You Can Make It: Sugar Mama's Yummy Butter Cookies

I'm a self taught baker and cake designer. Everything I've learned is from books, TV, videos and trial & error...alot of error; but the things I do well I'm more than happy to share and believe me, if I can make it...

You Can Make It: Sugar Mama's Yummy Butter Cookies

The cookies were ordered by Events by WE in Cincinnati, OH. I love making them so much I thought it'd be a great opportunity to share.

Who doesn't love cookies? I don't know but I don't want to meet them. I don't get them to often but when I do get an order for cookies, I always make a little extra for myself for a little snack. These cookies are great smeared with cream cheese!

I love this recipe because the cookies aren't too sweet, so they compliment royal icing and fondant well. There isn't alot of prep time or ingredients. Try it and let me know what you think!

* This recipe yields about 30 2" cookies
* I like to always make a fresh batch and use it right away but you can store the cookie dough in the fridge for 3-5 days. You can also freeze it for about 6-8 weeks but I wouldn't recommend it. Fresh is alway best.
* This recipe can be doubled but I wouldn't recommend cutting it in half.
And now with out further ado...

Sugar Mama's Yummy Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 stick salted butter (room temperature)
1 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt

Materials:
mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons
knife & cutting board
Stand Mixer, Mixing Bowl, Paddle and Dough hook Attachment
Rubber Spatula
Wax Paper
Cookie Baking Sheets
Cookie Cutter
Rolling Pin

Directions:

Preparing the cookie dough:
Chop butter into chunks and combine with the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat on high/med speed until the butter/sugar mixture is light and fluffy.

While the butter and sugar are mixing combine all the flour, baking soda, salt and sift together. To save time I just mix the ingredients quickly with a fork.

Once the butter/ sugar mix has the desired amount of fluff, add the egg and the vanilla. Continue to mix until incorporated. Then add your dry ingredients a half a cup at a time, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.



When the paddle attachment is struggling to mix your cookie dough (be careful not to burn out your motor), switch to the dough hook attachment. Allow the hook to knead the dough into a nice ball that catches all the batter/dough stuck to sides of the bowl.

Yay, cookie dough! Now you can stop here, eat the cookie dough with a bowl of ice cream or continue to the next steps.

Baking Cookies:
Move all of your oven racks to the top slots and preheat your oven to 300 degrees... yes really, 300 degrees.

Split your dough ball in half or thirds. Take one portion of dough and place it between two sheets of wax paper on your largest cookie sheet. Use your rolling pin to roll the dough into a flat sheet.

If your cookie sheet is sliding all over the counter top put a square of non slip grip matting, like the kind you use to line your drawers, underneath the sheet and it will stay put.


Use you cookie cutter to cut out the cookies then transfer the wax paper to a new cookie sheet and stick the whole thing in the freezer or fridge. Do the same to the reamining dough and by the time you've finished the last batch, the first batch should be cold.

Take a cookie spatula or offset spatula and remove the cold cookies from sheet and arrange them on new sheets no less than a half inch apart. You should probably have a copious amount of cookie sheets. Toss the remaing dough in a bowl so you can keep rerolling and cutting more cookies until the entire batch is done.

Once you have all of your cookies on sheets you can begin to place them in the oven. Usually you bake butter cookies for 8-10 minutes at about 350 0r 375. I prefer to bake them for 15-20 minutes at 300 because you get a more even golden color and you're less likely to forget them in the oven and burn them, not as if that has ever happened to me, but I've heard stories...


Once they're done cool them on the stove top, cooling rack or do a quick chill in the freezer. Remove them carefully with a cookie or offset spatula.
Three guesses as to where that missing cookie went.




Ta-Da! Sugar Mama's Yummy Butter Cookies. Now you can stop here and eat the cookies with a bowl of ice cream or you can decorate and share them.

Let's play a little if & then:
if dough is too loose, then there wasn't enough flour or too much butter. I could also be too warm in your kitchen. You can knead flour into the batter or wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge.
if your cookies are dark brown around the edges and doughy white in the middle, then your cookies are too close to the bottom of the oven or the oven temp is too high.
if you have cooled your cookies for a while and they're still stuck to the pan, then pop them in the freezer for a few minutes. They'll fly right off the sheet.
Unfortunately, these are the only mistakes I've made and know how to fix. If anyone else has tips I will gladly update them.

Well it's "bake" to work for me.
Thanks for tuning in. Until Next Time!

