The Best Iced Sugar Cookies

Back in my Finance days I had a teeny little cookie business {if you can even call it that} on the side. It was my creative outlet during a time when I spent most of my day in a gray cubicle. I loved making cookies and designing each order. Since having our second child, I've set that "business" aside but have held on to my vast collection of cookie cutters and other cookie decorating tools.

For a baby shower recently, I made onesie cookies as shower favors. Here are a few tips for making your own decorated sugar cookies.

Using a good dough recipe {this Williams Sonoma one is great}, make your dough and tightly wrap it in plastic wrap.

Dough-making tip: use softened butter and beat for several minutes with the sugar until the mixture is fluffy and considerably lighter in color. Don't rush this step!

Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight. You can even freeze it at this point if you want to really spread out the work.

When you're ready to roll out the dough, let your dough sit out of the fridge for just a few minutes. You don't want it to come to room temperature but need it to be pliable. If your dough is too soft or warm, the cookies will spread when they bake and won't retain their shape as well.

Flour your surface and the top of your dough. For the best cookies, don't roll them too thin. You want them to be 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. The thicker the cookie, the better it will hold up and the more evenly it will bake.

Cut your cookies as close together as possible to minimize scraps. The best dough is fresh dough. The more times you gather up the scraps and re-roll, the warmer the dough will be and the crumblier {hmm...is that a word?} it becomes.

Bake according to the recipe. I use a Silpat-lined half sheet. I swear by Silpat and couldn't live without my half sheets.

If you've never made these before, be sure to set the oven timer to a couple minutes sooner than the recipe suggests. Check the cookies often towards the end of the baking time. You don't want them to get brown on the edges. They should be barely-golden and the edges and middle should be the same color. If you touch the middle, it should still be soft, not crispy.

Let them cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet before transfering them to a cooling rack.

Sugar cookies traditionally are decorated with royal icing using egg whites. However, I don't care for royal icing and use a thinned out buttercream instead. It has a better flavor and doesn't get rock hard like royal icing does. I don't have an exact recipe for it but I start with about a tablespoon of softened butter, add several cups of powdered sugar and stir in milk until I get the right consistency. I whip it in the stand mixer and add either vanilla or almond extract to taste. Since it's a softer icing, I use about a tablespoon or more of meringue powder to cause the icing to crust over a bit once the cookie is decorated. That prevents smudges and allows the cookies to be wrapped without smearing the icing.

For the base coat, I make my icing slightly runny. It covers the cookie smoothly without any smears or streaks.

For piping, I use a parchment triangle folded into a cone, a coupler, and a size 3 round tip. I thicken the icing with powdered sugar for piping details. You want the icing to smoothly come out of the tip without running or spreading.

I always outline my cookies with piped icing. Even if the cookie is all one color, I outline it. It gives them a finished, defined look that you can't achieve with simply spreading icing on.

Here I used a contrasting color to outline and add the baby's initial. To color icing, I prefer the gel food coloring. The Ateco Spectrum squeezable gels are my favorite but the Wilton ones are good too. The only thing I don't like about the Wilton gels is that you have to use a toothpick to get the color out, being careful not to get icing in the container.

Once decorated, I let the icing dry for several hours before wrapping the cookies. I use clear, cello bags to wrap them in and tie them with all sorts of ribbon, though grosgrain and raffia are my favorites. You can buy cello bags and ribbon in bulk from PaperMart. Hobby Lobby and Michael's carry them too.

A tip about cookie cutters: If you're looking for beautiful cutters in nearly every shape imaginable, check out CopperGifts. For less expensive, aluminum cutters try Foose Tinsmithing. I have over 100 different shapes and have found many through these two companies. But Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma, and Hobby Lobby have several cutters available too.

Back when I was in "business", if a client requested a very customized cookie and I didn't want to buy an expensive cutter for just that order, I'd make my own. Now, you don't want to do this if you're making a ton, but for a dozen or so, it's not too bad. Just find a shape you like online or in clipart. Print it out and trace it on vinyl {like the vinyl used to back spiral bound notebooks}. Using your template, cut out your dough with a sharp knife and gently transfer to your cookie sheet.

Happy cookie decorating!