Best Valentine Sugar Cookies Citrus Flavored Recipes

VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• For the cookies: Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and mix until well combined, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed, about 2 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time, roll the dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it's about 1/8-inch thick. Using heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut the dough and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart (a small off-set spatula is really helpful when transferring the cookies). After both pieces of dough have been rolled out and cut, combine the dough scraps and re-roll and cut to utilize as much of the dough as possible.
• Bake until the cookies are just barely golden around the edges, rotating halfway through, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
• For the icing: Meanwhile, whisk the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of slightly thinned yogurt and should coat the back of a spoon. Adjust with additional confectioners' sugar or milk, if needed.
• Place 2 tablespoons of icing into each of 2 small bowls. Add 4 drops of red gel food coloring to one bowl and 2 drops of pink gel food coloring to the other and stir until fully incorporated. Using a small spoon, drizzle a small amount of each color over the white icing and then repeatedly drag a toothpick through the icing until you create a marbled effect.
• Working with one cooled cookie at a time, carefully dip it face-side down into the icing and allow any excess to drip off before placing the cooking back on the cooling rack. Add additional red and pink icing to the bigger bowl of icing as needed to maintain the marbling effect. Decorate with sprinkles (if using) before allowing to the icing to fully set, about 4 to 5 hours.

VALENTINE SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and extracts. Stir in flour; mix well. Chill several hours. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-in. thickness; cut with a 2-1/2- or 3-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place on ungreased baking sheets; sprinkle with sugar if desired. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside for now.
• In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar, and mix everything together on medium speed until fluffy and well-mixed, about 1-2 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla extract and buttermilk. With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until they're just about incorporated. Stop the mixer when only a few streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula, and finish mixing all the dough by hand.
• Divide the dough in half and press each into a thin disc, wrapping well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firmer but not hard, about 30 minutes.
• When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place a disc of dough between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, and roll out until it is 1/4-inch thick. Use a 3-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out your cookies and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the scraps and re-roll the dough to cut more cookies. You should get about 24 large heart cookies. Put the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking to help the cookies hold their shape.
• Bake the trays of cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to take on color and they have lost the raw shine in the middle. Let the cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely before decorating them.
• Combine the meringue powder and water in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix them together on medium-low speed until frothy. Add the powdered sugar, corn syrup, and flavoring extract, and mix on low until the powdered sugar is moistened.
• Turn the mixer speed back to medium-low and mix for 5 minutes, until the royal icing is shiny, stiff, and voluminous. Do not mix on high speed, and do not mix for more than 5 minutes, or you may incorporate too many air bubbles and change the texture of your royal icing.
• Separate out half of the icing to leave plain white, and press a piece of cling wrap on top so that it doesn't form a crust.
• Decide how many icing colors you want, and divide the remaining icing into that many bowls. Add a few drops of gel food coloring to each bowl of icing and stir by hand until the color is evenly distributed. Be aware that royal icing tends to darken a bit as it dries, so if you want pretty pastel colors, keep that in mind and don't add too much coloring.
• The frosting consistency right out of the mixer is fairly stiff, but for most of the designs, we'll want a thinner consistency. The only thing that will require a thicker consistency is piping stiff rosettes onto decorated cookies. If you want to make this design, separate out a portion of stiff frosting in the color(s) of your choice, and store it in an airtight container for now. For all of the other designs, we'll thin the frosting colors out by adding a spoonful of water at a time, and stirring slowly until it's incorporated. You have the right consistency when you lift up a spoonful of icing, let it drip back into the bowl, and it takes about 15 seconds for the trail of icing to fully disappear in the bowl. Add water a little bit at a time to each color until you achieve this consistency.
• Place each color in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (I recommend a #2 tip).
• Most of the designs require piping colors onto wet frosting. I recommend working in small batches and flooding 2-3 cookies at a time with white frosting, then piping the designs on, then doing another small batch, to avoid having the royal icing dry out before the cookies are fully decorated.
• To flood the cookies, fit a piping bag with a small round tip (I recommend a #2 tip) and fill it with white frosting. Draw a thin outline with the royal icing around the outside of a few cookies. Next fill the center of the cookie with royal icing. If you miss any spots, use the tip of the piping bag to nudge the icing into place, or use a toothpick to smooth out any rough lines. This is your blank canvas for making all the Valentine's Day designs! Make sure to work quickly to decorate the cookies after they have been flooded.
• To make heart outline cookies: pipe dots of color along the outer edge of the cookie, spacing them about ½-inch apart. The dots should sink into the wet white icing fairly quickly. Take a toothpick and, starting at the top center of the heart, drag it through the line of colored dots. The dragging motion will create an elongated heart shape in each dot. You can also pipe randomly placed dots all over the cookie, and drag a toothpick through the dots individually to make hearts.
• To make zigzag cookies: pipe lines of alternating colors horizontally across the white icing. Take a toothpick and drag it through the lines vertically. Once at the bottom of the cookie, move the toothpick over a little bit (perhaps 1/8") and drag it upwards, creating a zig-zag in the opposite direction. Continue this pattern until you've created lines across the whole cookie.
• To make elegant rose cookies: these look best when made with two different shades of the same color, like pale pink and dark pink. Start with the pale pink and pipe several blobs on top of the cookie-refer to the picture tutorial to get a general idea of the shape. Take the darker pink color and pipe a line across the center of the blob. Finally, add a dot of white in the center. Now for the fun part! Take a toothpick and start swirling the colors together. It should only take a few swirls before they start to look like abstract roses. Add a few dots of green around the edges, and pull the dots of green out with a toothpick so they look like leaves.
• To pipe stiff rosettes on cookies: the rosettes can be piped onto plain white cookies, or cookies that have been decorated with dots, stripes, or whatever else you like. Let the base cookies sit and dry for about an hour before adding the rosettes on top. Place stiff consistency frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small star tip. Start in the center and pipe a small swirl outward in a rosette shape. You can do just 1 flower or several bunched together. Decorate the edges with small leaves piped with stiff green frosting, if desired.
• The decorated cookies can be enjoyed the same day they are made, but the royal icing will probably take 8-12 hours to fully dry, so if you want to stack and store them, let them sit at room temperature overnight to dry and harden before packaging them.

