Bakery-Style Soft Sugar Cookies

So, the bummer about having small kids and loving to bake sweets is that most schools these days won't let you send in homemade treats. (Now, calm down, I understand why this is, we have good friends with food allergies, but it's still a bummer!) 

So, my guys have learned to love those sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles from the grocery store bakery-- since that's what so many of their friends bring for birthday treats. I'm not a huge fan, but after weeks of begging for me to make some, I gave in, and made these for my guys.

What You Need:
For the Cookies:
5 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (unsalted) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (granulated) sugar
2 cups powdered sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream

For the Icing:
1 - 8oz. block cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (at room temperature)
4 cups (approx. 1 pound) powdered sugar

Yield: 4-6 dozen 2" cookies
Preheat oven to 325-degrees (F).

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of a mixer, combine butter and sugars until soft and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition. Add vanilla and almond extract.

Add two cups of the flour, mixing until just combined.

Add sour cream. Mix until just combined.

Add remaining flour. Mix until just combined.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour onto a piece of parchment paper or a countertop.
Take half of the dough out of the bowl -- the dough will be sticky!! think biscuit dough.
Sprinkle more flour on top of the dough. Gently shape into a disk to roll. (It does not have to be perfectly round or even.)

Roll the dough to a thickness of 1/4" to 1/2" depending on how thick you want your cookies to be. Cut with a medium-sized biscuit cutter, canning jar lid or other cutter.

Place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, at least an inch apart. Bake at 325-degrees (F) for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms just barely brown. (Tops should not be golden if you want them to be soft.)

Cool on a cooling grid.

While the cookies cool, make the icing.
Now, if you're making these for young kids, I'd say just go with a regular butter/shortening buttercream. They want that sweet-sweet-sweetness. However, I do not love that overly sweet stuff. (I'm more of a cake girl than an icing girl.) So, I chose to make some cream cheese icing for these.

Combine cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing well with each addition. (If you want this to be a little sweeter, add two more cups of powdered sugar, for a total of six cups, and add 1 Tbsp. of milk, as well.)

To make the roses on the cookies, load a piping bag with Tip #1M (the same you would use for a cupcake swirl). Hold the bag so that the tip is straight up from the cookie. The back of the bag is towards the ceiling.
Start in the center of the cookie, and swirl the icing outwards.

I love these.

You can also just use a knife or spatula to smear some icing on top and add sprinkles. That's how my guys are used to eating them at school.

Click the Links Below to See:
My Favorite Roll-out Sugar Cookie Recipe
Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe
More Valentine's Day Treat Ideas

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