Sugar Cookies
Decorated with Monkfruit Royal Icing and a little edible gold dust.
Sugar cookies are classic. And one of my favorites. My traditional (gluten/butter) recipe was so good, my former chef boss adopted it into our holiday baking catalog. The same recipe was used for Cleveland Browns sugar cookies, sold at every home game in those days. And yes, I painstakingly decorated each and every helmet by hand, thousands each football season. It was a labor of love. To this day, it’s a family favorite, so I still make them. But I hate being left out! So I re-imagined the recipe with these updated ingredients, and I’m here to tell you, they are virtually the same. In fact, the monkfruit frosting is actually sweeter than traditional powdered sugar icing. (Monkfruit Royal Icing found here.)
A few tips, whether you’re making this recipe or any other cut-out dough. Bake the same size cookies on the same sheet pan, this ensures the baking time will be the same for all shapes. In other words, don’t bake a skinny candy-cane cookie with a fat Christmas tree on the same pan. The candy canes will burn before the trees are finished. You’re looking for a pale golden on the edges, that’s it, theyre done. They will continue to cook on the sheet pans as they cool. (The technical term is “carryover cooking”). For this reason I recommend baking on parchment paper, then slipping the paper with the cookies off the sheet pan and onto cooling racks. It’s a little like the tablecloth magic trick. But hey, if you master it, you can call it “holiday magic’.
You’ll love this recipe because it works for all holidays. Any time you want a sugar cookie, this will become your go-to. For example, Valentine’s conversation hearts, Easter egg decorated cookies, 4th of July stars, you get it. Roll the dough slightly thinner and they make great sandwich cookies too.
