Sometimes a cookie just needs to be a cookie.  It should immediately satisfy, and make you want at least one more.  These are not the chock-a-block full of nutrition ones that make sure you’re getting all your daily fibre & other requirements, because really, all you asked for was a cookie.  These are the big, soft sugar cookies of yesteryear.  No rolling pins, no hand painted delicacies.  Capped off with a swirl of velvety icing, these are simply a perfect blend of the basics, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. They do well as a normal size cookie, and amaze as dessert size cookies.

Experiment decorating with sparkly sugars, shimmery dusts, or weird little candy things.  Every theme has some sort of cooky sprinkles available.  I’ve used black & white cows, dolphins, and shoes, and all of them came in shaker bottles.  Strange, but true.

Have fun with these, let little hands roll the dough, these aren’t proud cookies, they’ll turn out well just because you want them to. 

Click here for printable version.

Makes about 4 dozen 2” cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies:

4½ c flour

4½ t baking powder

1 t salt

1½ c butter (12 oz. or 340 gr.) room temperature

1½ c sugar

3 large eggs

1½ T vanilla

Icing:

5 c icing sugar

1/3 c melted butter (2⅔ oz. or 75 grams)

1 T vanilla

6-7 T milk – not cold – measure out ½ hour before using

Food Colouring

Decorative Sprinkles

Directions:

Making and baking the cookies:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of a mixer on medium-high speed, beat the butter together with the sugar, until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.   Scraping down as needed.

Beat the eggs in one at a time until well mixed in.  Just break them all into a spouted cup, and they’ll blop in one at a time, if you pour slowly.

Mix in the vanilla.

With the mixer on a lower speed, add in the dry ingredients in four additions.  Making sure each addition is well mixed before adding in the next.

Cover and chill for a minimum of 1 hour, or overnight.

When it’s time to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°

Using about ⅛ of a cup (2 Tablespoons, or 30 grams, or 1 ounce) of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls. 

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, 2 inches apart.

Using three fingers, gently flatten the balls.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until the bottoms have just started to turn golden.

The cookies will be quite soft when they are pulled from the oven.

Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.

If you are not going to be icing them within the next hour or so, store them in an airtight container with wax paper separating the layers.

Icing the cookies:

Measure the icing sugar into a medium bowl.

Drizzle the melted butter over top.

Stir until the butter is mixed throughout.  There will be small clumps.

Add in the vanilla, by sprinkling over the top of the sugar.

Stir in as you did the butter.

Add in 6 T of milk.

Stir at first, then switch to a whisk.

Add more milk if needed, by about a teaspoon at a time.

Keep whisking until you have a spreadable icing.

It should softly hold its shape when the whisk is drawn through it.

Add in food colouring if desired.  For a medium tone, use about ¼ t of paste colouring.

Using a small offset spatula, swirl on a dollop of icing onto each cookie.

If you are adding sprinkles, add them before the icing sets.  I ice a few cookies, and then either dip them (for full coverage), or lightly sprinkle them before they set.

After decorating, let the icing set for about 3 hours. 

The cookies should be stored in airtight containers, up to two layers deep, with wax paper between the layers.

Note: To make larger “dessert” cookies, use about ¼ c dough (about 2 oz. or 60 grams) for each cookie.  Increase baking time to 14 minutes.