Abstract
In this report, I am trying to bake sugar cookies and ice them. It is my first time ever making sugar cookies from scratch as well as making frosting and decorating a cookie. Just like an experiment in lab, following a recipe is like following an experimental protocol. I have designed this blog post in the same format as published literature to get you familiar with looking at scientific literature and what each sections means. I hope you enjoy this format and enjoy my future cooking experiments.
Background
Sugar cookies are a popular dessert in the United States. The main ingredients are sugar, flour, butter and eggs. Making them is a simple recipe. Sugar cookies come in different sizes, textures and can be decorated in various ways. Most commonly, sugar cookies are used for decorating with icing and sprinkles. Due to their plain look, sugar cookies can be decorated for any theme, holiday, or party. Most popularly, these cookies are used during fall and winter holidays to decorate and give as gifts or even bring them to a potluck!
In this experiment, I am trying out my first batch of sugar cookies from scratch.
Results
Figure 1: Enter a captionSugar cookies are simple to make. The recipe was quite straight forward. See materials and methods.
Figure 2: consistency of what your dough should look like before chilling. wrap it in saran wrap or put it in an air-tight container.
Figure 3: Sugar cookies are delicious With the amount of sugar that went into the recipe, no doubt these cookies are delicious. I practiced some decorating with some swirls and some flooding.
Discussion
I enjoyed making the cookies. At first, I wasn’t sure if the cookie would come out properly and was worried about the taste. There are so many recipes out there to follow, it is hard to decide which one to follow. Finally, I picked a recipe sugarspunrun.com and went with it. From this experience I learned that baking takes a lot of patience. It is not a one-day thing. I made the dough one night, let the cookies chill in the refrigerator overnight and baked them the next morning.
At first, the chilled dough was really hard, I waited a few mins while I took my dog out for a walk, but still got a bit impatient. Instead I decided to heat up the dough for 30 seconds in the microwave. That helped soften the chilled dough and made it easier to roll out the dough.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t bought any cookie cutters, so I used a beer tasting glass to make my round cut outs. Because I am not good at rolling out the dough, my cookies are of different widths. This is something to improve on the next time.
As a practice, I made some icing to decorate with. See materials and methods.
Materials & Methods
Sugar Cookie:
1 cup salted butter (softened to room temperature)
1 cup sugar
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
5 cups all-purpose flour
75 teaspoons baking powder
Before starting, turn on oven to preheat to 350oC. Combine butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy. Add egg and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Slowly add flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Make sure to not beat to dough too much. This could affect the overall texture and look of the cookie. Mold the dough into a disk and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
Generously dust your rolling area. Roll out cookie to desired width. Cut out desired shapes. Bake cookies until golden edges are seen (~10-12 mins).
Allow cookies to cool before frosting.
Sugar Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk
5 teaspoon vanilla extract
Drop of desired food color (Use a gel color; generic brand works just fine)
Mix all ingredients and mix. Adjust texture of frosting by adding more milk or more powdered sugar. Transfer frosting to a Ziploc bag to be used for piping icing.
Let sit for a few mins for the icing to harden a little and enjoy the deliciousness!
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