One woman's foray into cooking for herself, for her family, and for her friends. It's not always picture-perfect, sometimes a little messy,
but it's always delicious. Join me in exploring new recipes, savoring the "résultats" and learning from the "erreurs".



Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cookie Monsters

My 11-year-old nephew (Ricky) and 4-year-old niece (Ashlynne) came over this weekend. My nephew's favorite thing to do when visiting me is making sugar cookies. It's a little tradition he and I started when he was only about 4 years old himself. This was Ashlynne's first baking stint in my kitchen. She got the hang of it pretty quickly! Ricky showed her how to use the cookie cutters and decorate with colored sugars. Ricky is very 'meticulous' in his cookie decorating. He knows what colors he wants to use, even using dragees on a couple of his cookies. He likes to use alphabet cutters to spell out his name in cookie dough. Ashlynne used a few alphabet cookies to spell out part of her name, using more sugar than cookie dough on her creations! She also wanted to venture outside the alphabet world into shapes: hearts, flowers, and butterfly cookies (most of which broke before being photographed) . For all the rolling, cutting, and decorating they did, relatively few cookies survived the onslaught of raw cookie-dough-eating and baked cookie sampling before I could get any photos of their baking session finale:









Sugar Cookies

1/2 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar in mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, thoroughly incorporating them into mixture until batter is smooth.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternating with milk. Add vanilla and mix until well-combined. Wrap and chill the dough for at least 3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Divide dough into thirds and roll out each section to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Place on parchment- or silpat-lined baking sheets. If decorating with sugar, sprinkle on before baking. Bake until golden, about 8 - 12 minutes. Let cool on racks. If decorating with royal icing, bake as directed, cool thoroughly, and decorate with royal icing as desired.


Source: Martha Stewart

9 comments:

Linda said...

Oh you are the best Auntie...how much fun is baking with kids!
Love it!
Baking memories!
L~xo

Thibeault's Table said...

Oh Lori, I can't believe how big Ricky is now. I remember when he was just a little peanut baking cookies with you. Nice to see the tradition continue. Ashlynne looks like she ended up wearing the cookie dough. Too cute.

Cathy said...

I have such fond memories of baking with my kids when they were young. We all treasure those times. You've got a couple of very cute bakers in the family.

chow and chatter said...

that is so cute, love it can;t wait to do it with my daughter

Rattlebridge Farm said...

Oh, I enjoyed this so much! What adorable children. I know yall had a ball. I am still committing crimes with cookie dough, but I won't give up. :-)

La Table De Nana said...

What a cute post! I just came home from babysitting:) I think Lulu would like Ashlynne:)What cute cute kids!

I just bought those letters:) Can't wait to try them out..
Ricky,how lucky for you that you started so young!!

Boo-Bah AKA Iris said...

Looks like a lot of good recipes here. I have a nice award for you. If you are an award zone free blog, please accept my apologies and ignore.

http://www.missmamievioletskitchen.blogspot.com/

Lori (All That Splatters) said...

Boo-Bah, thank you. It's nice to be appreciated.

MaryBeth said...

It looks like the kids had a great time ...I know I always did!

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