Monogrammed Sugar Cookies

I love making cookies - chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, shortbread...you name it, I've made it. However, sugar cookies are at the bottom of my list - I just haven't cozied up to them. I just find them too bland and you almost always have to ice them, which I have always sucked at. When my mom asked me to make some monogrammed sugar cookies for my cousin's kid's baptism, I died inside. I pictured monstrous-looking cookies with clumsy icing that a 4-year-old had made, but decided to give them a shot anyway. I made two kinds: regular vanilla sugar cookies and chocolate sugar cookies. The vanilla cookie I got courtesy of allrecipes.com and the chocolate cookies were from my go-to website joyofbaking.com

Vanilla sugar cookies

1 1/2 cups butter (room temp)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and slowly beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly. The dough will be VERY sticky but just cover and chill the dough for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Since my dough was still a bit sticky, I rolled it out between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut your shapes with a cookie cutter and stick it back into the fridge for 10 min so the cookies hold their shape. Bake for about 8 minutes and cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Chocolate sugar cookies

2 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs slowly and finally the vanilla extract. In another bowl, add flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly. Refrigerate the dough for 2-3 hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Since my dough was again a bit sticky, I rolled it out between two pieces of parchment paper. Cut your shapes with a cookie cutter and stick it back into the fridge for 10 min so the cookies hold their shape. Bake for about 8 minutes and cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

I cut shapes out of a Wilton store-bought fondant, made some royal icing and voila! I wouldn't bother with the vanilla next time because the chocolate was so delicious, but not bad for my first try, eh?