While searching and testing different ways to bake the perfect sugar cookie I have found a few tricks. The first is to combine two ways of rolling out the dough. After mixing the dough, I wrap the disks in plastic wrap and place them in the fridge, but only for a maximum of 20 minutes. I know there is some chemistry going on here so I don’t want to completely skip this step. Traditionally, you would leave it longer, until fully chilled, but I find after a couple of batches, my wrists aren’t a fan of rolling out super hard, cold dough. Next I take it out and roll it between two sheets of parchment paper. I use clean paint stir sticks as a guide for rolling out even thickness. Then I transfer the rolled dough onto a cookie sheet and into the freezer for 5 -10 minutes. Cooling the dough in the freezer makes your cookie shapes come out beautifully, and it also makes it easier to transfer your cookies to the cookie sheet. Then pop the pan of cookies back into the freezer for a couple more minutes until the cookies are cool before putting them in the oven. After cooling, I decorated these cookies using a white chocolate fondant. For a great sugar cookie recipe and tips on making sugar cookie pops, check out this tutorial on Sweetapolita.
I used the same cookie cutter that I used for the cookies to cut out the shape in fondant, then trimmed away the excess with a sharp paring knife. Then I used a gum paste tool to make lines in the fondant and the end of a piping tip to add divettes to create a vintage-y metal look. I added some silver (airbrush colour) paint to the trim around the windows and pearl dust to the windows to add some shine to the cookies. Lastly, I added a little white fondant highlight, as if a bright shooting star is flying by and reflecting in the window.
I made these cookies for my little buddy who was turning 5. I made a couple extra moons and squares and used the textures that were already there to create some fun personalized ones just for him. I love the moons and actually found that technique by mistake. I was using the end of a ball tool to make a dent for the darker piece of fondant to sit in and was pleasantly surprised by the crater effect that it left. I love finding techniques like this. Remember to always keep your mind open to new possibilities and make a few extra cookies so you can experiment with a couple along the way!
KyKy xx
