Roll-Out Sugar Cookies

Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

In the wonderful world of cookies there are two main categories of cookies: drop cookies and roll-out. The first consist of thick and marvelously gloppy cookie doughs that are dropped in heaping teaspoonfuls (or portioned out with a small sized ice cream scoop) on a sheet and baked as is (like these and these). A roll-out cookie on the other hand is a firm and smooth dough that is rolled out and cut out into shapes and then baked (like these).

Drop cookies are dropped onto a cookie sheet in mounds because the spread out while baking. Roll-out cookies do not spread, so they keep whatever cute shape you cut them out in. Let me take that back, they're not supposed to spread, so they keep whatever cute shape they're supposed to be. After so many failed attempts at the perfect roll-out sugar cookie, I gave up and settled for a delicious sugar cookie in a drop form. And don't feel sorry for me, cuz those babies are delicious.

But then you have winters like the one we're in now where the kids don't get to go outside for a week or two at a time and are going stir crazy in the house and you just need something simple and fun to do right away. Oh and did I mention almost every single roll-out cookie requires chilling in the fridge for at least an hour? Thats because chilled dough spreads less in a hot oven than room temperature dough. But when you have kids crawling up your legs the last thing you need to worry about is chilling anything for any amount of time.

 

When I read this recipe that required no chill-time at all, I was highly skeptical but just had to try it. And alhamdulillah, it worked! The dough came together in no time, the kids were cutting away they're favorite shapes and in less than 15 minutes they were ready to eat. I wouldn't recommend keeping the leftover dough in the fridge for too long as its a pretty firm dough as is and would then require quite some time to come to room temperature to be soft enough to roll out. Have fun and happy baking!

Roll-Out Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter 

1 cup sugar 

1 large eggs 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 3/4 cups flour 

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400F degrees.
2. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with electric mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour,salt and baking powder.
4. Add 1 cup at a time,combining after each addition. You will need to add last 3/4 cup by hand. Do not chill dough it will be stiff.
5. Divide dough into 2 balls.On floured surface roll out to 1/8 inch thickness.Use any cookie cutter and cut away.
6. Bake for 6-10 minutes or until edges of cookie are light brown. Don't over bake! Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing and allowing to cool all the way.
7. Eat as is or decorate with icing. Allow to fully cool before applying icing. 

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
milk (add 1/4 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency)

1. Mix sugar and corn syrup. Add the smallest amount of milk and mix completely, until you get a thick but pourable consistency. Tint with your choice of food coloring.
2. Use a frosting bag to decorate, or a ziplock bag with a corner snipped off.