Sugar Cookies
These are not your traditional sugar cookies. In texture, they are probably most similar to the Lofthouse sugar cookies, although I think these might be a touch softer and more delicate. However, instead of being topped with a thick smear of buttercream, these cookies are entirely enrobed in a thin shell of poured fondant.
I have been including these sugar cookies on my holiday trays for well over a decade now and they are far and away the most popular cookie on the trays. People will hunt through the trays to specifically find these cookies, ask about when I am making them (months in advance of when I actually plan to make them), request trays made of just these cookies (no 😛), request the recipe (yes! 🙂) and often attempt to horde them either for themselves or to take home to family members.
Given their popularity, I’m sorry to say that these are not numbered among my favorites. First – no chocolate, always a downside for me. From a flavor perspective, they are very vanilla forward (not necessarily a bad thing, I like vanilla) and intensely sweet despite the salt and lemon juice added to try to help balance the sweetness. They are also the single most time consuming cookies I make each holiday season. A lot of the time is “resting time” while the dough is chilling, but there is also a significant time investment in dipping and sprinkling each cookie – about 200 of them in total. For anyone making this recipe not to share, you will want to cut the cookie dough down to 1/5 of the recipe (to avoid having to split eggs), and the glaze down to 1/2 at the most (it is better to have more than you need as it is easier to dip the cookies when there is some depth to the glaze).
I will say, my sugar cookies have an interesting back story. I started making them after a colleague brought a cookie back from an out of town bakery and asked if I could try to recreate it. I did not have ready access to the source bakery to get more samples, so I had just the one cookie to taste and dissect. I went through a number of attempts and iterations. I don’t know if I actually succeeded in recreating the original cookie, but the colleague who made the request was happy and so is everyone else that has tried my version in the years since. Of course, the recipe I’m sharing today isn’t exactly what I made all those years ago. It has undergone a bit of refinement over the years. The core texture and flavor hasn’t really changed, but improvements have been made – particularly in the poured fondant glaze.
Over the years, when asked to share this recipe, I was always able to share a very precise recipe for the cookies themselves, but never for the glaze. I could tell people what ingredients I used and provide soft, squishy estimates of relative amounts of each. But really, I was making the glaze by feel each time. This meant that recreating the glaze each year was very time consuming, lacking in consistency – especially when I needed to make more glaze somewhere in the middle of a batch of cookies (my 3qt double boiler insert, when filled right up to capacity, only holds enough glaze to make it through about half of a full batch of cookies) – and prone to problems with the texture/set of the glaze. Last year, I finally decided that was just a ridiculous process to go through each year. So, I painstakingly weighed each ingredient as I added it, making notes of each. Then, weighed each adjustment I made, adding it to the previous notes, until I had the perfect consistency – and the record of how I achieved it! Now, for the first time ever, I am sharing a precise glaze recipe (albeit only half of what you need for a full batch of cookies – if you have a 6+qt double boiler, feel free to double the glaze from the start) to go with the precise cookie recipe (you’re welcome! 😀).
As I mentioned, the sugar cookies are not ranked among my personal favorites, but my family is definitely in disagreement with me there. My husband and all three kids look forward to these cookies every year, I think they might be more upset than anyone else if I were to throw in the towel and decide these were too much work to continue making (I might have threatened that a time or two when feeling particularly stressed about holiday timelines). We have an annual tradition where each of the three kids selects one of their favorite cookies to leave out for Santa. Every year, without fail, there is at least one of these on the plate for Santa – with a glass of eggnog rather than milk.
Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- kitchen scale
- measuring spoons
- mixing bowl (large)
- Electric mixer (recommend stand mixer)
- paper towel tubes (optional)
- sharp knife
- baking sheets
- double boiler insert (3 qt or larger)
- large pot (to fit the double boiler insert)
- parchment paper
- bowls (small/pinch – to hold decorations)
Ingredients
Cookie dough:
- 910 g flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 440 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 400 g sugar
- 5 eggs room temperature
- 240 g sour cream room temperature
- 10 ml vanilla or the seeds from one vanilla bean
- 5 ml lemon juice
- 60 ml milk
Poured fondant glaze:
- 300 ml heavy cream
- 100 g shortening
- 35 ml lemon juice
- 32 ml corn syrup
- 20 ml butter vanilla emulsion
- 20 ml clear vanilla extract
- 5 g popcorn salt
- 1820 g powdered sugar
- Assorted decorations sprinkles/sanding sugar/etc.
Instructions
For the cookies:
- In a large bowl whisk together of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.910 g flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until fluffy.440 g unsalted butter, 400 g sugar
- Add eggs, one at a time and mix until blended.5 eggs
- Add sour cream, vanilla and lemon juice and blend.240 g sour cream, 10 ml vanilla or the seeds from one vanilla bean, 5 ml lemon juice
- Gradually add flour mixture, alternating with milk, to the mixture in the stand mixer bowl. The dough will be very sticky, somewhere between a thick cake batter and a loose cookie dough – chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.60 ml milk
- Form the dough into about 1 1/2" diameter logs (about 6 11" long logs total). Wrap in waxed paper, twisting the ends to seal. If you have paper towel (or similar sized) tubes, slide each log of dough into its own tube – this helps prevent the dough from developing a flat side while it is chilling. Place all the logs in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove one log of dough from the freezer at a time. Using a sharp knife, slice the log into 1/4"-1/3" thick rounds. Arrange the rounds about 2" apart on the baking sheets and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cookies should be set, but not browned. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
For the glaze:
- While the cookies are cooling, lay out a large sheet of parchment paper next to your cook top. Place the assorted decorations in open bowls/containers nearby where they can be quickly accessed.
- Place a 3 qt double boiler insert over a pot with 1-2 inches of simmering water in the bottom. Add all of the glaze ingredients, in the order listed, into the double boiler. (Depending on your double boiler, it may be necessary to add the powdered sugar in multiple smaller batches to avoid it flying all over everywhere)300 ml heavy cream, 100 g shortening, 35 ml lemon juice, 32 ml corn syrup, 20 ml butter vanilla emulsion, 20 ml clear vanilla extract, 5 g popcorn salt, 1820 g powdered sugar
- Give the shortening a few minutes to melt, then stir the ingredients together. When the powdered sugar has been mostly incorporated, switch to an immersion blender and mix until the mixture has a satiny sheen and pours off the end of the blender in a continuous ribbon.
- Continue to heat the mixture, stirring frequently, until there is no grainy-ness remaining from the powdered sugar and a small amount of the glaze dropped on the edge of the parchment paper forms a set crust within a few seconds.
- Place a cookie top side down into the glaze, using a dipping tool or fork, gently flip over – lift out of the glaze and gently shake the excess off. Grab a pinch of decorations and, as you set the dipped cookie on the parchment paper, immediately sprinkle the decorations evenly over the surface of the cookie. You will need to work very quickly before the surface of the glaze sets.Assorted decorations
- Repeat until all the cookies are coated or until all the glaze is used. If necessary, make additional glaze to finish coating all of the cookies.
- When the glaze has set enough to cleanly lift from the parchment paper (about 15 minutes), transfer to wire racks to allow air to circulate underneath and the glaze to completely set (about 1-2 hours). Store in an air tight container with waxed or parchment paper between layers.
Nutrition
About The Author
