Sugar Cookie Pops

Helga Glaesel de Blandingagosto 23, 2010

This post is also available in ENGLISH (INGLÉS)

My kid loves everything and anything that has to do with water. Fish, dolphins, sea stars, etc. Her favorite toy is a plush beluga whale. I don’t know where she got that from, certainly not me! I can’t even swim; I’ll sink like a rock.

I want to try out recipes with ocean themes for her birthday, so I decided to try to make some sugar cookie pops shaped like fish and sea stars. I had never made cookie pops before, nor had I ever attempted to ice a cookie using pastry bags. They came out alright. I did take some notes for when I try to make these again to get better results. You’ll find them in the icing recipe.

This recipe yields 5 dozen regular sized cookies. I made the whole recipe, but I only used half. I put the rest in the freezer to use later on. I used Wilton’s fish and star molds and got 18 cookies.

Sugar Cookie Pops
Yield: 5 Dozen Regular Sized Cookies

For the cookies:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Wooden skewers

Procedure:

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/2 an inch thick, at least. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.
Insert a skewer into the cookie, and carefully place them 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Because these are usually large cookies, and because of the skewers, you will only be able to fit about 6 cookies per each cookie sheet.
Bake 11-13 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. You’ll know they are done when they begin to turn golden brown in the edges.

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:
Yields: 3 cups

Ingredients:

4 cups (440 grams) confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar
3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder
1/2 – 3/4 cup (120 – 180 ml) warm water
Optional: 1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, lemon, almond)

Procedure:

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder until combined. Add the water and beat on medium to high speed until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes).
If necessary, to get the right consistency, add more powdered sugar or water. To cover or ‘flood’ the entire surface of the cookie with icing, the proper consistency is when you lift the beater, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds before disappearing.

The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.
Separate your icing into as many bowls as you need, depending on what colors you want to use. Add the food coloring with a toothpick, a little bit goes a long way.

Notes:

• Food Coloring (I use Gel Pastes that can be found at cake decorating and party stores or else on-line)
• Regarding the flavoring, I didn’t use any at all. I wanted pure white frosting, so if you want it to remain white, use a clear extract, such as almond.
• I did have to put extra confectioners’ sugar. When I first iced my sea stars, the icing started to run. Add sugar by tablespoonfuls until you get to the right consistency. It shouldn’t run, but it has to be easy to pipe or spread.
Also, to make the details, use the thinnest tip. The lines in my fish cookies are a bit too thick for my taste.

We’re including this video from Whimsical Cookies, which was very useful to me to get the idea of how to decorate the cookies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjvO2CjhzLA