|
This recipe is food allergy friendly and can be Top 8 free with some easy substitutions. Our allergies in our house are to dairy, egg, peanut, tree nut, chickpea, and flax. You know what I really miss? Those SUPER soft iced sugar cookies you can buy at the grocery store. I've long wanted to figure out how to duplicate that cookie without the dairy or eggs....AND I CAN HAPPILY REPORT THAT WE FOUND THE MAGIC INGREDIENTS AND TECHNIQUES TO DO IT.
|
I promise not to talk too much (there is nothing worse than a long blog post before a recipe) but not only are these cookies delicious- with a lovely egg-free royal icing, they become a canvas for my new favorite thing: COOKIE PAINTING. Yes. Painting. It's a much more delicate and folksy way of decorating your cookies. So if you have a love for detail or all things folk, I'll be including instructions for cookie painting following the recipe itself :).
Ingredients
3/4 cup Earth Balance whipped spread
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk (or other milk alternative)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (clear if you prefer a whiter cookie)
2 cups flour (for gf sub Namaste gf flour cup for cup + 1 tsp cinnamon)
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Egg-free/Dairy-free Royal Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tsp milk
4 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla (clear if you want whiter cookies, but natural works, too)
Painting Ingredients:
McCormick Clear Vanilla Extract (or water if you don't have clear)
Americolor Gel Food Coloring
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk (or other milk alternative)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (clear if you prefer a whiter cookie)
2 cups flour (for gf sub Namaste gf flour cup for cup + 1 tsp cinnamon)
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Egg-free/Dairy-free Royal Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
5 tsp milk
4 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla (clear if you want whiter cookies, but natural works, too)
Painting Ingredients:
McCormick Clear Vanilla Extract (or water if you don't have clear)
Americolor Gel Food Coloring
I am currently running this recipe past a friend with soy allergies to see if any edits are necessary before assuring that it's top 8 friendly. Stay tuned if you have a soy allergy, or make your own safe substitutions and tell us about them!
GF Tip: When using gf flour, these cookies are great out of the oven...but like all GF things, can get hard as a rock if not preserved well. Make sure to seal in airtight containers as much as possible through the process!
GF Tip: When using gf flour, these cookies are great out of the oven...but like all GF things, can get hard as a rock if not preserved well. Make sure to seal in airtight containers as much as possible through the process!
Method
BEFORE YOU START: This recipe is ALL about technique....the softness exists in the details. It's not hard, it's not fancy...but you do have to follow the rules. These cookies will not be soft if you don't learn to take them out at the right time. They will not be soft if you don't remove them from the baking pan at the right time. They will not be soft if you don't store them correctly. You've been warned....follow the rules...preserve the softness. You won't regret it.
Preheat oven to 360° and line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mat.
Add butter to stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Whip until smooth, usually about 30 seconds.
Add butter to stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Whip until smooth, usually about 30 seconds.
Turn mixer to low and add powdered sugar. Once incorporated, switch to medium speed for 4 minutes. The mixture should be pretty silky and light.
Turn mixer back to low and add milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
Turn mixer back to low and add milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
In a separate large mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and baking soda (throw out any baking powder or soda chunks left in the sifter, don't try to mix them in, yuck). Don't skip the sifting...not only does it sort out the chunks of leavening agents, but it makes for a smoother batter which makes for a softer cookie. Whisk in your salt. If you need a sifter, I love this sifter so much and it looks beautiful on open shelving in your kitchen.
Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. Stop to scrape down the sides and mix for about 30 seconds. You've got your batter. Some people will tell you to refrigerate it before baking. I tried it. And liked it better just diving right into the oven with it. Good riddance, because I don't have patience for chilling dough when I don't have to.
"Madsie, give me your baker smile."
Scoop and gently roll 1 inch balls in your hand and drop onto the baking sheet. Mixture should feel light and pillowy. Be as delicate as you can to preserve all of the air you have worked into the batter. You should be able to fit all 12 onto a single baking sheet without them running into each other when baking (also, there is enough dough in the recipe for sneaking bites of batter...and you actually don't have to sneak them because the recipe is egg-free...yay!).
Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. The cookies WILL NOT LOOK DONE when it's time to take them out. They will look soft and pillowy in the center but wrinkled on the sides. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT wait for them to brown on the sides. When the timer goes off, remove the pan from the oven, set it on a heat-resistant surface, and check the bottom of a cookie with a spatula. If they are the same color on the bottom as they are on the top, then put them back in and set the timer for one minute. If they are just starting to turn a slightly tan color on the bottom, that's perfect. Time to take them out. If they are browning on the edges, you have left them in too long.
