Monday, May 14, 2012

Sugar Cookies with Natural Color Frosting



We have eliminated all refined flour from our diet but there are rare occasions when I bake with all purpose flour for our friends' / neighbours' kids who are not too fond of muffins / cookies made with almond flour. Last week we were going to have dinner with a friend of ours and I asked their twelve year old daughter what she would like me to get - and her answer was sugar cookies. Since I have never baked sugar cookies before and I didn't have the time to experiment, I looked over the internet and found some easy recipes and tweaked them a little to come up with these cookies. They looked so pretty with the pink beetroot frosting that I had to really control myself from eating them. I am posting it in my blog because I want to try out the same cookies substituting almond flour, brown rice flour and arrowroot for all purpose flour and coconut sugar for the white sugar.
All Purpose Flour - 1.5 cups
Baking Powder - 1.5 tsp
Salt - 1/8 tsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup
Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup, at room temperature (it is very imp for the butter to be completely soft)
Egg - 1
Pure Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

For frosting:
Confectioners Sugar - 8 tbsp
Butter - 1 tsp
Whole Milk - 1 tbsp
Peeled Beetroot - 2 inch piece
Sprinklers - optional,  use one without artificial colors

For a pink color frosting, cut the beetroot into tiny pieces and soak in the milk for an hour.
Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together and keep aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the soft butter and sugar together for 3 to 4 minutes until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat the mix again for a couple of minutes.

With the mixer on lowest speed, add the flour gradually and mix until it is just incorporated in the wet ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Take a tbsp of the dough, roll it into a ball and place it on the baking sheet. Space each cookie dough about a couple of inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes. Do not over bake and the cookies should be white in color without any trace of browning on the edges. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sieve the milk to remove the beetroot pieces.

Whisk together confectioners sugar, butter and milk until smooth. If required, add a little more milk or sugar. The consistency should be very thick with just enough liquid so that it can be spread on the cookies.

Using a spatula, spread frosting on each cookie. If using, top with sprinklers. Once the frosting is completely dried, cookies can be store in an airtight container for a few days.

Makes around 25 cookies.


No comments:

Post a Comment