Safe Cookies and Milk for Santa
>> Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Just to be on the safe side, Brynn thought it might be a good idea if we gave Santa some safe treats this year...some of her dairy and egg-free sugar cookies and soymilk. I didn't try to reason with her that a chubby guy like Santa doesn't look like he's avoiding many foods...but those rosy cheeks could be uncontrolled eczema...who knows?
This is our recipe for sugar cookies, and I never seem to do it the same way twice. I have this chronic experimental nature and I'm always tweaking this recipe around with different fats, liquids and flavorings. So far, with the exception of trying to substitute 1/3 of the sugar with a box of vanilla pudding mix (don't do that)...the recipe has been pretty forgiving.
The icing is pretty cool. It's my version of an egg-free royal icing. If you're in a hurry, you can just dip the tops of the cookies directly into the icing, let the extra drip off and then dry flat. If you're feeling fancy, you can pipe it on....I guess I was feeling fancy for Santa.
Infinitely Adaptable Sugar Cookies1/2 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soymilk + 1T cider vinegar
2 cups flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1T. vanilla (optional)
1/8 t. lemon oil (optional)
a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg (optional)
1.) In a large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening together until smooth, add in the thickened soymilk and beat until smooth again.
2.) Add the vanilla, lemon oil or whatever spices/flavorings you are using and mix well.
3.) Add soda, salt and flour. Mix until everything comes together.
4.) Wrap in plastic wrap, shape into a big disk and freeze for 1/2 hour.
5.) Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out as you like.
6.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheets at 350. 10 minutes will give you soft cookies (they may seem barely baked, but they'll firm up when cooled), 14-16 minutes will give you golden brown edges and they'll be crispy.
7.) Cool completely before icing.
By infinitely adaptable, I mean you can tweak so many things. As far as the fat goes, you can use shortening or margarine, or half of each. You can use white sugar, or for softer cookies, you can use brown sugar. You can use any flavor of soymilk (the Silk Nog is pretty good), or soy yogurt or soy sour cream and skip the vinegar, or if you're avoiding soy, you can use rice milk or my favorite tweak...coconut milk. For flavorings, I really like vanilla and a few drops of lemon oil...but a few pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg make them more holiday spicy.
Cookie Icing
2 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 T. corn syrup
2-3T. soymilk
Mix well, getting out all the lumps. Color as you'd like. Dip the cookies or pipe on the decorations!
The Quick-Dip Technique in action
8 comments:
Oooh OOOh! I see it in the background of the cookie pics!!! I used mine tonight, too. And both of my silpats.
I did that for you E!! I love that silly like you can't imagine! Thanks for enabling me!
These cookies are -too- cute! So perfectly decorated, and just adorable.
Could those snowmen look anymore perfect?!
Thank you thank you for this recipe!!
I have a question. I have made this cookie icing a couple of times and every time I make it the cookies look great right away but then after a few hours the icing dries kinda cloudy. Any thoughts about what I could be doing wrong?
Thanks.
Hmm. When I make these they will sometimes get cloudy in a few days, but they are usually mostly gone at that point. I would try to make sure the icing isn't too runny. My thought being that more liquid to evaporate off might be causing this. The next time I make these, I think I'll try to use some soy creamer instead of soymilk or add a touch of oil to the icing and see if that 'emulisifies' whatever that cloudy situation is. I'm seeing some fall leaf cookies dusted with wilton glitter dust in my immediate future. Thanks for the feedback!
On a Mom message board that I belong to they were talking about Christmas cookies this morning and one woman swears that the best royal icing recipe she uses is powdered sugar, corn syrup and water. So I may try water instead of soymilk next time and see if that helps with the cloudiness.
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