Michigan Sugar Cookies

The holiday season is on the horizon and that means it’s time to start thinking about what else? Sugar cookies! I’ll be honest, it’s one of my favorite things about the holidays. Curling up in front of our pellet stove with a good book, a hot cup of coffee and a delicious homemade sugar cookie equals heaven in my book.

It’s also perfect timing as we woke up to 1-2” of snow here in Northern Michigan this morning. My kids kept asking if it was Christmas this morning, but let’s get back to the sugar cookies…

The fun thing about sugar cookies is that the kids can help. I’ll admit, I’m semi type A personality and do not like a messy a kitchen so this is probably the one time of year that I allow the kids to roll up their sleeves and get messy with me. They love to help roll out the dough, cut and then decorate their own cookies.

This year, I grabbed this adorable cookie cutter set from Grandpa Shorter’s and decided to do Michigan themed cookies. Not only will they be delicious, they will make awesome homemade gifts! And, what better way to decorate them, then to look like a mitten?

The cookie cutters help give back too. A portion of every purchase of them goes back to the folks over at Straits Area Services, a nonprofit organization that helps developmentally disabled adults achieve independence.

Each Michigan cookie cutter is hand made with pride right here in Northern Michigan, how cool is that?

For the cookies pictured used this sugar cookie recipe that we have up on the blog. So yummy.

For the cookie you will need –

• Michigan Shaped Sugar Cookies
• Sparkly clear sprinkles (optional)
• Food coloring (I used Wilton Royal blue for my cookies)

Royal Icing Ingredients –

• 1 C. of powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. milk
• 2 tsp. corn syrup

Directions –

1.  Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix well. You may end up needing an extra teaspoon of milk depending on how thick you like your frosting. However, you don’t want to make it too runny.

2.  Use a squeeze bottle to squeeze it out or you can also add the icing to a small sandwich baggie and snip the end (makes it so much easier) and trace the outline of your cookie with icing (see photo). Then squeeze the frosting into the middle and use a toothpick to pick in the small holes.

3.  After decorating the cookies, let the frosting set an hour or two, then stack the cookies up, tie with bakers twine and box them up for friends. If you’re not feeling super adventurous in the kitchen yourself, simply give the cookie cutter set away with a Sugar Cookie Gift jar and tie the Michigan cookie cutter set onto the side with some twine along with the directions. Perfect and a thoughtful gift for friends and family.