Cutout Sugar Cookies

I'm on a sugar high!!! 

Why, you'd ask?! 

Well, didn't you read the blog title?!! 

Sugar cookies, thats why!!! 

And not just any sugar cookies, but Browned Butter Sugar cookies! 

If your home isn't smelling like 'Holidays' by now, then baking these cookies will put you right in that festive mood. 

Let me admit it, I have never made these sugar cookies ever before in my life. I've made cookies, but not this kind. And to be honest, I was quite skeptical about how these might turn out. When I baked them, I breathed a sigh of relief cause they turned out even better than I had expected. And that aroma of browned butter- that makes me weak in my knees. Have you seen my brown butter chocolate chip cookies or as I like to call them- Orgasmic Chocolate Chunk Cookies? Its one of my all time popular posts ever and deservedly so. 

I'm so obsessed with browned butter that I can't have my cookies any other way. The rich nutty caramel-y aroma and flavour that it infuses in my desserts is a new level of awesomeness! Try it and you'll never go back to your old recipes. 

I was a little let down by the icing though. Oh well!! I had elaborate designs (pun intended) on my mind, but I had a terrible headache and shortage of time, which is why I had to go ahead and make do. 

Honestly though, who cares!!! These cookies were gobbled up in no time. I'll have to practice to get it right some other time. The icing was entirely eggless, not even meringue powder or corn syrup or anything else. Just sugar, lemon, milk and vanilla. I think adding egg whites gives it a smoother texture and makes it easier to pipe. How we live and learn. The cookies, in itself though, are sheer perfection!!! Lets get cookin' then, shall we?! 

Makes: 24 cookies

Time taken: 30 minutes + chilling time

Complexity: ***

You'll need

100 gms/ 1 stick butter

1/2/ cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of love

Method

We first need to brown the butter. Here's the in detail step by step on how to do that. 

Once we have the butter ready, in a food processor, take the butter

Add the combined sugars to it. 

Add in the egg to the mix along with the vanilla extract

Give it a whizz till you see a few bubbles form on the surface

Whisk in the flour and the baking powder together and add it to the wet ingredients and pulse the processor 

till it all comes together and becomes lumpy. Make sure you scrape down the sides. 

Transfer the dough directly on a plastic wrap and shape it in a round disc as best as you can. It just makes for easier rolling out later. 

I flattened out mine in a disc of about 6" diameter and about an inch thick. 

Cover it up nice and tight and then chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. If you live in a colder climate than India, then you probably could skip this step. I needed the dough to firm up a little before I could roll it out, so in the fridge it went. 

After 30 minutes, take it out of the fridge and start rolling it out. Now I cut the disc into half and then rolled it out, but you can do whatever you like. Just remember that it needs to be rolled out till it is 1/2 cm or 1/8th of an inch thick. 

Also take care to roll it out as evenly as possible. If the cookies are slightly thinner in some parts, they will brown quickly in the oven than the rest of the cookies. 

Take your festive christmas cookie cutters and go to town with it! Of you can even use a simple round for the cookies. You do you! The cookies will be beautiful in all shapes and sizes! You can gather the scraps and roll them out again. But keep the chilling procedure in mind. 

Place the cut out cookies on a lined baking tray. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 mins to an hour. This will ensure that the cookies don't lose their shape when baked. 

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat your oven for 5-7 minutes on 150C or 300F.  Place the baking tray in the oven and bake cookies for 7-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them because oven times can vary and you don't want your cookies to turn brown. Oh and if they do, its quite alright, Santa won't mind. 

After they are baked, take the tray out of the oven and allow them to cool for a couple of minutes before very carefully transferring them onto a wire rack to cool completely. The best is if you let them cool overnight before icing. 

For the icing, I am not going into detail as I am not completely satisfied with the end result. But there are tons of sugar icing recipes out there which you can use. If you still want to know how I iced mine, here it is. 

Take 2 cups sugar and powder it. Sift it to ensure there are no lumps. 

To that, add in 1 tbsp lemon juice 

and 3-4 tbsp milk. I think I added less quantity of milk which is why my sugar didn't completely melt and the texture was a little rough (lesson learnt) 

Add in a few drops of vanilla for flavour. You can add any flavour you like here. 

Mix well till it reaches a smoother consistency than this. The icing ribbon should take 10 second before fully getting merged with the icing in the bowl. Then your icing is perfect. 

Take your favourite nozzles and get piping! I piped mine with just zip lock bags and no nozzles. How professional am I?! 

Thats it! Cookies are done!! They sure look festive, don't they?! 

Now that I see them here again, they are not that bad looking as I made them out to be. Infact, I think I'm quite proud of my first attempt!! 

Don't know what it is about these cookies that whenever I see them, this song pops up in my head- 'you better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why- Santa Claus is commmiiingg to town'..... Indulge! 

Have a Merry Christmas y'all!! <3