I’ve been reading Sweet Sugar Belle‘s blog for quite some time now. I have been admiring her cookie creations and thinking if I could make similar ones. I am artistic, but not good in drawing, let alone “drawing” using royal icing!
Today I decided I will at least try. I wouldn’t learn unless I do, right?
I have read this Basic Sugar Cookie recipe for more than a dozen times. It seemed easy enough. I checked, double checked and triple checked the procedure so I would get it right. I have even came across other sites that were making sugar cookies also, watched their videos and read comments. I think I was more than prepared for this experiment!
COOKIE DOUGH: Making the dough was pretty easy enough. The instructions were very detailed and I think good instincts kicked in. However, I had a semi-hard time rolling the dough out because parts of the dough got stuck on my rolling pin. Adding a bit of flour at a time usually gets the trick done. Now that that’s done, my next problem is cutting the dough with the shapes I wanted. Since it was soft (not refrigerated nor frozen at this time) it got stuck to my cookie cutters or gets broken when transferred to the baking sheet. This is when I decided to freeze the rolled out dough. I have watched another video about this (sorry, I can’t remember the video/site where I saw this) but she freezes her rolled out dough and it’s easier to cut – pops right out! Once I have done that: easy peasy! 😉
COOKIE STAMPS: I also got to use the cookie stamps I bought in Hong Kong (Read: Hong Kong Steals). These were cool to use! It’s not a very common practice her in Manila so I think I had an advantage! Hahaha The only hard part was that the tiles (letters) were a bit loose so I had to improvise and use masking tapes to secure the tiles.
BAKING: I don’t usually follow baking times on recipes. It’s part instinct and part common sense. I have a reliable
oven, but weather is still a factor I have to consider. It’s very humid where I am, so I had to adjust. I timed the first batch of cookies I baked and it was for 15 minutes — double the time as what’s indicated in the recipe. I turn the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time. Only a few cookies were “over baked” meaning it has browned more than it should. So it was still a success! I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but I got the results I wanted.
I was so relieved and happy that my first try on these cookies had a good outcome. I shared the cookies (stamped with “FRIENDS”) to my friends in school and they loved it! The flavoring was just right, they said. By the way, I used Almond + Vanilla Butter. This was something I have never tried before, but it works!
My next goal is to ice the plain cookies I reserved. I will be posting that soon! Crossing my fingers for a good outcome, too!
serendipityandbliss.com 
i’m going to try and make these cookies as well thank you for the tip on freezing the dough. For flavoring when you say you used vanilla butter is this in sub to the unsalted butter that the reciepe calls for?
Hi Cora! Thanks for reading my blog. I bought a vanilla butter “extract” in thailand when I went there earlier this year. If you dont have that you can just use regular vanilla extract. 🙂
Thank you for the reply I actually found the vanilla butter at the store today and Your blog popped in my head, I was like ohhh this is what she was talking about.
That’a good! The “unusual extracts” are not available here in our country so when I saw it in Thailand I bought it, plus it was recommended by a mentor in school. Careful when adding this flavor though. Mine has a strong taste. If you are open to tasting the batter to check, that’ll be better. 🙂 then add more to your liking. Happy baking!