Donna Skovlunds Duck Fat Sugar Cookies Recipes

OLD SCHOOL SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a big bowl, combine the butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt and vanilla and mix until smooth and fluffy. Stir in the baking powder, taking care to mix well. Add the eggs and egg yolk and stir well. Add the flours and gently stir until a smooth ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet (or sheets) with parchment paper (no cooking spray).
• On a floured surface, roll out tennis ball-size pieces of dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out the shapes you want. Lay them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 1/4 inch between each cookie.
• Bake for 8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack, then decorate them however you like with Royal Icing and your favorite sprinkles.
• Using a stand mixer and the whisk attachment, whip most of the powdered sugar with most of the other ingredients. Whip for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the royal icing holds its shape and is bright white (not translucent). If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add a bit more liquid, drop by drop. If you are using only one color, add a few drops of the color at this point and keep whipping until you have the shade you want; otherwise, proceed to the next step.
• To store royal icing, the ideal way is to scrape it out of the bowl and into a plastic, disposable piping bag, then leave it at room temperature. Don't cut the bag until you're ready to use the royal icing, and don't overfill the bag--you want enough room to tie the back of the bag off to keep the royal icing airtight. If any air comes into contact with the royal icing, it gets hard and that part of the icing is useless. Never attempt to mix the hard bits back into the royal icing--you'll ruin the whole batch. The other accepted method of storing royal icing is to scrape it into a plastic or ceramic bowl, and cover it with a wet paper towel. This method works, but it wastes both paper towels and royal icing. It's also just annoying. When you're piping small designs, you want to use very small parchment piping bags. It's easy to stick the nose of a large piping bag into a smaller one and extract exactly how much you'll need. When the icing is in a bowl, you have to use a spoon to get it out. The spoon is difficult to get into a piping bag, and you'll keep using spoons and wasting royal icing. Get with the times people. Do it right and don't waste food.

DONNA SKOVLUND'S DUCK FAT SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl with an electric mixer cream the duck fat and the butter toegther with 1/12 cups of the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Into another bowl sift together the flour, backing powder, and salt, add the flour mixture to the duck fat mixture with the raisins, and stir the mixture until it forms adough. Roll rounded teaspoons of the dough into balls, arrange the balls 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets, and flatten them with the bottom of a glass diffed in sugar. The edges will crack slightly. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar and bake in the middle of a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are pale golden. Transfer the cookies to racks to cool.

FAT FREE SUGAR COOKIES THAT WORK!

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
• combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a large bowl. mix throughly with a fork, slightly fluffing the flour to create mild pockets of air in the mixture.
• Add Splenda and mix again.
• Add buttermilk (1 tbs at a time), fat free plain yogurt, vanilla and butter flavoring. SOFTLY AND GENTLY mix with a spoon and incorporating all the ingredients together until everything is mixed.
• bake for about 15-20 minutes until the bottoms are browned (but not burnt) and they look done. (I have a convection oven so times may vary).
• Note: DO NOT OVER MIX, however do not undermix. I do not know the outcome that this may have, but I have a feeling that it isn't very good!

THICK CUT-OUTS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each. Mix in vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Cover dough and chill for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.
• To make frosting, mix together the confectioners' sugar, oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla until smooth. gradually add enough hot water to achieve a spreadable consistency. Spread over warm cookies.