Chocolate Sugar Cookies

So, Superbowl was how long ago?  A month?  Maybe a month and a half… oh, who really cares.  Better late than never, right?  I've proposed a lot of questions to in the first few sentences, but this is a fact, cookies are cookies and no matter what time of year it is and the only thing that changes is how they are decorated.


As I've already mentioned, the slew of food I made for the Superbowl will be the main focus of the next 6 or 7 posts.  Yes, I made a lot of food but what do you expect?  One of my favorite things to do is to cook for a large crowd and I think I even outdid myself this time.  There were 10 to 15 people crammed into a small Capitol Hill condo and we still had leftovers for the next week.

The reason these sugar cookies are the the typical color of your typical sugar cookies because I made them chocolate in an attempt to provide a decorating shortcut.  However, I realized that they were much darker than actual footballs and I still had to ice the whole thing.  Oh well, maybe it gave them a double dimension of awesomeness?  And yes, I did dye coconut green to make green for the pigskins to rest on.  I'm not an overachiever or ANYTHING... never.  Ever.

However, I thought the chocolate flavor of these was a litter blander than I would have hoped.  Maybe even a little flat.  Next time I make these, I think I am going to adjust the amount of cocoa powder and see if I can get the rick flavor I was striving for.

Shamrock Sugar Cookies

I am posting another recipe so soon after my last post, could it be?  Yes, yes, it's true.  I fell really far behind on posting (I still have three more recipes to post!) so I might as well do a few at a time.

I made these cookies for St. Patrick's Day for a variety of reasons.  One, St. Patrick's Day has to be one of my favorite holidays.  Two, who doesn't like holiday themed cookies?  And three, I wanted to give these out to everyone I knew to make their day a little brighter!

I must say, this is one of the best sugar cookie recipes I have ever used.  The almond extract and lemon zest made this so much more than your typical sugar cookie.  Then on top of these, these cookies actually held their shape when you cooked them!  The only downside is that these aren't as easy as your roll-out, cut, and bake variety.  After forming the dough, I had to chill it it in fridge for about 30 minutes.  After it was chilled, I divided the dough into two balls and rolled out each one between two pieces of parchment paper.  Once I got the dough to about a ⅓ of an inch thickness, I froze the sheets of dough for about 20 minutes.  After cutting out the shapes and putting them onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, I re-rolled the dough, froze, and repeated cutting out the shapes.  Sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, it's worth it!

Sugar Cookies

Adapted from the Beantown Baker

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c. butter
• 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 5 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• Parchment Paper, for rolling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add vanilla, almond, and lemon zest.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time. Do not over mix, this process should take about one minute.
4. Chill dough for 30 minutes in fridge. After chilled, divide the dough into two balls and roll out each one between two pieces of parchment paper.  Once dough is at about a ⅓ of an inch thickness, freeze the sheets of dough for about 20 minutes. Remove from freezer and cut out shapes.  Re-roll dough and re-freeze.  Repeat.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Wait until cookies are cooled before icing.