Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie recipe is my fav.  The cookies come out soft yet crispy and they do not spread.  I get a lot of inspiration from lifeloveandsugar.com.  Lindsay has some delicious recipes and they are easy to follow.

So, tell me what you think?  Not bad for my first time eh???

The key to a good sugar cookie is to have all your ingredients at room temperature.  Another good thing about this recipe, you don't have to refrigerate the dough for hours.  When it's time to move your cookies onto the sheet pan, you may have to use a spatula.  Some of my cutouts were stuck to my counter. 

Place your cookies on parchment paper or a silpat.  You don't won't these babies sticking to the pan.

Once cooled, let your creativity blossom!  I used this royal icing recipe.  It dries hard but not enough to chip a tooth like some others. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• decorations: royal icing, sprinkles, pink and red tinting gel, icing bags, Wilton tips ( i used sizes 2 and 3)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Line your pan with parchment or these babies might stick to your pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  It takes a few minutes.
3. Once fluffy, add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk all dry ingredients.  Add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.  You may have to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula once or twice.
5. On a clean, floured surface, roll out about 1/3 of the dough to 1/4 inch thick.  You will have to flour the rolling pin also.
6. Now's the fun part, cut out your cookies shapes with whatever floats your boat.  I use a simple heart.  Move cookies to your baking sheet.  You may have to wiggle a metal spatula under the cookie to get it loose.
7. Bake for 7-9 minutes.  They won't look done but will finish cooking out of the oven.  Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Move to cooling rack to completely cool.
8. While cooling, you can make the icing.

Eat and enjoy!