Last night I decided to try decorating some sugar cookies with fondant. I saw a book at michaels on how to do it, and was quite inspired. I got a recipe from the Wilton website for their roll out cookies. They were sooo incredibly bland. It tasted more like flour than anything. Even after applying the fondant it wasnt enough to help the taste.

Also, after they were baked they were quite crumbly. They broke very easy and the tops of them got little bumps everywhere which made the fondant look lumpy once it was applied.

Does anyone have a great, tasty sugar cookie recipe? I was so dissapointed. I decided not to even waste my time applying fondant to the rest of the cookies. I did about 8 and gave up.

I really want a cookie that bakes with a smooth top, something kind of dense, not flaky and easily broken. Something that could be used in cookie bouquets or something that could be shipped without the worry of them arriving in shattered pieces.


Also, I had some trouble rolling them out. What technique do you guys use to get them all the same thickness, and what thickness do you prefer?

I use a recipe from allrecipes.com named the best rolled sugar cookies. They are the best rolled out recipe i have tried. The flavor is great i add half vanilla and half butter flavoring. You have to refrigerate the dough for a while so that it is not too sticky. Then i roll out the dough with a little powdered sugar. I made these for christmas with frosting and sprinkles and on valentines day dipped in chocolate. They also keep their shape very well. I have never tried with fondant, but maybe someone who tried the recipe has check the reviews for the recipe. Hope that helps best of luck

I use a variation of the No Fail Sugar Cookie on this site. Sounds like it could be what you're looking for - tasty but sturdy.

I also use The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe but I only add three eggs instead of four, and I also add 2 tsp vanilla and either 1 tsp almond or lemon instead of the one tsp vanilla. They didn't have enough flavor with the original extract amount.

I use all the 4 eggs.. because, this way I can easily half the recipe

I put a little lemon Zest and extract or orange juice and extract. I also flavor the icing, if I use royal, with either lemon juice or orange extract. The citrus gives it a good flavor.

In the past, I've done like HeidiCrumbs and combined vanilla and almond extract and it gave it a nice flavor, also.

HTH

Thanks guys! Im going to try that recipe sometime in the next few days. Ill let you know how it compares. I think the only difference between that and the wilton recipe is 2 extra eggs.

Do you grease the pans? Parchment? How thick do you roll them? Do you cook the cookie until the whole bottom and the top sides are golden brown? Does this make a crunchy cookie or kind of soft in the middle? (LOL so many questions, sorry!)

The lemon idea sounds good! I think Ill try that next time.

Also what about my question reguarding rolling the cookies? How do you roll yours uniform? Tips for that please? Im very new to cookies. I could probably count on one hand how many times in my LIFE....

I roll out the dough, after chilling, between two sheets of parchment paper. This way you don't have to use extra flour during the rolling process. I also use parchment paper on the baking sheet. I don't grease the cookie sheet or the parchment.

To get the dough of uniform thickness, I have Wilton's Large fondant rolling pin with the guides that slip on each end. I think the guides come in 1/16, 1/8, and 3/16" thickness (I'm not 100% sure of the thickness because I don't have the package in front of me).

HTH

Oh...I bake the cookies just until he edges are lightly brown and my finger doesn't leave an imprint....about 8-10 min, depending on how large and thick the cookie is.

Do you guys prefer using fondant to cover your cookies or RI?

I've never tried fondant on a cookie. I'm not sure I'd like it too much because, even though I have made cakes with fondant, I am not too crazy about the flavor of fondant. If anything, I'd use MMF instead of regular fondant on the cookie.

As of now, I've only used royal icing and I love it

I love the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe. I add 1/2 teaspoon each lemon zest and orange zest. I ice the cookies with Antonia 74 royal icing. Yumm.

Here is the link to an awesome thread about cookie making and decorating.

http://CakeCentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=6421388#6421388

HTH...I hope I posted the link right

I use the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe on this site. I use different flavorings depending on my mood and what I have in the cabinet. Sometimes I even use Wedding Bouquet or Creme Bouquet flavoring. I do the same as Lita when I roll out the cookies.

I have used Satin Ice fondant to "ice" them. Most often though, I use the cookie glaze recipe and royal icing recipe from Karen's Cookies website. I've had a lot of compliments on these cookies. As a matter of fact, I made like over 100 dozen at Christmas time for people.

Thank you! I just read the whole thing.

