PINK CUTOUT COOKIES

I made these for Valentine’s Day in the shape of hearts and put a stiff cream filling in between two cookies and made them as a “sandwich” cookie.  They were a big hit.  Then I made them for a baby shower for a girl with an Eiffel Tower cookie cutter, and because it would be too hard to get the shapes to line up, I did them as single cookies and tinted a glaze and painted it on top.  Again, they were a hit.  Obviously you can do this cutout cookie without tinting it, but it was fun and special both times to have the dough pink.  In the picture you can tell I also did some red ones and also some chocolate ones, but I wasn’t blown away by the chocolate ones.  The cookies aren’t overly sweet so I highly recommend doing some sort topping, even if it is just colored sugar.  Even with the cream filling or glaze they are still not too sweet.    I also doubled the recipe for both of my events which made about 40- 4” Eiffel Tower cookies.

2 c. flour, plus more for parchment

½ t. baking powder
¼ t. coarse salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla extract
Pink gel-paste food coloring*

Whisk together flour, baking, powder, and salt.  Beat together butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in egg, vanilla, and food coloring.  Reduce speed to low, and gradually add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated.  Beating it too long will make the cookies tough.

Divide the dough in half and flatten each piece into a disk, and wrap each in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour and up to overnight.  Bring to room temperature, about 10 minutes, before rolling.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in the top and lower thirds.  Roll out each disk of dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment to just under ¼” thick, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.  Cut out shapes, trying to reroll scraps only once or twice so the cookies don’t get tough.  Place cookies 1” apart on parchment-lined baking sheets or Silpat if you have it, and freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake until barely golden brown around edges – some of the hearts took only 8 minutes, but the Eiffel towers took 12 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through.  Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets set on wire racks.

Either spread one side of the cookie with the cream filling and top with another, smoothing sides for a pretty finish, or paint on a glaze with a small artist brush.

Cream filling:

½ stick unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 c. powdered sugar
¼ c. granulated sugar
2 t. vanilla extract
1-2 TB whole milk as needed

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 mintues.  Reduce speed to low, and gradually add sugars, beating until thoroughly combined.  Beat in vanilla.  If filling is too thick to spread, beat in more milk, 1 TB at a time, until spreadable.

Glaze:

½ c. powdered sugar
Vanilla
1-2 TB water
Gel food coloring

Put the powdered sugar in a small bowl.  In a TB measuring spoon put a little vanilla and fill the rest with water.  Begin stirring and add more water until it is just thin enough to paint.  Stir in food coloring.  It’s best to make this when you are ready to ice the cookies and to only make a small batch of it so it doesn’t get too thick and try to set up while you are glazing.   You might even want to partially cover it with saran.   Use a small artist brush to paint the glaze onto each cookie.  This glaze dries pretty and hardens but is soft to the bite, which I prefer over a Royal icing glaze that has corn syrup in it. 

*It's important to use the gel food coloring so you don't have extra liquid added.  You can buy lots of colors from Wilton at Michael's.