Show Dad that you've remembered Father's Day by baking him some cookies that represent his favorite sports. Make baseball, basketball and soccer ball shaped cookies. With a surprise like this, you'll become his #1 team!
What You Need
1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough or your favorite sugar cookie recipe*
confectioner's sugar or royal icing*
orange, black, and red paste food coloring
round 2" or 3" cookie cutter
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What You Do
Making the Cookies
If using a roll of refrigerated cookie dough, knead in 1/2 c. of flour. Roll out dough
to 3/8 in. thick. Cut out circles with cookie cutter and place on an ungreased baking
sheet. Bake approximately 5 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool on baking
sheet for 2 minutes then remove to cooling racks to completely cool.
Or you might choose the awesome cookie recipe that we have provided below.
Decorating the Cookies:
If you are planning on eating the cookies immediately and not storing them, you can
frost them with confectioner's sugar icing. This quick and easy icing will harden slightly
once it's on the cookies but will not harden enough to stack the cookies without ruining
the designs on your cookies.
Confectioner's Sugar Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 TBSP water
1/4 tsp. of flavored extract such as vanilla (optional). Make sure to use clear extract because any color will tint the icing.
If you are planning on packing the cookies in containers, I would recommend using this Royal Icing recipe. It takes a bit more work in the beginning but the end results are quite worth it when the cookies keep their "freshly made" appearance. This icing will harden to allow stacking in containers without ruining any of the cookie's designs.
Divide icing into 2 medium sized bowls and 2 small bowls. Tint one medium sized bowl of icing orange and leave the other medium sized bowl white. Use the 2 smaller bowls for the red and black icings. Using icing bags or making your own out of plastic Baggies, frost the baseball and soccer ball cookies with white icing. Trim with red icing "lace" for baseballs and black for soccer ball design (refer to picture). For basketball cookies, frost cookies with orange icing and trim with black lines (refer to picture).
Freezing Cookies:
Line a baking sheet with wax paper, then lay cookies in a single layer onto the paper. Freeze. Once frozen, the cookies can be stacked on top of each other. To thaw, place cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet or plate, do not thaw cookies while they are stacked together or the icing will stick to the other cookies.
**Tami's Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional) I leave it out for white cookies
1/2 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Mix shortening, sugar, egg, & vanilla thoroughly. Blend dry ingredients. Add to sugar mixture alternately
with sour cream.
Divide dough; roll out on a well-floured board. Cut out shapes with circle cookie cutters. You can make
these as thick as you want... the thicker, the chewier --I would not recommend any thicker than 3/8 inch thick for these particular cookies.
Place cookies on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake 7-8 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges.
If you like chewy cookies, roll them out a little thicker. If you like thin, crispy cookies, roll a kind of thin but not real thin or you wont be able to remove to them from cookie sheet.
This dough is very easy to work with! I always double it because I like the thicker cookies.
About the Author:
Tami Rose lives in North Carolina with her husband and 2 children. She is always on the
lookout for fun, easy crafts that any age group can make. She is the Assistant Administrator on the FamilyCorner.com forums. You can find her there under the username of "ajrsmom". She is also the Assistant Editor for FamilyCorner.com and provides valuable support for the website.
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