before, it's smooth, and not crunchy, gritty, or greasy. I stuck the frosted cookies in the fridge until the frosting was firm to the touch, then used a grass tip to pipe a nest. The eggs are jelly beans:

This would be fun and easy for kids!