Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Needed:
16 tbs ( 2 sticks) butter at room temperature
3/4 C sugar
3 egg yolks
1 piece vanilla bean, about 2 inches long or sub in 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
 ** spend the extra money and do the vanilla bean it makes these cookies and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
2 1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Yellow and Orange Food Coloring
Sanding sugar, colored decorative sugars ( I like the white) sprinkles
almond bark or white chocolate melted

What to do:
1. In a bowl or I did mine in a stand mixer, beat together butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beat well after each addition.
3. Cut vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrap out seeds with the tip of a knife into the butter mixture.
4. Add in 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, mix well
5. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat mixture on low until all ingredients are well incorporated.
6. Divide dough into 3 equal portions.
7. Line a standard loaf pan with plastic wrap

8. Gently press in one portion of the dough into the bottom of loaf pan, keeping it at least 1/2-3/4 inches high.
9. With the other two portions of dough are the ones we are dying, one orange one yellow. I dyed the first dough portion yellow and used the stand mixer to mix it in. Then did the orange so I didn't have to rinse out the bowl.
10. Press in the orange dough on top of the plan white dough, gently press in this layer so the colors do not mix and the orange dough is spread evenly like the white layer below. Then do the same with the yellow portion of dough.
11. Wrap plastic over dough and chill until firm or up 3 days in the fridge before taking out, cutting, and baking.

Making the cookies;
Preheat oven to 350 F and line baking sheet with parchment paper. Take out the dough and gently pry it out of the loaf pan. Take out of plastic wrap and set down the block of dough on a cutting board. Slice loaf into 1/4 inch slices. Trim top of slice if you want to make a straight edge. Cut each slice into triangle
shapes and dip one side into the white decorative sugar. Bake for 8 minutes.

Wait for cookies to cool, then begin decorating with the white almond bark and sprinkles if you choose to. ** note I decorated the cookies with the large white bottom or tops on them, with the white almond bark. I chose not to put the pre decorative sugar on these cookies but decorate them after they cooled.
Melt bark according to package directions and dip the part of the cookie you want to coat and then sprinkle decorative sugar or sprinkles on it, don't dip into sprinkles it makes a mess. Enjoy, have fun!
                                                                                           

Recipes adapted from William Sonoma and Best Bites