You Can Make It: Sugar Mama's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

I'm a self taught baker and cake designer. Everything I've learned is from books, TV, videos and trial & error...alot of error; but the things I do well I'm more than happy to share and believe me, if I can make it...
You Can Make It: Sugar Mama's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

It's no secret that I love Swiss meringue butter cream and so do my clients. When I started using it in all my cakes a few months ago the difference was felt immediately. The cakes looked better and also tasted better. this a small sample of the yummy flavors you can create with this recipe

It's so good that our office manager, Hillary eats it with a spoon like ice cream. This recipe contains 4 lbs of butter so I wouldn't recommend it on a daily basis but once in while, stick a bowl full in the freezer and try it! It does not dissapoint.
This is my favorite butter cream to make and use in cakes; especially the 3D sculpted kind for many reasons:

• It's smooth, creamy & delicious; so you don't have the gritty texture of butter creams made with confectioner's sugar.
  
• When it sets up it makes cakes extra sturdy for sculpting and holding heavy fondant. You don't get those funky lines from your filling trying to escape from between layers of cake.
  
• You can make it almost any flavor without changing it's properties in minutes... coffee, cream cheese, chocolate, strawberry....mmmmm!
• The name sounds extra fancy, so when you tell you guests the name of the filling they'll think you were in the kitchen all day!
• Whenever I make it, I feel like a real pastry chef although I've never set foot in a culinary school.

I tried a few different recipes and tweaked them to create the one I use. This is closest to recipes found in Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes and Elisa Strauss' Confetti Cakes. Try it and let me know what you think!

* This recipe yields about 12 cups of frosting or enough to fill and crumb coat at least 3 8" three layered cakes.
* I like to always make a fresh batch and use it right away but you can store SMBC in the fridge for up to two weeks. I've heard you can freeze it for two months, but I've never tried it. If any of you do; let me know how it turns out.
* I have halved this recipe and gotten great results. I've even done a fourth of the recipe for tastings. The key is to keep an eye on the egg whites in the stand mixer. Don't over beat (or whip, technically)!
And now with out further ado...

Sugar Mama's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
12 large egg whites
3 cups of sugar
8 sticks of salted butter (room temperature)
8 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoon of vanilla extract (you can change the extract to whatever you want)

Materials:
mixing bowls, measuring cups & spoons
knife & cutting board
Saucepan
Hand Whisk
Stand Mixer, Mixing Bowl & Whisk Attachment
Rubber Spatula



Directions:
Place 2 cups of water in saucepan on a medium flame. While waiting for the water to boil, start separating eggs. I recommend using a egg separator; Wilton makes a good one, but if you don't have one you can rinse off the eggs prior to doing the back & forth egg shell method to reduce the risk of salmonella. Add the egg whites and sugar to the mixing bowl.


Hopefully, by this time the water is boiling. After reducing the water to simmer, set the mixing bowl over the water and continually hand whisk. Continue to do this until all of the sugar has melted but do not cook the eggs.

Attach the sugar/egg mix to the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and set on med/high speed for 10-15 minutes. The sides of the bowl will be cooler and the mixture will appear white, fluffy and form stiff peaks. Be careful not to over whip. When you pull the whisk out it should form what looks like a birds beak.

While you're waiting for the white, fluffy magic to happen you can chop your 1 sticks of butter into tablespoons. That's roughly 8 pieces of butter per stick. Don't worry about mixing the salted and unsalted. It's all going to the same place. A note about warming your butter to room temperature: The longer you leave food out between the temps of 40 - 140 f. the more at risk your food is for contamination. So be careful.

Once you've gotten your birds beak, lower the speed of your mixer to med/low speed and add the butter one table spoon at a time making sure each piece is incorporated before you add the next. This can actually become a fun game. There's something oddly satisfying about tossing the butter in mix and watching it disappear. You could also try to hit the back of the bowl without getting intercepted by mixer.

When you first start adding the butter you'll see the mixture start to deflate and think you've ruined the recipe somehow. Then about half way through adding the butter it will start to thicken and actually look like butter cream. Once you've added all of the butter, stop the mixer, use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom and poke out any chunks of butter that may be stuck in the whisk attachment. Mix again on low/med speed for another minute or two to be sure all the butter is incorporated.

Ta-Da! Sugar Mama's Swiss Meringue Butter Cream!

Let's play a little if & then:
if your frosting ends up to loose or soupy, then you over whipped or you added the butter too early. Sometimes if you refrigerate the buttercream it's salvageable.
if your frosting is grainy or crunchy, then the sugar wasn't completely melted before you whipped it. There really isn't a way to fix it. Sometimes mixing the BC on low speed for a few minutes will help.
if you have big chunks of butter in your finished frosting, then your butter was too cold or the frosting wasn't finished. Keep whipping on med/low until it's smooth.
Unfortunately, these are the only mistakes I've made and know how to fix. If anyone else has tips I will gladly update them.

Well it's "bake" to work for me.
Thanks for tuning in. Until Next Time!