Iced Snowflake Sugar Cookies

The Art.
    There's a reason why sugar cookies are everyone's favorite. They are easy to make, made from ingredients that are always on hand, and the simple flavor appeals to all palettes. In addition, sugar cookies allow endless decorating possibilities, with different cookie cutters, icings, and embellishments. We recently had a beautiful snowfall that inspired me to make these cookies using a snowflake cookie cutter, white royal icing, and edible pearls. Cookie decorating is a time when everyone can get creative and try out different designs. Your cookies will be as unique as real snowflakes when you're done!

The Science.
    In the time since I've made the Lemon Polka Dot Sugar Cookies, I decided to alter my recipe a bit. While the original cookies are very delicious, I wanted cookies that were a little less "short" for this project. This meant I would have to substitute another fat for some of the butter. I chose vegetable oil, because it has less saturated fats, and gives a lighter mouthfeel than butter [1]. The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup butter, so I altered it to include 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Usually I am a stickler for obeying the rules for volume adjustments when changing the fat contents in a recipe. However, when 7/8 cup vegetable oil should be substituted for 1 cup butter, it made the calculation for 1/4 cup a little tricky [2]. I figured that 1/4 cup vegetable oil was close enough to 7/32 cup for my purposes. I must admit I felt pretty racy for disregarding calculations here, and the cookies were still delicious. In the end, baking is both an art and a science, and it's important to remember that it should be fun. Getting too caught up in the numbers can take away from the enjoyment of making something pretty and delicious.

The Recipe.

Sugar cookies: (Makes 24)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
   

    In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high until pale and fluffy. Beat in oil, egg, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Cover and chill dough at least one hour.

    Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough with rolling pin until 1/4" thick. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cookie cutters. Gather scraps and re-roll, cutting out more cookies. Transfer cookies to 2 ungreased baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake cookies until edges are golden, 12-15 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Royal Icing:
1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

    In a medium bowl, beat egg white until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar until icing is the consistency of toothpaste. Beat in milk. Store extra icing in the refrigerator, covering the surface with waxed paper.

Decorating:
    Place a #3 tip in a piping bag and fill with icing. Draw lines of icing on your snowflake cookies in whatever pattern you wish. Carefully place edible pearls on wet icing with craft tweezers. Allow cookies to dry, uncovered, for several hours. Store cookies in an air-tight container, separating layers with waxed paper.

1. American Baking Essentials Course 201. "Butter, Shortening, and Oils: The Fats We Bake With." The Prepared Pantry, 2005.
2.  All Recipes, "Common Ingredient Substitutions." Available here.