Mock Lofthouse Cookies

While browsing through Pinterest a few days ago I saw a recipe for Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies (my mother calls them "sugar coma cookies") that was posted by Lisa at Authentic Suburban Gourmet. You know those wonderful little cookies every grocery store sells in the bakery. Well, between my sweet tooth and my frugalness I decided to give them a try.

I must say that while they are very good they aren't the same as the ones you buy in the store; they had a definite sugar cookie taste to them, unlike the Lofthouse cookies. The recipes says it will make 4 1/2 dozen cookies but I made mine a little bigger than the recipe calls for and rolled them out a little too thick. I ended up with 34 cookies. I would also caution you to not thin out the icing as much as you may think to with the milk. I think a little heavier icing makes the cookies better and easier to stack. Below you will find Lisa's recipe with the few changes I made and my directions.

Lisa also has many other recipes on her site. Some of the appetizers that I am anxious to try are her Ultimate Carmelized Onion Dip, her Caprese Bites, and her Homemade Tortilla Chips with Guacamole and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa.

Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies

Cookies:

6 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 c. butter, at room temperature
2 c. granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. sour cream

Frosting:

1 c. butter, room temperature
1 t. vanilla extract
4 c. powdered sugar
1-6 T. milk (use your judgement)
Food coloring (I used liquid but am certain the gel would have worked much better)
Sprinkles (I used holiday sprinkles)

Directions:

-Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk to ensure that all baking powder and soda is evenly distributed (this keeps someone from taking a big, nasty bite of baking soda).

-Cream butter and sugar together until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time ensuring each egg is mixed in well before adding next egg. Add vanilla and sour cream, mixing slowly.

-Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients slowly while mixing on a low speed (this will keep both you and your kitchen from becoming covered in flour).

-After dough is thoroughly mixed, scrape dough from the sides of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight (this will allow the dough to be much easier to work with).

Brown bottoms = change out your parchment paper

-Roll dough out about 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters (I didn't have a circle and used hearts, also I sprayed a sheet of parchment paper with cooking oil and rolled the dough out on that). Carefully place cut-out dough onto a parchment paper-covered cooking sheet and bake for 7 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove from cookie sheet and place on cooling rack immediately (they will be firm enough to withstand transfer that quickly). I noticed that because I did not switch to a new sheet of parchment paper after a few uses, the bottoms of my cookies got darker with each tray I pulled out of the oven. I also had 2 cookie sheets I was alternating using.

-Frosting: Cream butter with vanilla until vanilla is mixed in thoroughly. Slowly add powdered sugar on a lower speed (remember flour warning from earlier). Add milk very slowly at this time and use less than you think you will need. You can always add more later but if you add too much you will have to offset it with a generous amount of additional powdered sugar. Add food coloring.

Orange icing is more yellow than red food coloring.

-After cookies have cooled, frost and add sprinkles (I made orange frosting and used fall colored spinkles). Leave cookies on counter until frosting begins to harden and store in an air-tight container (mine have been in my cookie jar which is not airtight and have been just fine although I imagine they will dry out much faster in the cookie jar).