twinkle, twinkle, little sprinkle: Cookie Lessons

For months, my sister-in-law, Jeanette, has been talking to me about her colleague, Shannon, who is the hostess over at the misanthropicHostess blog. Her blog is a great source for baking tips and ideas. Shannon is very knowledgeable and her writing is witty and fun. I have been enjoying her blog since Jeanette first mentioned it. Jeanette, the forever matchmaker, had been trying to get us to meet, but for some reason or another, that meeting didn't come to be until just a couple of weeks ago. Jeanette arranged a little cookie decorating clinic with Shannon and I was happy to open up my kitchen so that I may extract a few tips and secrets from Shannon in person. I have to stay, Jeanette was right; we really hit it off. We now have a future clinic penciled in for macarons. Yay!! I'm so excited since you all know how much I enjoy making and eating macarons.

Here are a few tips I learned from Shannon:

When making your sugar cookie dough, you can immediately roll it out between two layers of parchment paper, layering them on a cookie sheet. You can then refrigerate your rolled out cookie dough until you are ready to cut the shapes (at least 30 minutes, but preferably overnight). If you do this instead of refrigerating the dough in a ball, it is ready to go when you are and it makes cutting the shapes faster and easier. When you're ready to cut the shapes, take out a layer of rolled out dough one at a time and cut, then place the cut shapes on another cookie sheet that you may also layer between parchment paper and refrigerate those at least 15 minutes before baking. The cookies will hold their shapes better when baking. Later, when I tried this on my own, I arranged the shapes as I would on my cookie sheet for baking and when I was ready to bake, I just transferred each layer with the parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and baked. It was so much faster and easier!
A thick cookie is better than a thin one. I used to roll out my cookie dough too thin and sometimes my cookies would break, especially the ones with delicate shapes. By rolling out the dough a little thicker (about 1/4"), you get a sturdier cookie and there is more cookie to eat and it actually tastes better!
For the royal icing, you do not need egg whites or meringue powder. All you need is simply confectioners sugar and water. I used to use egg whites and I always worried about the raw eggs. Now I will always use water! Shannon also uses lemon juice instead of water for a flavoring variation. I'm sure you can also use other flavorings like a few drops of colorless vanilla, almond and peppermint extracts. Ooh, I think I'm going to try that next time.

Here are a few pictures from our cookie clinic: