Happy Fathers Day: Decorated Mustache and Bow Ties Cookies - Part 1

Mustache and Bow Ties Decorated Cookie Pops

Decorated Mustache and Bow Ties Cookie Pops

Happy Father's Day! Here in the USA Father's day is as important as Mothers day and it should be so. In Lebanon, Fathers day is a new trend but really it's fiesta can NOT be compared to that of Mother's Day. Whether it is celebrated or not, in our home, Father's day matters. Alya is a very lucky girl, she has an amazing father. The best part is that he loves taking care of her and she knows it and feels it. Having said so, I wanted to celebrate the occasion by baking cookies with a funny twist.
I baked mustache and bow ties cookies and cookie pops. I also shared them with Alya's friends in preschool, her teachers and staff. This is going to be fun!

Alya with her Mustache Pop

Alya with her Bow Tie Pop Posing

Decorated cookies are big here..and to tell you the truth, I feel like they should be big..who does not love a cookie? Now how about a decorated one? I was always under the impression that a decorated cookie tastes bad because people spend more time focusing on how to make it pretty that they really pay no attention to the quality of the cookie itself..which is meant to be eaten. Wrong!!! Not these cookies at least! Now I have some news to tell you...I have some good news and some bad news..the good news is that I will show you how to do bake and decorate these cookies but the bad news is that it is a long process so I have to blog about in a sequel of posts...patience is a virtue!

Decorated Sugar Cookies and Cookie Pops

I love how they turned out

Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted softened butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• zest of one lemon (If you don't like lemon zest, you can substitute it with an additional teaspoon of vanilla extract)

The Ingredients for Making Sugar Cookie Dough

Method:

1. Whisk together flour and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
2. Using your mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
3. Add the egg, the vanilla extract and the lemon zest until blended
4. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until blended
5. Turn out the dough on the work surface and divide it into 2 or 3 equal portions. Form each one into a rough disk. 

Ready to Be Rolled

The Best Rolling Method in the World:

1.    Place the dough disk on a Silpat or a piece of parchment paper, place 1/4 inch cookie slats or dowels on the edges of the paper. I use dowels that are meant for strengthening the structure of a tiered cake. You can also find cheaper options at your local hardware store or some long pencils.

The Best Rolling Method Using Dowels

2.     Place a parchment paper over of the cookie dough and dowels and start flattening the dough by gently rolling the pin and evenly distributing the dough across the paper. Make sure that the rolling pin is at all times on the dowels.

Gently Rolling the Dough to Flatten it out

3.     You are finished rolling when the dough surface is uniform and completely level with the dowels.

 Evenly Rolled Dough

4.      Remove the dowels and turn the Silpat with the rolled dough (covered with the parchment paper) upside down, remove the Silpat and cover the dough with another parchment paper. Place the dough on a cookie sheet or a tray that fits your fridge.

Turn Around the Dough on Parchment Paper

 

Rolled Dough on Parchment Ready to Be Refrigerated

5.      Chill the rolled cookie dough until it is firm (20-30 minutes)

Cutting and Baking the Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 F 
1.     When the dough is firm, remove it from the fridge to a flat work surface. Work with one piece at a time, while keep the rest of the rolled dough in the fridge.

2.     Peel the top parchment paper and start cutting the cookies using a cookie cutter into your desired shapes. Remove the dough surrounding your shapes with a spatula. If the dough sticks inside the cookie cutter, gently with your fingers remove it from the cutter. 

This Dough is Chilled and Ready to be Cut

Cutting the Mustache Cookies

3.     The spatula is really helpful in transferring the cookies from the parchment paper to the Silpat (or parchment) lined baking sheet.
4.     To make cookie pop, I gently insert the end of the pop stick into the bottom of the cookie, while slowly turning. This really helps minimize breakage of the dough when inserted. Make sure that the back of the cookie is not broken. If it is, no worries, take a tiny bit of dough and cover the broken area.

Sugar Cookies Ready to be Baked

5.     Keep the cookies 1 inch apart (this cookie recipe doesn't spread much)
6.     Bake until golden (12-15 minutes) and cool them on a cooling rack.
7.     When cool they can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. They also freeze well.

These cookies are delicious with or without decoration...I hope you will give it a try.
Enjoy!
Nadine

Adapted from "Cookie Craft" by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer