Unleash your inner artist with these delicious blank canvases!
INGREDIENTS
CREAM CHEESE COOKIES
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 cups of granulated unbleached sugar cane
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract¼ tsp almond extract
4 ¾ cups unbleached, all purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt
CREAM CHEESE GLAZE
4 oz of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
4 tbsp buttermilk (or any type of milk or cream)
3 cups organic powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean extract
2-3 Color Kitchen Color packets for "gel" (powdered colors with a few drops of water or glycerin)
1 cup of additional powdered sugar set aside for the piping
DIRECTIONS
COOKIE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, cream-cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg yolks and extract and mix until smooth.
Add the flour and salt, mix until combined but don't over mix!
In plastic wrap, chill the dough for 2 hours (or up to 12 hours).
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature until it is pliable enough to roll out. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners.
Roll the dough onto a *lightly* floured surface between ¼"-½" thick. Thinner cookies will bake up crispier and thicker dough will be softer. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes and place them 2" apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 7-12 minutes depending on the cookie size. If the centers puff up while baking, they will be soft. If they start to brown on the edges, they will be crispier in texture. Pull them out before they start to brown if you want a softer cookie.
Cool the cookie completely before removing off the paper, otherwise they will break easily. Glaze and frost as desired!
GLAZE
For the flooding:
Mix together the cream cheese and 3 cups of powdered sugar with a paddle attachment until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.
Add the buttermilk and extracts of your choice for desired flavor. Continue to beat until smooth and creamy. (If you can't get the lumps to dissolve, gently warm up this mixture over a double boiler or microwave for a few seconds.)
Remove the contents of the bowl and divide into several smaller bowls to add the coloring. Save one cup of the mixture in the mixing bowl. The runny mixture will be used for "flooding." and the remaining 1 cup mixture will be thickened for piping the borders.
Add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the remaining mixture and mix until smooth. You may need more or less depending how much buttermilk and powdered sugar you added. If you get it too thick you can add a spoon full of buttermilk at a time and/or add more powdered sugar if it is too runny. The goal is to thicken it up enough to be able use for piping a border around the edge of the cookie to hold its shape. If it's too runny, it will slowly drip off your cookie onto the pan.
Pipe a border around each cookie shape and while this is setting up you can start mixing up your flooding colors.
COLOR GEL
In a small bowl add ¼ tsp water or glycerin to 1 tsp color powder.
Blend with brush or spoon until color is dissolved.
Add another ½ tsp water and blend.
Colors will be concentrated.
WATERCOLOR EFFECT
To create a marbled "watercolor" effect, divide up your flooding icing into 2-3 colors. Mix in a few drops of your pre-mixed “gel” coloring until you get at least one medium-darker shade and 1-2 colors in white or pastel shades.
Pipe a little swirl of each color onto a cookie and continue swirling it around until it reaches the edge of your border. Avoid over mixing so that your colors stay defined.
To get splattered effect, tap brush on top of glazed cookie..
Color tips: The medium-dark shade will blend in with the lighter white or pastel shade and create a 3rd color so keep this in mind when choosing colors. If you use all pastel colors for example, you won't be able to see the marble effect.
The bright pink and yellow mixed together created a peachy orange hue when swirled. We used uncolored white, yellow and pink to create this effect.
Choose primary colors that make secondary colors, such as blue and pink will create purple when mixed. Blue and green create a foamy sea green, and so on...
Colors like purple and yellow swirled together will produce a muddy-brown color when mixed.
NOTE: This glaze will not harden up like royal icing and will take much longer to dry, but it is a delicious substitute We especially love the "brown sugar" flavor of the unbleached organic sugar cane, but you can use white sugar instead.
Recipe by: Kayla Peters, The Round House Bakery