The fall season is full of delicious dessert recipes to make with apples, pumpkin, and spices. This recipe from the Food Network kitchen caught my eye so I decided to give it a try. The light and soft sugar cookies are perfect with a sweet white icing and then decorated with the warm colors of fall.
Even if you are not an expert baker, this is an easy and classic sugar cookie recipe. Obviously the decorating can be as fancy and detailed as you like. Mine is a collaboration with my kids so it’s not perfect, but the cookies taste amazing and that is what matters most! Making cut-out sugar cookies is great with kids, we chose some leaf and pumpkin cookie cutters. We also tried to make cut-out brownies as well which tasted great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, no so much picture worthy though. That is the great part of baking with kids – nothing has to be perfect for them to enjoy the activity!
The recipe calls to make a royal icing as well which I am sure tastes great, we opted for the easier method of store-bought frosting just to make the recipe a little easier.
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Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for dusting
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
- Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture in two batches until just combined. Divide the dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap; shape into disks. Wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. (The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before rolling.)
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough on a floured surface, dusting with flour as needed, until about 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes with 2- to 4-inch leaf cookie cutters; arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. (If the dough becomes too soft as you work, return to the refrigerator until firm.) Gather the scraps and refrigerate until firm; reroll once to cut out more cookies. Chill the cutouts 30 minutes.
- Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350˚. Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are slightly puffed and just slightly golden on the edge, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool completely before decorating.
For the decorating part, I put about half of the container of frosting in a bowl and microwaved for 10 seconds. Give it a stir and then you and the kids can dip the top of the cookies into the frosting then place onto a parchment paper lined tray. For the fall colors, add 1-2 drops of gel food coloring then swirl it and pull it up through the frosting with a toothpick. The frosting will cool pretty fast so after we did one tray of cookies I warmed up the rest of the frosting and repeated the process. Can also add some fun fall sprinkles or sanding sugar too.
Thanks to the wonderful Food Network Kitchen creators for this fun fall baking recipe, check out the link here to see this recipe and many others to try. Happy Baking!
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/leaf-sugar-cookies-7522802
