Snowflake Cookies

My first attempt at making sugar cookies did not go as I had hoped. Before beginning this project, a second time, I looked back at my previous blog post, which did anything but boost my confidence levels. Despite my previous failure, I still planned on actually decorating my second batch.

Upon flipping through the book, I came across some snowflake cookie. In comparison to the other cookies, they seemed fairly simple. But based on past baking experiences I knew they would not be nearly as easy as the book entailed.

In the book, Edwards recommends using her recipe for gingerbread cookies in order to stay consistent with the “winter theme”. However, I chose to stick the basic cookies and mastering those before moving on to more complex recipes. While the cookies were chilling in the freezer, I went over what went wrong with the last batch of dough. I soon came to the realization that we had used the wrong type of flour. Once I took the cookies out of the freezer, I immediately placed them in the oven at 350 for 9 minutes. Edwards recommends freezing them before baking to ensure the cookies maintain their shape.

I then began making the royal icing. On page 16 of her book, Bridget Edwards gives thorough instruction on making the icing.

Royal Icing Recipe:

-        ½ cup meringue powder

-        1 cup water

-        2 lbs. powdered sugar

-        2 tbsp. corn syrup

You begin by combining the meringue powder and water in a stand mixer until they are combined and frothy. After, you add the powdered sugar and corn syrup and mix again until fully combined. At this point, I was reminded of why I dislike baking so much.

The icing was too thick to be piped through the icing tip I would be using. I began thinning it out by adding small amount of warm water. Once it reached the right consistency, I scooped about a fourth of it into a piping bag. At this point, I had taken the cookies out of the oven and they had been left out long enough to cool. I piped a thin lining along the edge of the cookies. I scooped a fourth of what was left in the mixer into a separate bowl and tinted it a light blue color. 

I then thinned out the remaining icing until it reached the consistency of thick syrup and poured it into a squeeze bottle. With the icing in the squeeze bottle, I “flooded” the cookies by squeezing the watery icing within the lining I piped before. 

Once they were dry enough to finally pipe the snowflake design, I used the blue tinted icing and followed her design to the best of my abilities. I wasn’t satisfied with the first design and just continued with the different patterns. Edwards stated that, “the royal icing needs overnight time to dry thoroughly and the icing kind of ‘seals’ the cookie from getting stale.

               The next morning, I returned to the cookies to find they had hardened completely, just as they should have. I decided to take a bite of one and immediately regretted it. It sucked. Though that is mostly because royal icing is incredibly sweet, since it is made almost entirely of powdered sugar. What can I add to the icing next time to make the cookies a bit more enjoyable to eat? 

Attempting Sugar Cookies

For my IRP Q2 Book project I decided to try my hand at making and decorating cookies. Based on the author of the book I’ve chosen, Decorating Cookies, she has included her “go-to, never-fail, cut-out cookie recipe…” (Edwards, 6). Intrigued by the sound of a supposedly “never-fail” recipe I went forward wholeheartedly, excited to try a recipe that not even I could mess up. The recipe goes as follows:

-3 cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour

-2 teaspoons baking powder

-1 cup salted butter, cold and cut into chunks

-1 cup sugar

-1 egg

-3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

First I started by following the directions that were explicitly written out in sizable paragraphs. However, I only made it past the first few. After I attempted combining the ingredients according to how the instructions explained, everything started going downhill. The ingredients never really formed into a cohesive structure, aka the dough that the author placed in the book, maybe only to mock my failure. The author suggested to keep kneading the dough until it all came together but an hour later there was no discernible difference. Which led to both me and the dough looking like the picture below.

I used to consider myself to be pretty average at baking, but that was before I colossally messed up this seemingly fail proof recipe. To ensure that this doesn’t happen again, what would you recommend for myself to do differently?