Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Valentines Cookie Crafting

We should honor more holidays by decorating cookies. Sugar cookies make a great "canvas" for my artsy self who also wants sugar all the time.

Since college, I have had a yearly get together with my friends to make paper crafts in honor of Valentine's Day. Mostly I accomplish nothing because I am too busy making inappropriate, funny and ironic cards for friends. I expect nothing less this year, and I even want to literally join crafting and sugar (instead of crafting while eating sugar).

Sugar cookies are easy. True, I like cooking. But I also love cooking when it's easy. Look online for a recipe or try this one (I don't think it was the best, but who needs "best" when you are decorating with icing and sprinkles, right?):

In a mixing bowl:
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (My cookies taste a bit salty, so you could get away with adding less)

In smaller bowl:
1/2 C oil
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp maple syrup (I used agave, but honey might do... or just more sugar and a little water)
1 egg (I used Ener-G egg replacer)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, then go ahead and stir the wet ingredients into the dry until they are well mixed. I ended up adding a little more water to make the dough stick together better. When I tried to roll it out the first time it all turned into crumbles. That is how I knew it was not wet enough.

I used a cylindrical glass cup to roll the dough, but those of you who have actual baking tools, use them! Once thin, no more than 1/4 inch thick, I cut out heart shapes (cute!) and then also "broken hearts", because I think I'm hilarious, and placed them on a baking sheet. In the oven at 375 degrees F until the cookies brown at the edges: 5-7 minutes.
As you can see by some of the darker hearts below, even a minute late and the the cookies are overdone! So pay attention. Don't dance in the living room waiting for the timer to go off...
Oddly, by themselves, these cookies taste like graham crackers. But I kind of love it.

2 comments:

Nanci Gorton (Orth) said...

Wish you could send them here!

Alan said...

They look so simple that even I could make them... remind me to try! I do have my toaster oven now ;)

Alan