Happy 4th of July! I hope you are enjoying time with family and practicing social distancing, and wearing your face covering to protect yourself and others from the COVID-19 pandemic. I am home with hubby relaxing, baking and decorating cookies. Allen made his awesome mild and spicy baked chicken wings and I made my yummy potato salad. Last week, I ordered some new cutters from Mike at Semi Sweet Designs (bald eagle, firework, USA, top hat mini cutters, half circle (for bunting cookie), 4th of July script, and truck with firework cutters, and combined them with different size star shapes I have. I use large and small shooting star, and two different flag cutters I purchased recently from Fancy Flours. I was excited to make these cookies and love the patriotic color combination of red, white, and blue. The dough is vanilla with red, white and blue jimmies sprinkles.
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Yield: 3 Dozen Cookies (Depending on cutter size and thickness of cookie)
Ingredients
1 cup, 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg
2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Coarse Salt
1/2 cup Red, White, and Blue Jimmies
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Directions
In a large bowl whisk together the flour and salt; set aside.
Cream butter and sugar in a hand held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium speed; 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix.
Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix for a 10 seconds.
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Add eggs, and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Turn off mixer and add the flour mixture and cover mixer with a kitchen towel, and then turn mixer on low speed and incorporate.
Add sprinkles and mix just until incorporated; about 10 seconds.
The dough is ready when it begins to clump around the paddle attachment.
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Form the dough into a disk shape and cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight. I chilled the dough for 2 hours.
Heat oven to 400°F.
Use two sheets of parchment paper with the dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.
Cut out shapes.
Place onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Oven temps vary so check the cookies at the 7 minute mark.
Make sure cookie sheets cool in between baking. I place them in the freezer for a few minutes.
Do not use hot cookie sheets or the cookies will spread and lose their shape.
Wait 5 minutes before transferring the cookies with cookie spatula to wire racks to complete cooling; about 1 hour.
Decorate once the cookies are cool to the touch.
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
Note about using sprinkles in cookie dough:
- The cookies do not have a perfect shape so be mindful of this.
- Try not to roll out dough too much as the sprinkles will tint the dough.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
4 Egg Whites
4 teaspoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
6 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
1-3 teaspoons, room temperature water (if needed)
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| Fourth of July Cookies |
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| Vanilla dough with red, white, and blue jimmies sprinkles |
Directions
In a large bowl, sift the powdered sugar; set aside.
Separate the yolks and add the egg whites in a bowl.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg whites and lemon juice.
Transfer to a stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment and mix on high for 1-2 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and mix for 5-10 seconds.
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| Cookies just taken out of the oven |
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| Cookies just taken out of the oven |
With the mixer off add the sifted powdered sugar, cover the mixer with a kitchen towel, and then turn the mixer to low speed and beat until smooth.
The consistency using this recipe is thick and great for borders and detail work.
If you need a both a border and flood-like consistency keep reading below.
If you only need flood consistency icing, add 1/2 teaspoon of water and mix for 5-10 seconds, and repeat until you reach the right consistency. Be careful that your icing does not become too runny or you may have to start over.
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| Red, white, and blue royal icing in Sweet Sugarbelle Icing Bottles |
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| Various sprinkles and Rainbow Dust Metallic Food Paint |
Keep the containers or Tupperware/Pyrex covered until you are ready to color.
I use AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in Super Red and Royal Blue.
Use 1-2 drops at a time until you reach the desired color. Colors darken over time so be careful not to add too much color.
Once you have the colors completed in each container, take the amount you need of the border icing consistency and place into icing bottles, tipless bags, or pastry bags with desired tips.
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| My set up; important to cover kitchen table with plastic tablecloth for easy clean up |
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| My set up |
I find doing it this way is easiest as you end up with the same color for both the border and flood consistency.
Decorate your cookies.
Do a border and then fill it immediately. If you are adding layers let the first layer dry completely.
I use a cookie stick to reach edges, and to pop any air bubbles.
Let the cookies dry overnight.
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| Stars all decorated |
Please keep in mind if you are baking and it is humid, you may need more time for the cookies to dry.
Since it is summer and my apartment kitchen is not air conditioned (poor me), I use a floor fan while I decorate. I left the fan circulating on low for several hours. This helps dry the icing.
Adapted from Sweet Sugarbelle, Rainbow Funfetti Cut-out Cookie Recipe:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2015/07/rainbow-funfetti-cutout-cookie-recipe/
Check out Semi Sweet Designs for great cookie cutters and tutorials:
https://shop.semisweetdesigns.com/
Check out Fancy Flours for all your baking supplies:
https://www.fancyflours.com/
Enjoy!
-Sophia/Two Frys
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