Easter is coming...

With Easter coming up, I thought I'd share another alternative to giving a bunny as an Easter gift--give bunny sugar cookies instead!
Here's my recipe for soft sugar cookies and stackable sugar cookie icing:

Soft Sugar Cookies

4C all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ C sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ C sour cream

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg, vanilla and sour cream until well blended.

Gradually stir in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide the dough in half and wrap tightly with plastic wrap and let chill at least 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

The cookie dough should be the consistency of play-doh before you roll it out onto a lightly floured surface. 

Roll the dough out to ~1/8-1/4 inch thickness and cut out the shapes.  Make sure the dough is cool for the best shapes.

Place cookies at least 2 inches apart (figure 6-8 large cookies) on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 5-10 minutes (longer for light colored baking sheets) or until the tops of the cookies look dry.  Let cool for a few seconds prior to removing them from the baking sheet.

Let cool completely before decorating.

                                                Yield: ~3 dozen large cookies

Stackable Sugar Cookie Icing

3 C confectioners’ sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp milk (add extra by ½ tsp increments to reach desired honey-like consistency)

2 Tbsp light corn syrup (no more or it won’t set up)

1 Tbsp (clear for best color) vanilla extract

paste food coloring

Combine all of the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl and gradually whisk in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth and glossy.

Cover any icing you aren’t going to use immediately with plastic wrap or spoon colored icing into Ziploc baggies to use as piping bags for later.  This icing forms a skin easily and will need to be mixed often otherwise.

Allow to dry for at least 2 hours before trying to stack them—drying time depends on the thickness of the icing layer and your humidity that day.

Yield:  Should be enough to cover the 3 dozen cookies in the prior recipe. 

Thanks for visiting the blog and we hope you have a great weekend!  We'll be back on Sunday with a special holiday post.