Ole Miss Sugar Cookies for JT’s 29th Birthday!
My husband, J, is an Ole Miss Graduate
He is a Rebel and bleeds blue and red
He reads Rebel message boards every day and watches every sporting event possible
I love my OM Reb!
The cookie and icing recipes and instructions are per ‘Decorating Cookies: 60+ Designs’
Cookie Ingredients:
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, cold and cut into chunks
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsps vanilla bean paste ( or you could do 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp pure almond extract) Found at Sur-La-Table
Icing Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup meringue powder- ordered from Amazon.com
- 1 scant cup water (not quite full cup)
- 2 lbs (32 ounces) powdered sugar
- 2 tsps light corn syrup
- Gel food coloring- ordered from Amazon.com
- Disposable icing bags and couplers
- #1,#2 icing tips
Cookie Preparation:
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set the mixture aside.
4. In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until combined and fluffy. Beat in the egg and extracts, mixing until combined.
5. Add the flour mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. After the last addition, the mixture will look very thick and crumbly.
6. Prepare a rolling surface (clean, dust with flour) and roll out a portion of the dough. Feel free to put down wax paper on the surface. I don’t do this because the wax paper moves around too much and makes it difficult to roll the dough. If the dough is crumbly or sticky, knead it together until smooth. Roll to your desired thickness; I did ~1/4 inch thick.
7. Dip the cookie cutter in flour and press straight down. Gather the scraps, and then lift the cut shapes onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
8. Re-coat the wax paper/surface with flour if needed. Knead the scraps and remaining dough together and roll again. Don’t worry about overworking the dough. Cut as many shapes from the dough as possible.
9. THIS STEP IS KEY!!! Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. Freezing the cookies helps them keep their shape while baking. Meanwhile keep cutting cookies for 2nd and 3rd (if you have one) cookie sheets.
10. After freezing, immediately bake the cookies on the center rack for 9 to 12 minutes or until done in the center.
11. Remove from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes on the sheet. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Rotate the cookie sheets from the freezer to oven to the cooling rack until all cookies are baked.
Icing Preparation (aka the annoying and sticky process)
1. In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the meringue powder and water until foamy and combined
2. Sift in the powdered sugar, add the corn syrup and mix on low speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula. Increase the speed to med-low and beat for 5 minutes.
3. Increase the mixer speed to med-high and continue beating just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. To check for stiff peaks, take the beater off the mixer and hold it so that the icing is pointing up in the air. If the peak is floppy, keep beating. Be careful not to overbeat the icing.
4. If you choose the color the icing, divide the icing into separate bowls and dye with gel food coloring. Yeah, I had an extremely difficult time achieving dark colors. I finally gave up; honestly I did. Perhaps I used cheap food coloring. Heck, I don’t know but my wrists started hurting and I said ‘enough, J will just pretend these are OM red and blue cookies’.
5. Cover the icing with foil or saran wrap to prevent it from drying out.
6. Using a #1 tip, outline the cookie.
7. Then, thin icing, in your preferred color choice by adding a tbsp of room temp. water to the icing. You will know that the icing is ready to flood the cookie when you bring the spatula/spoon up and drop a ribbon of icing back in the bowl. You want the ribbon to disappear, back into the icing bowl, within 2 seconds. Keep adding water until this happens. Then, cover the icing with a damp dish towel for 5 minutes, allowing air bubbles to rise to the top. Stir gently and you’re ready to go.
7. Either fill a squeeze bottle with icing and then squeeze on to the cookie or just use a spoon to fill. I started with the squeeze bottle and quickly to using a spoon and finger when the squeeze bottle exploded because the tip kept getting clogged. Use a toothpick to guide the icing into the empty places and edges. Let dry for 3+ hours.
EVIL TOOL
The next day, Jordan’s 29h birthday:
-D
Happy Birthday Sweet Jordan! Love You 
Those look delicious. Tripp is a lucky manimal.
Thanks! Kinda weird for him to eat a Labrador shaped cookie ….I’m just realizing this