Ok I have another question. What roll do the eggs play in these cookies? All the recipes I have looked up have different amounts of eggs. The Wilton recipe uses 2 eggs, the allrecipes.com cookies use 4, and I just looked at a book at Michaels and their recipe uses only 1 (except that one only uses 3 cups flour and the others use 5)

So how do all the ingrediants affect the outcome? Im trying to figure out which recipe to use that will give me the results I want. Will less eggs make it more dense? The photos of the cookies in the Michaels book were beautiful. Smooth tops, but I dont know what the inside was like. The allrecipes.com cookies, well, some looked bumpy and some looked smoother. Maybe it depended on the baker.

Go this site you will learn so much form making cookies and she has nice recipes to share http://cookiecrazie.blogspot.com/ - (psneed5) Cake Central username.

Thanks for the link, Olsen...her cookies are AMAZING

Thank you!

I have used fondant on cookies before - it's a lot easier than royal icing but all my feedback on the fondant cookies has been terrible. All you can taste is the fondant and the chewy texture really takes away from the buttery cookie. Check out the decorated cookies on the Flickr site. You'll be inspired and get some great ideas.

Thank you for all the wonderful advice! The recipe I used from Wilton was just called "Roll out cookies", but it was pretty crumbly. I rolled it out on PS because the last time I did it on flour they tasted even worse. THe parcement is a great idea. Ill try that next time. I think Ill bake them on parcement as well.

I put fondant on a few of the cookies. It was nice and easy. I love that technique. I used corn syrup but your idea of the preserves is nice too! I think I agree about the texture of the fondant though. Even 3 days later it was still a little chewy. I dont think the taste was bad, but way less sweet than the glace icing that Ive used before. I guess if someone wanted icing that wasnt as sweet that would be the way to go.

If I wanted to make bouquets, do I still only roll them out 1/8 inch? That just seems so thin to me. I keep thinking of those huge RI decorated cookies I see at grocery stores during the holidays. To me they look more than 1/4 inch thick! If I add a stick to it, do I just lay the stick under the cookie and bake it that way? This is why I need a good, dense, sturdy cookie. I dont want it to crumble off the stick.

I have a sugar cookie recipe that I get a lot of requests for. I would definately be willing to share it, but I'm new to this site and not sure where to post it. Can i post it here or do I go to the recpie section?

To roll out the dough evenly...I went to the hardware store and bought 1/4 inch square dowls that I use as guides. I just put the dough in the middle and roll it out til I hit the dowls. They work great and the cookies are all the same thickness and there is no guess work.

For cookie lollies, Louise has an awesome tutorial on her blog cake journal: http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/how-to-make-a-cookie-lolly

I just looked at that tutorial, THANK YOU! What is PME? Id like to look at those marzipan spacer things. That is a really cool idea.

Actually I bet my hubby could make me something like that. I wonder if really smooth wood would be ok. Like, make a base, then put 1/4 inch dowels on four sides to rest the rolling pin on so that its all the same thickness. Im not sure about wood though, he might be able to make it out of granite for me. I think we have a few pieces right now.

I still want to look at those spacers though. Hard to tell from the photo what it is exactly.

PME is a sugarcraft company from England. Global Sugar Art sells a lot of their products but not the marzipan rollers. I got mine from s*g*r cr*ft .com. Here's a link to the GSA selection of PME items: http://www.globalsugarart.com/cat.php?cid=641

You can also use perfection strips to do the same thing (keep dough even): http://www.globalsugarart.com/search.php?search=perfection+strips&searchimage.x=56&searchimage.y=3

Or if you're REALLY cheap, go get a wooden yard stick and saw it in half -- the poor man's perfection strips!!

Ah HA! Cheap is good. I think I will visit the local home improvment store.

You guys rock! Thanks for the great tips. Ill post photos of the next batch once I get a chance to work on it. Probably tues or wed.

I have a sugar cookie recipe that I get a lot of requests for. I would definately be willing to share it, but I'm new to this site and not sure where to post it. Can i post it here or do I go to the recpie section?

To roll out the dough evenly...I went to the hardware store and bought 1/4 inch square dowls that I use as guides. I just put the dough in the middle and roll it out til I hit the dowls. They work great and the cookies are all the same thickness and there is no guess work.


You can post it here, that's no problem! Thank you so much for the tips as well.

Sugar Cookies


3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp Cream of tartar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp of salt

1 cup butter (soften)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1tsp of vanilla

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients with a wisk or sifter. Next cream the wet ingredients together, then add the dry mixture. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface and cut with cookie cutters. Place on a cooled cookie sheet, then bake at 350 for 8-10 min or until the edges start to color.

-The dough is really soft, so I knead it with some flour until it is easier to work with. I use this recipe for my cookie on a stick and they hold up really well. Good luck!