Nothing says summer fun food like a corndog! Even if it's a fake corndog. Last night for our annual summer block party, I made some corndog cookies on a stick. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe. I never used to like sugar cookies. Despite their name, they are usually kind of bitter and they just don't taste good unless you put a ton of gloppy icing on them. Not that I don't love gloppy icing, but if you NEED gloppy icing to eat something, it's probably not worth eating. The texture of these is fabulous too. They're soft-ish cookies unlike the normal crisp and tasteless sugar cookie. AND, they do not spread when you bake them! If you make a star or Christmas tree shape, they don't bake into these weird, round Patrick Starfish shapes. So this recpie is also perfect for cutouts for holiday cookies.
After you make the dough you can roll it out then cut it into your favorite shapes. I didn't have a cutter for this kind of cookie so I took a corndog out of the freezer, set it down on a piece of cardboard and traced it. I cut that out and used it as a template. I set it on top of the rolled out dough, used a sharp knife to cut it out and placed them on a cookie sheet. I slid popsicle sticks into them then baked for about 8 minutes. I made them on the thick side so it took a few extra minutes.
See that grey thing in the lower right corner- that's my corndog template. High-tech, eh?
Bake until juuuuuuust a smidgen golden around the edges. Don't overbake or you'll get a nasty crisp cookie.
Decorate using a "cookie decorating" icing so you get that shiny look. You could used canned or a regular buttercream but you won't get the same look. I tried a decorating recipe years ago that had that Wilton dried egg white meringue (sp?) stuff and it was awful. So I shied away from ever using decorating icing but then found this kind of icing recipe recently. It uses cornsyrup and powdered sugar. And that's what makes it shiny and tasty too! Very easy to make, very easy to work with. There are a ton of these recipes out there. I like this one because it doesn't use almond extract. I got it from a girl on a LJ baking community that I'm in.
I found the paper hot dog holders at Kroger last week on clearance in the summer/picnic section. I think I got them for like $1/package.
My taste-testers loved them! They were a hit at the party too.
Don't even let Tanner's face fool you. He got a cookie too. He was just mad that he ate his before I even had a chance to pick up my camera.
The Best Ever Sugar Cookie Recipe
3 Cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. white sugar
1 c. butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp cream (I never have cream except around the holidays so I usually sub. skim milk for this)
1 tsp vanilla (which means 1 tbsp for me but I ALWAYS use lots of extra)
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Over large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. (NOTE: I did this the first time I made these cookies. Later I broke my sifter so the next time I made them I just used a whisk to blend the dry ingredients together and the cookies came out the exact same texture so the sifting is entirely up to you).
3. Cut in butter and blend with pastry blender OR pulse in food processor until mixture resembles cornmeal. Stir in egg, cream and vanilla. Blend well. Dough may be chilled if it is sticky.
4. On floured surface, roll out dough to desired thickness. Cut into shapes and transfer to cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until just barely golden around the edges.
Sugar cookie decorating icing
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp milk
1 drop lemon juice
1 tbsp light corn syrup
Combine powdered sugar corn syrup, milk and lemon juice in a bowl.
Divide the icing into different bowls and add your gel coloring (don't use the liquid food coloring drops).
You can make it a bit thicker for outlining by tossing in a bit more powdered sugar or make it thinner for filling in larger areas inside the outlies by adding more milk- BUT just a drop at a time. This gets thin very easily.
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