Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sweet Melissa Sundays (SMS) ~ Sugar Cookies

From THE SWEET MELISSA BAKING BOOK (page 142-143)

Sugar Cookies



is today’s featured recipe in the baking group blog



Sweet Melissa Sundays, acronym (SMS),



which is hosted today by Nina of Nina's Cupcakes.



Check out Nina’s blog for the Sugar Cookie recipe.



This is my first post with the (SMS) group. I look forward to baking the recipes in Melissa's book and meeting new bloggers along the way! I also look forward to hosting. Sounds like fun!




I’ve made Sugar Cookies years ago, but used confectioner’s sugar as one of my ingredients. This recipe doesn’t contain this sugar. However, it is very easy and simple to make…and delicious!



The changes I made to this recipe:

I doubled the amount of vanilla extract. I always use the best ingredients when I bake. My brand of choice is Masseys Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract.



I halved the dough and added food coloring to one batch. I thought it would be fun to create a yin/yang look for my sugar cookies...especially since the logo for
Baking is my Zen has a yin/yang symbol.








So, now for a taste test…yum…they were good! It had just the right amount of lemon zest and vanilla.

I enjoyed this cookie and really liked how the
pink & beige yin/yang look turned out.
For a first attempt…not bad.



I made several spin-offs from the yin/yang cookie:

~ cookie with a heart in the middle



~ cookie with dragees tracing the yin/yang curve



~ cookie with sanding sugar on top



~ cookie with yin/yang symbol



Give it a whirl. Get creative with other ideas!



Peace in Baking,
Carmen

Baking is my Zen…sweet nibbles for the soul