Simple Valentines Day cookies

I wanted to try a quick sugar cookie recipe, one that wouldn't require 2 hrs in the refrigerator so I gave SweetSugarBelle's sugar cookie recipe a try. She is also baking in a dry climate so my results were great. I will use this recipe again if I am in a hurry. One complaint, using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar gives the cookie a slightly different texture.

Now I'm going to ramble a bit. When my sister Rebecca and I were kids my Mom signed us up for a sugar cookie class at the Bloomfield Hills Public Library. We made dinosaurs out of cookie dough!!!! Amazing! My Mom raised seventeen kids and needless to say there was not much time for baking cookies. Anyhow, I can remember to this day the taste of those cookies and have searched and searched for a recipe that tasted just like those little Brontosaurs cookies. I have easily tried 20 or more different sugar cookie recipes in the past 15 years. For a long time I used this old Conant School recipe provided by my Sister Alison and posted by my sister Cathy. (She gives a lot of great tips on making rolled cookies).

Then this Fall, with the discovery of Pinterest, Becca found this recipe from the blog beeinourbonnet. I made it and called Becca right back with the happy realization that the beeinourbonnet cookies tasted just like the cookies we had made more than 25 years ago. We had been adding almond extract, but that little hint of lemon extract gave it the flavor we were looking for.

My point is, there is no perfect recipe for anything. You need to try as many as you can until you find that magical flavor you are looking for. And don't give up! (I still want to know the secret ingredients in a Cafe Rio salad and maybe it is crack after all).

So if you are in a hurry use SweetSugarBelle's recipe - just know the texture will ever so slightly resemble that of a mint milano, a little too melt in your mouth for me. For cookies with more of a bite to them, stick with the recipe from beeinourbonnet. She also gives great decorating tips and a royal icing recipe. I'm still trying out several types of icing and don't have a favorite - yet.

As to decorating these cookies, I outlined them working with about eight at a time then immediately flooded with Royal Icing. I keep my icing on the thin side so that the frosting layer is not too thick. Some I immediately covered in sanding sugar and the others I added sugar just to the edges the next day once the Royal Icing had time to dry. These were really easy and turned out cute. I feel a need to make more because I forgot to mix orange for this project. DOH! I wanted to have all the colors of the traditional conversation hearts.