Snowflake Cookies

One of the many things we love about Christmas here at Chez Sugar is baking cookies for family and friends.  Sarah, our resident baker, is in charge of the cookie baking this year, while I sort out the cookie packaging.

First up, Sarah has made a big batch of Cinnamon Snowflake Cookies decorated with royal icing and clear edible glitter.

Sarah used a Basic Sugar Cookie Dough to which she added 1 teaspoon cinnamon. They taste delicious and held their shape when baked.

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 cups sifted plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

1. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a bowl.
2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 160 deg C (325 degrees F). Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a 4-inch one-piece-shaped cookie cutter.  Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with nonstick baking mats. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.
4. Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
   (Recipe Adapted from Martha Stewart)
   

To decorate: Pipe royal icing on cookie and sprinkle with edible glitter. Allow icing to harden before stacking cookies.

To keep with the Snowflake theme, we are packaging the Snowflake Cookies in small noodle boxes. We stacked the cookies with sheets of printed waxed paper between them. (We purchased the waxed paper at Tokyu Hands in Tokyo). We tied the box with some red and white striped ribbon, and finished it off with a die cut snowflake (using the December 25th cartridge).

We have love Noodle Boxes and have covered them in scrap booking paper