Sugar Cookie Place Cards Recipes

GRANDMA SHEETS' SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Mix together the sugar, shortening, baking powder and ground nutmeg. Beat the eggs and add to mixture. Combine the milk and baking soda and pour into mixture. Add the flour. You can start out with a good mixer at first but you'll need to switch to hand-mixing when dough gets too thick, adding enough flour so the dough is not too sticky and you can roll it out to about 1/4 inch or so.
• Flour counter and rolling pin and top of dough. If it is very humid where you live it may help to refrigerate dough 15 minutes or so and you can also refrigerate the portion of the dough that you're not presently working with. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch. Cut out with any cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet.
• Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for about 8 minutes, or until ever so lightly browned around edges or on bottom. Remove from sheets and cool on flattened grocery bags or wire racks.

PLAYING CARD COOKIES

Steps:

• In large bowl, beat butter, egg and flour with electric mixer on medium speed (or with wooden spoon) until well mixed. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
• Heat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with cooking parchment paper. On floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Using playing card as template, cut dough into rectangles; place on cookie sheets. Reroll dough and cut additional rectangles.
• Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. (If only 1 cookie sheet is available, cool 10 minutes between batches.) Cool cookies completely, about 30 minutes.
• In medium bowl, beat meringue powder and cold water with electric mixer on medium speed until peaks form. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until soft peaks form, about 1 minute. Spoon one-third of icing into decorating bag fitted with fine tip; pipe outline of playing card onto cookies. Let stand to harden, about 30 minutes.
• Thin remaining icing with water until it becomes a spreadable consistency. Spoon icing onto each cookie, spreading with back of spoon to fill in space inside outline. Let stand to harden completely, about 30 minutes.
• Draw card details with edible markers.

DECORATED SUGAR COOKIE CUTOUTS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, egg yolks and extracts. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a ball, then flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour., On a lightly floured surface, roll one portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Repeat., Bake at 350° for 13-16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. , For icing, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, water, meringue powder and corn syrup. If desired, add extract and tint with food coloring; beat on low speed just until combined. Beat on high for 4-5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Keep unused icing covered at all times with a damp cloth. If necessary, beat again on high speed to restore texture. Frost cookies. Let stand until set. , To decorate cookies, place melted candy coating in small resealable plastic bags; cut a small hole in the corner of each bag. Decorate cookies as desired.

SUGAR COOKIE NAME CARDS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients together and mix with an electric mixer until blended. Gradually add the dry stuff to the wet stuff until combined thoroughly.
• Roll dough out on lightly floured surface until about 1/8" thick. Cut into various shapes using cookie cutters or even just cut with a knife into rectangles.
• Use a straw to cut out a hole in the cookie. Be sure to leave enough room around the edges of the hole so it's not too thin.
• Place shapes on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes. When you remove cookies, you may have to poke the straw through the hole again to re-open it.
• Transfer to a cooling rack.
• Decorate name card with icing/decorator gel and tie a ribbon or string of yarn through the hole to hang the card.