Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies, And Icing.

Pictured here are the gingerbread, I just wanted to show the icing

I've been so busy the past week, I haven't had time to do anything! These were one of the many reasons I've been so busy, I made goody gifts to pass out for Christmas this year, and let me tell you, it's not a quick and easy thing to do! It's very time consuming, and tiring, but also very fun! I had a blast making these, and watching them slowly come together. It made me feel great, knowing I was giving gifts from my heart (and kitchen). I made so many things, sugar cookies, gingerbread, lemon ricotta, cake balls, oreo truffles, peppermint bark, and Russian tea cakes, (also sugar free peanut butter cookies, will post later) all in 1 1/2 days! I was exhausted! Also, I felt very accomplished and proud to have done so much in so little time. Everything came out so wonderful, and everyone loved the gifts, so it made all the time (and butter) spent, well worth it. I will definitely do this again next year, I started off with Sugar cookies, these cookies were a light, buttery sweet, with a great almond flavor! I got this recipe from the Bake at 350 blog, and it does not disappoint! I love this blog, it has a lot of great recipes, but the heart of the blog is cookies, Bridget makes and decorates such beautiful cookies, sometimes they don't look real!

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Check out her creations, and make these cookies for Christmas, any other holiday, or just for fun!

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks cold, salted butter
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract



This recipe makes about 3 dozen 2-3 inch cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.


(Tip: cut the dough in half and throw it in the fridge until you use the first half of the dough, so it's no sitting out getting warm. The colder the dough is, the easier it will be to cut and transfer to the cookie sheet)

Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets (she also suggests freezing the cookies for 5 minutes before baking, I was in a hurry and just baked them, they came out great!)


Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Let them cool completely before decorating.

 Icing:

(this will cover approximately 3 dozen 3.5 inch cookies)

1 pound of powdered sugar
5 tablespoons meringue powder
"Scant" (about) 1/2 cup water
A few drops of almond extract (totally optional)

Combine the meringue powder and water with a beater attachment using an electric mixer. Beat until peaks begin to form. Sift (make sure you sift!) in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine. Increase speed to high and beat until stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) If using an extract, add it then beat for a few more seconds to incorporate. Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings (keep covered when not using). (Tip: I also covered the icing bowl with a damp kitchen towel, along with the plastic wrap, I also covered the icing tips with a damp paper towel)

To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a 1/2 teaspoon at a time until it is the consistency of thick syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding". (I'll be making more soon to show how its done, I had no time to take so many pictures, I now regret not doing so.)