Halloween sugar cookies

It's been a long, tiring... month. I needed to bake something, STAT. I thought sugar cookies would be a great thing to make for the pumpkin carving party I'm throwing tomorrow.

I borrowed this recipe from my man Alton Brown, sort of.

These cookies are not too sweet. They're made to be paired with icing to get that right amount of sweetness. Everyone said these tasted like the soft iced sugar cookies you get at Walmart, if that means anything to you. Bottom line, they're pretty good.

Sugar Cookies

1 c. white rice flour
1 c. millet flour (or more white rice flour, sorghum, etc.)
1/2 c. corn starch
3/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. xanthan gum
1/2 c. butter, softened (I used Smart Balance 50/50)
1/3 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla

Mix the flours, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum in a bowl. In a separate bowl cream the butter, shortening, and sugar. It should be creamy and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add in the dry ingredients until it forms a soft dough. If you want to roll these out, you will need to refrigerate the dough for a few hours. It rolls out well on a powdered sugar surface to keep it from sticking.

I didn't have cookie cutters and it got really old trying to carve pumpkins freehand with a knife, so I rolled them into balls and made them old school. If they're chilled, they won't spread much at all, and if they're room temp they only spread a little.

Bake them at 375 for about 5 minutes, or until the middles look set.

I'm thinking the rest of the snack-y menu will include spiced (and spiked!) apple cider, a ham & cheese tray with crackers (and bread for everyone else), and chex mix. And as soon as we have carved pumpkins, I'm thinking toasted pumpkin seeds. Mmm.

Happy Halloween!

Christmas Sugar Cookies

I ~have~ been cooking. The semester is winding down and I've got a more relaxed schedule. But the darn internet has been fritzy. I've got teff muffins, cornbread muffins and hot cocoa on the back burner, soon to be posted.

This is the scene that has been happening a lot lately: My mom is making a large salad in the kitchen. I head straight for the cookies. It's that time of year. (Who am I kidding? It's that time of year all year long)

It's tradition for me to make sugar cookies every year for Christmas. They're time-consuming, but they're my absolute favorite, and I get them only once a year. I eat until I'm just Sick, then wait for next year.

Here's how you make these:

1 c. softened butter
a little more than 1/3 c. powdered sugar
a little more than 1/3 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour mix (with xanthan gum)
1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Cream the butter & sugar, then mix in the egg & vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients separately, then add them to the wet ingredients. Refrigerate the dough for a while. I put mine in small batches in the freezer for 15 minutes or so.

Roll the dough on a GF floured surface. I prefer sweet rice flour. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake them for ~10 minutes, or until the edges are just barely turning brown.

Let them cool for a few minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool before icing.

To make the icing, I use:

4 T. crisco
1/2 t. vanilla
2 T. water
few shakes of salt to cut down on the sweetness
~4 c. powdered sugar

Mix that up until it's creamy and ice away!