This is how mine look when I take them out of the oven.
Once out of the oven, allow to sit on the pan to finish baking. If you prefer a softer cookie (like me), transfer to a wire cooling rack or plate within one minute of removing from the oven.
Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, and then seal in an airtight container to preserve freshness.
Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, and then seal in an airtight container to preserve freshness.
Start prepping your icing. In order to have a nice surface for painting, you want to use royal icing...it's an icing that you pipe or pour on to "flood" the top of the cookie and as you go back over and fill in gaps in the icing, it should "heal" itself by merging with the surrounding icing...making a nice flat canvas for you to paint on. Getting the right consistency of your icing is important for it to work well and not drip down the sides (which I've done many times and if it happens to you, just go with it, they still taste good :)).
Mix together sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla in bowl. It will be a sticky mess that doesn't mix well. Add milk a tsp at a time so you don't add too much. You want to add milk until you get a stirrable, smooth, STICKY icing...you don't want a stirrable, smooth, RUNNY icing. When stirring, it should tire your arm...it should provide resistance to being stirred. If it's just easy and slippery and dripping from your spoon when you lift it, it's too runny and won't stick to your cookie (I'm so sorry I didn't get a photo of this...next time I make these I will get detail photos of icing consistency do's and don'ts).
[Also, if you are not dealing with food allergies and don't want to fuss around with making icing, I've read that you can also just heat store-bought cookie icing in the microwave and dip your cookies in it top side up.]
Mix together sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla in bowl. It will be a sticky mess that doesn't mix well. Add milk a tsp at a time so you don't add too much. You want to add milk until you get a stirrable, smooth, STICKY icing...you don't want a stirrable, smooth, RUNNY icing. When stirring, it should tire your arm...it should provide resistance to being stirred. If it's just easy and slippery and dripping from your spoon when you lift it, it's too runny and won't stick to your cookie (I'm so sorry I didn't get a photo of this...next time I make these I will get detail photos of icing consistency do's and don'ts).
[Also, if you are not dealing with food allergies and don't want to fuss around with making icing, I've read that you can also just heat store-bought cookie icing in the microwave and dip your cookies in it top side up.]
You can pipe your icing on quickly like I did (I keep a reusable piping bag with nozzles in my decorating drawer) or you can try to apply it with a spoon or knife (messier and may take longer but doable if you don't have a piping bag). When you are done, allow to dry for a few hours or even better, overnight. Make sure to cover them with plastic wrap after the icing has set for a bit or seal them into an airtight container.
When the icing has set and you are ready to get painting, get some tiny tapered brushes (preferably ones you haven't used with toxic materials before like paint or crafting supplies), some bowls (or little specialty cups like these), some gel food coloring (food allergy families, Americolor is a brand that is safe for allergens, but obviously do your own label checking), clear vanilla extract, and a bowl of water for rinsing your brush.
|
|
In your bowls or craft cups, add a drop or two of gel coloring, followed by a tiny splash of vanilla. Find your least favorite cookie in the bunch and use it as a test cookie to get a feel for your favorite "paint consistency". It's really fun to have a variety of brushes, as well as toothpicks (when you need to do some really fine details like the feathering of the cardinal below). Don't hesitate to mix colors and play around! I did a wreath and tree with the plain green at first, and they were fine, but then I started toying with adding brown to the primary colors to get a more natural look and it was a gamechanger. And don't forget, painting "watercolor-style" like this often mean building layers of detail one-by-one, letting a layer dry before adding a few more details on top.
Whether you are an artist looking for a more detailed way to decorate your cookies or you aren't that confident artistically but just want to have some fun with painting, this method is for you! Forgive these cookies below, this was one of the times that I accidentally made the icing too runny, so they are sloppier looking, but I also chose some simpler designs for those that want some beginner ideas (writing names or holiday greetings, stars or twinkle lights, painting a solid color, plaid pattern, stripes, tree with ornaments).
The possibilities are endless! I looked up a wintry forest in watercolor for some inspiration and painted my favorite cookie yet.
Let them dry and then get them back into a cookie tin to preserve as much softness as you can. The extra vanilla flavor in the icing AND the painting really send this cookie off the rails. And people will be so impressed with your beautiful cookies!
Don't forget to come back and let us know how you liked them...or better yet, post a photo of your designs and tag us at @reveriehomecollective! Please share with your food allergy friends, we all just want to enjoy the simple pleasure of soft sugar cookies again!
RSS Feed