Description
Yum! These perfect sugar cookies are buttery and have just the right balance of snap and crumble. On their own, they’re not very sweet, which makes them an excellent palette for icing on top to give them the sweetness they need without being overly sweet. It’s all about balance. 🙂 Make these for any occasion! Each cookie is a blank slate just waiting for your creativity.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Milk, only if needed
Icing, see ingredients and recipe below
Sprinkles, edible glitter, and decorating gel, optional
For the icing:
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup water
A few drops of lemon juice, optional
Food coloring, optional
Instructions
1. Heat oven to 350°. Using a mixer or hand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, and vinegar. Blend in remaining ingredients. If the dough seems too dry to handle, add milk, one teaspoon at a time.
2. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured board or rolling mat. Cut into shapes.
3. Transfer to an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly browned. A brownie spatula is a perfect tool for this. Cool slightly.
4. Carefully remove from a baking sheet to a cooling rack. Once cool, place cookies on a cutting board or a rolling mat lined with wax paper (for easy cleanup!).
5. Make the icing by mixing confectioner’s sugar with water and add a few drops of food coloring, if desired.
6. Carefully spoon the icing on each cookie, using the back of a spoon to smooth it on the surface, almost to the edges of the cookie. Top with sprinkles, edible glitter, decorating gel…whatever you like.
For Spider Cookies:
You will need:
- A spider web cookie cutter
- A mini spider cookie cutter
- Black food coloring or gel
- Black writing gel (tube)
- Sprinkles (nonpareils and/or black or orange sanding sugar, sequin sprinkles)
1. When you’re rolling out the dough, cut out an equal amount of webs and spiders. Bake as directed above and allow them to cool.
2. Make the icing as directed above.
3. Make the spiders. Spoon out about 1/4 cup of icing into a small bowl, and mix in a few drops of black food coloring, or black decorating gel. Frost each spider using a spoon or a pastry brush, and while still wet, add sequin-shaped flat sprinkles as eyes, dotting them with a tiny dot of black writing gel in a tube. You can also sprinkle these with black sanding sugar, if you have.
4. Once the spiders are finished, set them aside and allow them to dry. Use uncolored icing to frost the spider web cookies. Using black writing gel in a tube, squeeze and draw a small circle in the middle of the web, and then a second larger circle around it so it resembles a bullseye.
5. Using a toothpick or the tip of a sharp knife, drag it from the center of the cookie, outward, five or six times around the cookie to create the “web”.
6. Sprinkle with orange and black nonpareils and/or orange or black sanding sugar while the icing is still wet, and then place a spider cookie on top.
Enjoy!
Notes
I love wax paper for a number of reasons, and this is one of them. Use wax paper on top of your cutting board or counter before icing the cookies to make for a much easier cleanup.
Recommended tools and equipment: Spider web cookie cutter, mini spider cookie cutter, black food coloring or gel, black writing gel, Halloween sprinkles, pastry brush, brownie spatula.
- Prep Time: 90
- Cook Time: 8 minutes