Amaretto Sugar Cookies

Merry Christmas!

After my internship ended, I found it to be the perfect time to do some more baking. I wanted to make something for my co-workers to enjoy as I do baking for them each Christmas! 

This year, I decided to do Sugar Cookies, but not just any Sugar Cookie, Amaretto Sugar Cookies. I know I've mentioned before that I LOVE Sugarbelles Sugar Cookie recipe! It ALWAYS turns out wonderful! I read a  wonderful tip a while ago in Buddy Valastro's book "Baking with the Cake Boss" which I always follow. It's called carryover cooking which is leaving foods continue to cook on their own by the heat of the pan after they are removed from the oven. I especially love this tip for cookies as this way you can get the ultimate, lightly browned, soft cookies. 

I followed Sugarbelle's Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe and instead of adding flavouring, I added 2 teaspoons of Amaretto. I rolled the dough out and cut snowflakes with the cookie cutter I got from Michaels. I like this cookie cutter because it is BIG! Nobody wants to eat small sugar cookies! Also, the bigger the cookies are, I find them easier to decorate! 

Just like I said above, I pulled the cookies out of the oven after about 5 minutes once I could see that they were turning a very light brown on the base. I left them to continue baking from their own heat on the pan for another 3 - 4 minutes. They turned out perfectly!

After the cookies cooled, I began to decorate. This time I also used Sugarbelle's Royal Icing Recipe . I like this recipe because it is simple and turns out perfectly. 

To decorate the cookies, I prefer the outline and flood technique. You can use the same icing recipe and just adjust the consistency of that icing to make it do different things.

First, you pipe your cookies with an outline to create a "dam" so that when you go to flood your cookies, the icing won't run off the edges. You want the consistency of this icing to be similar to the consistency of toothpaste, so quite thick. When you pipe the icing it should be able to pipe easily and should not break..if that makes sense! 

Next, wait until the icing is dried. (I waited about half hour, in that time I cleaned up my pans and some of the kitchen.) Then you will need to change the consistency of your icing, you want it to be runny. To do this you just need to add water. I just add a little water at a time and blend it up until it gets to the consistency I am looking for. Then I put it in a piping bag and flood my cookies. It will run to fill your cookie until it reaches the outline. I had to use a toothpick to move it in to the tiny corners. When it's dried it will be so nice and smooth! 

Once your flooded cookies are dried (again, about half hour to an hour should be sufficient) it will be time to decorate any way you like. I needed to adjust the consistency of my icing back to a regular piping consistency. I did this by adding some more icing sugar and blending it up. I added Wilton's gel food colouring, but I added too much! (HA HA) I was going for a light blue but I accidentally dropped a big blob in! Oops. Oh Well!

Now, it is up to you to decorate your cookies any which way you'd like! Have fun! 

Kaits :)

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