Homemade cut-out iced sugar cookies have been one of my favorite sweet treats since I was a kid. I remember my Grandma making these cut-out cookies for nearly every holiday… and they are my absolute favorite! And I think your family will love them too. But these are no ordinary sugar cookies. I put my very own twist on them and it makes them perfect for all— maple sugar cookies with maple icing!
Cut-out cookies can be tricky to make, so I’m going to share a few tips with you to make cut-out cookies so good, you will never want to buy a pre-made sugar cookie dough or mix again!
When you think of iced sugar cookies, you probably think about Christmas cookies, right? And while I love to make beautiful Christmas cookies, I am putting a twist on it and making these sugar cookies with a great autumn flavor—maple!—and making them into football cookie pops for my son’s football team. It’s their last game and I am on for snack, so I have to do something special, right?!
Okay, I know that my icing writing needs some work… I am definitely not a professional, but I think they turned out pretty good for my first time trying to write with icing…
Tip #1 Use a table mixer. This is one of the only recipes that I actually get out the table mixer, but I don’t think that you can make these without it. While you don’t want to over mix and make the dough too tough, it does need to be mixed until it is a stiff dough and a hand mixer just doesn’t do as good.
3 ¾ cups sifted, all-purpose flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 ½ cups sugar 2 eggs 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature 1 ½ tsp pure maple flavor Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Tip #2 For best results, refrigerate for 15 minutes before rolling out cookie dough. Roll dough out on floured counter-top. Make cookies approx. 3/8 inch thick. Tip #3 Divide cookie dough into thirds. Only roll out one-third of the dough at a time. This way, once the dough has been covered in flour and rolled out, the excess will be mixed with fresh dough (that has not been floured or rolled yet), so it keeps it from becoming too tough. Bake 8-10 minutes. 1 Tbsp butter, room temperature 1 tsp maple flavoring 2 ½ cup confectioners sugar 3 Tbsp milk Beat butter, maple flavor, and confectioner’s sugar until smooth. Add in milk 1 Tbsp at a time. Maple Sugar Cookies with Maple Icing
Maple Sugar Cookie Recipe
Maple Icing Recipe
Tip #4 Make sure each batch of cookies is approximately the same size and thickness. If cookies are different thickness or size, they will not cook evenly and you will have some that are overcooked, while others may be undercooked.
If I’m just making a regular batch of cookies, I usually make them about 3/8 inch thick. For cookie pops, they need to be about half as thick because you will be layering them: place cut-out cookie dough on parchment paper, place cookie pop stick (which has been pre-soaked in water so the sticks don’t burn), then top with 2nd cut-out cookie dough, so the stick bakes in between the cookie layers.
Tip #5 Bake cookies on parchment paper. Ok, this may not be a secret, but baking cookies on parchment paper prevents the cookies from sticking to the cookie sheet. No need to buy a liner, just use parchment paper.
Tip #6 Let cookies sit on baking sheet after you get them our of the oven for at least 30 seconds to 1 minute before trying to move to cooling rack. This is especially important with cut-out cookies because you want them to maintain their shape.
Let cool completely before icing.
So I added a couple of store-bought treats and put together these festive goodie bags… because those boys are hungry after playing a rigorous game of football…
What a fun, festive, and tasty way to end the season!
ENJOY!
[…] Maple Sugar Cookies with Maple IcingOctober 21, 2016 […]