VALENTINE SUGAR COOKIES - CITRUS FLAVORED

Steps:

• 1. In a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add sugar, eggs, and lemon zest and process until mixture resembles wet sand.
• 2. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface; knead several times until dough comes together. Divide into 3 portions; flatten each into a disk. Roll each disk to an 1/8-inch thickness between sheets of parchment. Stack dough (still in parchment) on a baking sheet; refrigerate 20 minutes.
• 3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in middle and lower thirds. Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, peel off parchment (save for baking). With lightly floured cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and arrange, 1 inch apart, on two parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets (reroll scraps, if desired).
• 4. Bake until cookies are set but still pale, 7 to 9 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Using a pastry bag and tip, frost cookies with icing; decorate with sugar!

CITRUS SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add sugar, eggs, and lemon zest and process until mixture resembles wet sand.
• Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface; knead several times until dough comes together. Divide into 3 portions; flatten each into a disk. Roll each disk to an 1/8-inch thickness between sheets of parchment. Stack dough (still in parchment) on a baking sheet; refrigerate 20 minutes. (To store, wrap in plastic and freeze on sheet, up to 2 weeks. Thaw until pliable before using.)
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees, with racks in middle and lower thirds. Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, peel off parchment (save for baking). With lightly floured cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and arrange, 1 inch apart, on 2 parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets (reroll scraps, if desired). Sprinkle with sugar, if desired. Refrigerate 15 minutes.
• Bake until cookies are set but still pale, 7 to 9 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely. Using a spoon, frost cookies with icing; decorate with sugar, if desired.