Does anybody have a good recipe for decorated sugar cookies?

Question

I'm looking to make the really thick sugar cookies with the decorative icing that dries hard.

Answer 1

Perfect Rolled Cookies
*This is already double recipe because I roll the cookies 1/4 inch thick which is twice as thick as the original recipe states*
·2 cups unsalted butter at cool room temperature
·2 cups superfine (aka: Baker’s sugar (or granulated sugar, processed to fine texture in a food processor)
·1 teaspoon salt
·2 egg yolk
·2 whole egg
·1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
·5 cups bleached all-purpose flour
DIRECTIONS:
1.Cream butter, sugar and salt with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add yolk, beat well, then add whole egg and vanilla; continue beating until well incorporated. Add flour and beat on low speed until flour is just mixed. Divide dough in half and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or double-wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.)
2.Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove one disk of dough from refrigerator and cut in half. Return unused portion to refrigerator. Lightly flour work surface; roll dough to 1/4 inch thick, using a spatula to loosen dough and lightly sprinkling work surface with flour as needed. Using a cookie cutter, cut dough into desired shapes. Place 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheets. Or form dough into balls, using about 1 tablespoon for each, and flatten with a greased bottom of a glass, dipped in flour from time to time.
3.Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through baking, until golden brown, 8-12 minutes. Use a thin-bladed spatula to transfer them immediately to a cooling rack. Cool to room temperature. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough. Decorate cooled cookies, if desired, and transfer to an airtight container where they can be stored for up to 3 weeks.

To Make Peanut Butter Cookies:

Follow recipe for All-Purpose Butter Cookies, creaming 1 1/3 cup peanut butter with butter and sugar in step 1.
*Double batch of ¼ inch rolled cookies will make about 25-30 cookies (using a 3” average sized cookies cutter)


Cookie Icing


6-2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup light corn syrup
1-3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
food coloring

In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and water until smooth. Stir in corn syrup and vanilla extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, slowly add more corn syrup until desired consistency is reached. Tint with desired color. Completely ice the cookie on top and down all sides. Then set the cookie on a drying rack over a cookie sheet (to catch the dripping icing) allow the icing to set-up a bit (maybe 30 minutes. Then transfer to waxed paper to completely dry (several hours to overnight)

To ice on top of that icing, use a royal icing recipe which is MERENGUE (sp?) powder, water and powdered sugar. Merengue powder is available at you local craft store where Wilton supplies are sold and the recipe is on the container.
Royal icing dries VERY HARD and is good for detailed decorations.

Answer 2

Here is a cookie recipe that is similar to sugar cookies. It is a snickerdoodle. I guess you could put icing on them but if you make some, try them before you do. These are an old fashion type cookie and everybody loves them.

Answer 3

The best recipes are on the back of the bag/box of sugar! If they didn't give out good recipes, nobody would want to use their product.