Sugar Cookies on the stick

sugar cookies on a stick

don't know which one of them to pick

all of them are so pretty.

should it be a flower, daisy or a lion kitty

© Iris Zuares

Creative works of Iris can be also viewed on her flickr page eyewrisz

    
Michelle Bommarito’s Sugar Cookie  recipe
Cookies on the Sticks     

3 c. all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks butter, unsalted, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg 1/2 t. kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash of almond extract
cookie sticks
note: I tend to use less sugar in this recipe when decorating with royal icing, I'd say I use about 3/4 cup of sugar instead of 1cup. I find these cookies really sweet when fully decorated with icing.


Sift together the flour and baking powder.
In a mixing bowl, beat the room temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy. About 4 minutes. Scrape the bowl at least once while mixing.
Add in the egg and mix till fluffy and  pale in color.
Add salt and both extracts.
Slowly add flour mixture (1 cup at a time) and stir until incorporated. Don't be afraid to use your hands a little to form a uniformed cookie dough. ;-)

Form the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Let soften a bit before rolling the dough.
note: I sometimes make this dough in the evening and place it in the fridge and I make the cookies next day.It works fine
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Preheat oven to 365 degrees F.
Roll the dough  between 2 pieces of wax paper to 5/8″ thick/1.5cm/. Cookie has to be rather thick so you can poke the cookie stick there.
Cut the cookies into shapes and place the cut cookie shapes on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Poke a stick into cookies. I prefer doing so before the cookies are baked. Be patient, at first it may take some practice, but I'm sure you'll get there. I roll the cookie stick slightly between my fingers when placing it in the cookie, it help prevent tearing the cookie.
Place cookies in the fridge to harden for about 5 -10 minutes and then put them in the oven.

Bake the cookies for approximately 6-8 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown in color. Rotate sheets in half time for even baking.
Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet for  a minute or two. Do not attempt to move the cookies at this stage.Slowly remove cookies from the sheet using a a wide spatula taking care to support the "stick" area, place them on the cooling rack and let cool completely
While cookies are cooling a little space around the stick will shrink a little so stick won't be so loose and you'll be able to hold the cookies upright for pretty display.
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Recipe Modifications

Lemon sugar cookies:

•  add 1 tbl lemon zest, omit vanilla extract and use 11/2 tsp lemon extract

To make cookies without a stick you can certainly use the same recipe, just don't roll the dough so thick.

Tips

For Tender Cookies
When rolling dough for cutout cookies, roll from the center outward, giving the dough a quarter turn with each stroke of the pin.This will produce more tender cookie than rolling back and forth over the the dough

Roll a perfect circle of dough
Here is a little tip on how avoid those big cracks around the edge of your cookie dough
When you are asked to form the dough into a disk, I suggest you first gather the dough into a ball, transfer the dough on to a piece of a wax paper/parchment paper and flatten the ball to about 1 inch/2.45cm/ thick and roll it on its edge along the working surface,  similar to rolling a wheel or a loop along the road. Flatten the dough again and roll the edges again, repeat until you  have a round, hockey puck  like disk with smooth edges.This process will help you when you are ready to roll the dough.


Cookies are spreading
Be sure your baking sheet is cool before placing cookies onto it. Also try using parchment paper instead of a greased baking sheet.

 Cookies on a stick are perfect for creating cookie arrangements. Here is the one I made a while ago.To stand my cookies like this I used a simple white vase and a florist foam that I cut to fit into the vase. I then used a piece of fabric and wrapped the foam in it and put it in the vase. Then I arranged the cookies on the sticks to form  a flower bouquet

                                                                          

To decorate cookies you can use variety of icings. For icing recipes please see
Cookie Icing Recipes

You can also make your own cookie designs using cookie "cutter"templates like these