Decorated Butter Cookies Recipes

BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Using a cookie press fitted with a heart disk, press dough 1 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake until set but not brown, 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire racks., For frosting, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough milk to reach a spreading consistency. If desired, tint with food coloring. Decorate cookies as desired.

BEST EVER BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine 1 cup butter, sugar and egg in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add orange juice and 1 tablespoon vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add flour and baking powder; beat at low speed until well mixed.
• Divide dough into thirds. Shape each third into a ball; flatten slightly. Wrap each in plastic food wrap; refrigerate 2-3 hours or until firm.
• Heat oven to 400°F.
• Roll out dough, 1/3 at a time, on lightly floured surface (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 3-inch cookie cutters. Place, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 6-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to cooling rack. Cool completely.
• Combine powdered sugar, 1/3 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla in bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often and gradually adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. Tint with food color, if desired. Frost and decorate cooled cookies as desired.

THE BEST SUGAR COOKIES FOR DECORATING

Steps:

• For the dough: Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the egg and vanilla in a small bowl.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Once incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat until slightly creamy, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Reduce the speed to low again and slowly pour in the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture, in 3 additions, increasing the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters as needed. Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide into 2 even pieces. Shape each piece into a flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.
• To roll, cut and bake the cookies: Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Dust another sheet of parchment paper with flour and put 1 piece of the dough on top. Dust with more flour and top with another sheet of parchment. Roll the dough out between the parchment sheets into a square about 1/4-inch thick (about 11-by-9 inches) and place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.
• From 1 piece of rolled dough, cut out cookies with a 2 1/2-inch cutter and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate while you cut the remaining cookies. Reroll any scraps of dough and repeat the freezing, cutting and refrigerating process until all the dough is used.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets front to back and bottom to top about halfway through, until golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheets set on a wire cooling rack, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water and the vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until the icing forms thick and glossy peaks, about 2 minutes (adding up to 1 tablespoon more water, if needed). Tint with a few drops of food coloring as desired.
• Fit a pastry bag with a small round tip and fill it with the icing.
• Pipe royal icing on cookies with the design of your liking and let dry for 30 minutes.

DECORATED CHRISTMAS CUTOUT COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill until firm, 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in thickness. Cut out with Christmas cookie cutters of your choice. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks., Decorate cookies with frosting and colored sugars.

BUTTER COOKIES WITH ROYAL ICING

Steps:

• Using a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and continue mixing until well combined.
• Whisk baking powder, salt, and flour in another large bowl. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients, 1 cup at a time. Mix until combined before adding each additional cup of flour.
• Divide dough in half and form 2 large balls. Cover each ball of dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill at least 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 400° F. Working with 1 dough ball at a time, roll out dough on floured surface (I like to use powdered sugar to flour my surface for cookies) 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 5-8 mins (the large cookies I do for 9 mins) in preheated oven. Cool completely before decorating as desired with royal icing.

WORLD'S BEST BUTTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
• Mix in the egg yolk until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.
• Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
• Scrape onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough smooths out.
• Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrap up and refrigerate for several hours or freeze.
• Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F.
• Line your baking sheets with parchment.
• Slice the dough into slices about 1/8" thick and place them on the sheets about an inch apart (they won't be spreading very much, but they need air room around each cookie).
• Bake until JUST beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16-18 minutes.
• Note: you can do many things with these cookies.
• You could roll the dough out and cut shapes.
• You could slice them even thinner and sandwich them with chocolate or jam or lemon curd.
• You could make them and then dip them half into chocolate.
• You could just make them and eat them, which is my favorite.
• Whatever you do, they will be delicious.

CHRISTMAS BUTTER COOKIE CUTOUTS

Steps:

• In large bowl, beat butter and granulated sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. On low speed, beat in egg, lemon peel and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until well blended.
• Divide dough into 4 parts; flatten each part into 1/2-inch-thick round. Wrap each in waxed paper or plastic wrap; refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Heat oven to 350°F. Remove 1 round of dough at a time from refrigerator. Between sheets of floured waxed paper or plastic wrap, roll dough until 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Cut with 3-inch cookie cutters in various shapes. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cutouts 1 inch apart.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or just until edges are golden. Cool on cookie sheets about 1 minute before removing to cooling rack. To make cookies for hanging, using a toothpick or end of plastic straw, carefully poke a hole in the top of each cookie while cookies are still hot. Cool 10 to 15 minutes before frosting.
• In medium bowl, stir together powdered sugar and meringue powder. Stir in 5 teaspoons lemon juice and enough of the 4 to 5 tablespoons water to make a thin icing. Transfer 1/2 cup of the icing into small bowl; set aside. Using a flexible pastry brush, paint cookies to the edges with icing. Place on cooling rack to dry completely, about 30 minutes.
• Beat reserved icing with electric mixer on high speed 5 to 7 minutes or until peaks form. Place in small resealable food-storage plastic bag; cut a very small hole in the bottom of the bag with the plain white icing. Squeeze icing onto glazed cookies. Before icing dries, sprinkle with decorations, and tap off excess. Dry thoroughly on cooling rack. Thread cookies with narrow ribbon for hanging.