Sugar Star Flag Cookies Recipes

SUGAR STAR & FLAG COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extracts. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle., On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with floured 2- to 3-in. cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugars as desired., Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes or until set. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate with icing and additional sugars if desired.

SUGAR-COOKIE STARS

Steps:

• Make the cookies: Sift flour, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a large bowl.
• Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg.
• Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture, then vanilla. Refrigerate dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out various star shapes using 3-to-4-inch cutters. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing each 1 inch apart.
• Bake until cookies are just turning gold around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets set on wire racks for 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool completely.
• Make the icing: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until icing is glossy-white and holds a ribbonlike trail on the surface for 5 seconds when beater is raised, about 5 minutes.
• Transfer icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip. Pipe an outline of icing around the edges, then flood each cookie with more icing to cover. Sift edible silver dust over cookies. Let cookies dry completely.

STARS AND STRIPES PIñATA COOKIES

Steps:

• For the dough: Line a 3 1/2-inch x 6-inch x 2 1/4-inch mini loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a 4-inch overhang on two of the sides. Set aside.
• Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the eggs and vanilla in a small bowl.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Once incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat until slightly creamy, about 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
• Reduce the speed to low again and slowly pour in the egg mixture; beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, increasing the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning, and scraping down the sides of the bowl and the beaters themselves as needed. Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide into 3 even pieces (about 13 ounces each) and place the pieces into separate medium bowls. Add the red food coloring to one bowl and mix to combine. Add the white food coloring to another bowl and mix to combine. Add the blue food coloring to the third bowl and mix to combine. Cut each dough ball into 6 equal pieces.
• Press one piece of red dough into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Press a white piece of dough on top of the red and then a blue piece of dough on top of the white, gently pressing each so that the dough conforms to the shape of the pan. Repeat this process and order until all of the dough is in the loaf pan. The dough will come about 2 inches above the top of the pan, and that is okay. (You want the loaf of dough to be about 5 inches tall.) Freeze the dough until hard, about 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Using the parchment overhang, remove the dough from the loaf pan. With a sharp knife, cut the dough crosswise into twenty 1/8-inch thick slices and arrange on a baking sheet. Freeze until hardened, about 15 minutes. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone liners. With a 3-inch star cookie cutter, cut a star shape out of each slice and arrange on the lined baking sheets. Cut another star shape out of the center of the big stars with a 1 1/2-inch star cookie cutter. Arrange the small stars on the lined baking sheets. Freeze until hardened, about 15 minutes.
• Fill the center of the larger cookies with the crushed candies (don't worry about filling completely, since the candies will melt and naturally fill in the window). Bake the filled cookies and smaller star cookies until the candies have melted and the cookies are firm, about 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, divide the scraps in half and place each half between two pieces of parchment and reroll to 1/8-inch thick. Place them in the freezer until hardened, about 30 minutes. Cut out 10 stars using the large cookie cutter and arrange them on the lined baking sheets. Cut out smaller stars from the middles of the larger stars and arrange on the lined baking sheets. Freeze until hard, 15 minutes. Bake until the cookies are firm, about 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• For the royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 5 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until the icing forms thick and glossy peaks, adding up to 1 tablespoon more water, if needed, about 2 minutes. Transfer the icing to a resealable plastic bag and seal. Cut a small piece out of one of the corners of the bag.
• Flip the candy-filled cookies over and pipe the icing around the border. Top 10 of the cookies with one of the unfilled large star cookies. Place a pinch of star sprinkles in the center of the cookies. Press the remaining 10 candy-filled cookies on top, sandwiching the icing inside. Let the icing harden, about 10 minutes.

OLD FASHIONED SUGAR COOKIES II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and mace. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or rub between your fingers. When butter pieces are no larger than pea size, stir in the egg, vanilla and heavy cream. Blend thoroughly. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 5 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges begin to brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
• To make the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/2 tablespoons of cream and salt until smooth and creamy. Spread on top of cooled cookies. Let the frosting dry before storing or serving.

FLAG COOKIES

Steps:

• Cut a 3-by-5-inch template out of lightweight cardboard, or create a template by stacking several index cards together, then wrapping them in plastic wrap, leaving one side smooth; set aside. Line 2 baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper, and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar for 1 minute. Add vanilla, flour, and salt, and mix until just combined, 1 to 2 minutes more.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Place the smooth side of the template onto the dough, and cut out a rectangle using a paring knife; repeat to make a total of 16 rectangles, re-rolling dough as needed.
• Transfer rectangles to prepared baking sheets using a wide spatula. Chill for at least 1 hour.
• Bake cookies until they are just beginning to color and are lightly firm to the touch, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove to cooling rack, and let cool completely.
• Divide the royal icing evenly among 4 bowls, and cover each tightly with plastic wrap. Set one bowl aside for outlining the cookies. Add red food coloring to one of the bowls, and mix thoroughly, adding more food coloring if necessary to obtain desired color. Add 2 or 3 teaspoons of water to icing so it is loose enough to flow easily off of a spatula when lifted and forms a ribbon that dissolves almost immediately. Replace plastic wrap, and cover tightly. Repeat this process with another bowl of icing using blue food coloring. To the third bowl of icing, add just the water, and mix thoroughly. Recover all bowls tightly with plastic wrap.
• Transfer the reserved outlining icing to a small pastry bag fitted with a No. 5 tip. Pipe an even line on the outside edges of the cookie. Divide the cookie in half with a horizontal line. To form the outline of the canton (the field of stars), pipe a vertical line 1/3 of the way from the left side of the cookie until it meets the first horizontal line. To form the stripes, pipe two evenly spaced horizontal lines above the original horizontal line and to the right of the canton. Pipe 3 more evenly spaced horizontal lines from left to right under the canton. Repeat this process on the remaining cookies. Reserve the icing in the pastry bag for the stars. Allow the icing to dry for at least 1 hour.
• Place the remaining 3 icings into separate squeeze bottles. Flood the field of stars with enough blue icing to fill the space evenly without overflowing. Use the tip of a small knife or a wooden skewer to push the icing completely into the corners. Using the same technique, flood every other stripe with the red icing. Allow the icing to dry for at least 2 hours. Flood the remaining stripes with the white icing.
• Change the tip of the pastry bag with the reserved white icing to a No. 16 tip. Pipe out as many stars onto the blue icing as will fit. Allow the icing to dry.