Valentine's Cookies

My sweet tooth got the best of me today. I decided to put the craving to good use and make some Valentine's cookies to take to some friends. I used my tried and true sugar cookie recipe and tried a new glaze icing recipe. I'm not fond of the taste of royal icing, so I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of the icing I found on Our Best Bites website. YUM!!

Here are the recipes:

Sugar Cookies

1 cup real butter (no substitutions!)
1 cup sugar
1 egg (make sure to use a large or extra large egg)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavor of your choice, like almond or lemon)
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes. Add in egg and extract and mix to incorporate.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.

Chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour, or use this great tip to make things easier:
When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes. The baking time really depends on how you like them. If you like them slightly chewy, about 8-9 minutes does it. If you like them slightly crisp and buttery, then go for 10-12.

Glacé Icing

1 lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
6TBLS whole milk
6TBLS light Corn Syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.

You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It's smooth and thin and easily runs off the whisk in a pretty thin drizzle.

To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar. Just eyeball it. You can't really mess it up because if it's too thick you just add more milk and if it's to thin, you add more powdered sugar.

Take your glazing icing and separate it into bowls if you want to color it. Use gel food coloring for more intense colors.

I outlined each cookie with a thicker version of the glaze and then let it set for an hour or two until it was firm. Then you can fill in with the thin glaze. The piping will act as a dam and hold the glaze in. So just drop a spoonful of glaze in the middle of the cookie and with a small spoon, or clean paint brush, or toothpick for small spaces, gently spread the icing out until it fills the cookie in. Let the glaze dry completely overnight. They should be stackable at that point. SO EASY!!!