Firetruck Cookies

Firetruck Cookies

Firetruck Cookies

My nephew Matthew celebrated his 3rd birthday and for his party, my sister-in-law Sonia made an awesome firetruck cake, and the decorations, plates, napkins, and balloons all had a firetruck theme. My sister-in-law asked me to make firetruck cookies for the party yesterday, and bought me the firetruck cookie cutter. Since my nephew cannot have royal icing due to raw egg whites and this is a common allergy for many kids, to be safe I made an egg free icing.  I used this icing when I made Christmas Cookies for my nephew and his friends at the daycare he attends, and the icing worked great. This icing behaves like royal icing and dries hard, tastes great, and is so shiny giving the cookies a pretty look. The firetruck cookies are vanilla, but you can substitute any extract flavor you like. I think lemon would have worked great in this recipe as well. The kids and adults loved the firetruck cookies. See recipe and instructions below.

Yield: 2 1/2 - 3 Dozen Firetruck Cookies or more depending on cookie cutter size

More Firetruck Cookies

Ingredients
5 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour

2 cups Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and cute into cubes

1 tablespoon Milk

2 XL Eggs

3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Firetruck Cookies dry and ready to transport

Directions
Whisk together flour and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a hand held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment on low; 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix for 10 seconds.

Add eggs one at a time, mix until incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 5 seconds.

Add milk and vanilla extract, and mix on low until incorporated, about 20-25 seconds.

With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture and incorporate. The dough is ready when it begins to clump around paddle attachment.

Cut in half and roll dough into 2 balls, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Take half of the dough leaving unused dough covered with plastic wrap in fridge until ready to use.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Use two sheets of parchment paper with dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.

I did not need to use flour but if you do, dip firetruck cutter in flour, shake off excess, and make shapes. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Place onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned. My cookies baked in 13 minutes.

Make sure cookie sheets cool in between baking. I place them in the freezer for a few minutes and then place cut-out dough on cold cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. This is important. Do not use hot cookie sheets or the cookies will spread and lose their shape.

Wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies with cookie spatula to cooling racks to complete cooling, about 1 hour.

Decorate once the cookies are cool to the touch.

Yay, Firetruck Cookies are all dry

Egg-Free Icing
(Double recipe if you have more than 40 cookies)

6 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar, sifted

1/2 cup Whole Milk + 1 tablespoon extra (for flooding cookies)

1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Finished filling the Red icing and they are all wet and need to dry

Directions
In a large bowl, sift powdered sugar; set aside.

Using stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment on medium-high speed, combine sugar and 1/4 cup of milk and mix for 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Add remaining 1/4 cup of milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you need. (I made one batch for the borders, and 1 batch to fill the cookies). For filling the cookies, I added 1 extra tablespoon of milk.

Add corn syrup and vanilla extract and mix for 10 seconds.

Note: The corn syrup gives the icing a lovely shine.

Made the ladders after the Red icing dried

I separated the icing in plastic containers with lids according to the different colors needed for tinting.

I used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in Black, Super Red and Yellow.

Use 1 drop of the Black to make the Grey color, and 2-4 drops (or more) for the Red, Black, and Yellow colors.

Keep the containers covered until you are ready to color.

Transfer the icing immediately into squeeze bottles using a small funnel to prevent spilling and keep covered when not in use.

I first made the outlines of the wheels and window of the firetruck using the Black icing.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one.

I then did the outline for the firetruck light in yellow. I made the border consistency for this color not both.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one.

I did the border for the firetruck in red.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one. This step takes awhile since there is a lot of Red icing to fill the cookies with.

Firetruck Cookies on wire rack to cool

I waited 6 hours for the Red icing to dry and then with the Grey icing made the ladder. I made the border consistency icing for this color not both.

Use a paintbrush or cookie stick to reach edges, and use tip of cookie stick or a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.

Let the firetruck cookies dry overnight. This is essential so the icing does not stick together when you stack them or place in cookie tins for gifts.

If you are baking and it is humid, you will need additional time for the cookies to dry. In my case, it was hot, humid and also raining the next morning, so the cookies took longer than expected to dry completely.

For further information:
Please visit, Sweetopia for the Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/sugar-cookie-recipe/

Please visit, The Slow Roasted Italian for the Egg-Free Icing Recipe:
http://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/12/best-tasting-sugar-cookie-icing-recipe.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys