The most delicious sugar cookies EVER!Click here for the full recipe and nutritional information!

My brother and I have been watching the Eurovision Song Contest together every year since 2012 (though he’s been watching since 2009). Every year, he makes some sort of national dish from whichever country he’s hoping to win, and I make sugar cookies decorated like the flags of all of the participating countries. At first I just bought plain cookies, canned frosting, and decorated them with colored sugars. Now I take a bit more time with them and actually bake them (and you know I don’t like baking). I use the same vegan sugar cookie recipe that I use every Christmas and any other holiday that I can be bothered to bake cookies for. It’s based heavily on this Betty Crocker recipe with just a few little tweaks. Full credit to that recipe, though; I was felt it was too good not to share! And, of course, you can make shapes other than flags. So let’s get bakin’!

First thing you want to do is blend together your wet ingredients with an electric beater (or stand mixer. I highly recommend you use Earth Balance vegan butter as it is the firmest vegan butter at room temperature that I had tried. You really don’t want to use anything softer as it will make your cookies spread and become misshapen.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the dry ingredients. I realized as a was whisking mine that I accidentally added an extra half-teaspoon of cream of tartar, which might be why my cookies are not as well-shaped as they could have been. Once your dry ingredients are blended together, stir them into the wet ingredients until smooth.

As with most sugar cookie doughs, this one will have to refrigerate for at least a couple of hours. You can just leave it in the bowl, cover it, and stick it in the fridge. I find it’s easier to work with later if you divide the dough in half and wrap each slab in plastic wrap.

I waited until the next morning to roll, cut, and bake the cookies. Usually when I need to roll out dough, like my easy oil crust, I’ll sandwich the dough between two pieces f wax or parchment paper to keep the mess to a minimum. This dough is unfortunately too sticky, even with the Earth Balance, to do that. Flour you work surface and your rolling pin liberally and get rolling!

 

These cookies are probably somewhere on the thin side of ⅛-¼” thick, but you can make them thicker, remembering to adjust the baking time as needed. Also, since I was making flags, I just cut them out with a knife. You can of course use any cookie cutters you wish.

I baked mine about 5-6 minutes at 375°F, or until the corners were just starting to turn golden-brown. Unfortunately I did not remember to take a photo of them until they were iced.

About icing- if you’re planning to pipe on the icing as I did, there are two important tips I have for you: 1) make it thicker than you would think it needs to be, and 2) make waaaay more than you think you need. I find it more less annoying to throw out excess icing than to have to make more halfway through decorating. It’s incredibly difficult to give a recipe for icing as ambient humidity as well as type of food coloring used will massively affect your icing, but generally your looking for 1 cup of powdered sugar to 1 tablespoon of milk.

With my completely cooled cookies on one side, a drying rack for the freshly iced ones on the other side, and my assortment of icings in front of me, now comes the fun part! I am (very clearly) an amateur cookie decorator, but I really do enjoy it a lot. I use this silicone rolling mat to protect my surface from any icing staining. Here are my results:

These cookies are relatively easy to make and SO. GOOD. I mean, seriously, be careful. I hope at least some of them make it to the finals on Saturday!

Are you a Eurovision fan? Are you a sugar cookie fan? Let me know in the comments!

~M

Sugar Cookie Flags | Printable Version

Makes 60 cookies
Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes (+2 hours refrigeration)
Bake Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Cookies:
1 ½ c powdered sugar
1 c vegan butter (preferably Earth Balance, softened
¼ c non-dairy milk
1 ½ t vanilla extract
2 ½ c all-purpose flour
1 t salt
2 T cornstarch
1 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar

Icing:
4 c powdered sugar
¼ c non-dairy milk
½ t vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Directions:

1. In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, vegan butter, non-dairy milk, and vanilla extract with electric mixer on medium speed to combine. Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and cream of tartar until blended. Divide dough in half, cover, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 375° F. Roll each dough ⅛-¼” thickness on generously floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with 2- to 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters. On cookie sheet, place cutouts about an inch apart..
3. Bake 5 to 6 minutes or until edges are light brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
4. In large mixing bowl, beat icing ingredients with fork or whisk until smooth. If icing is too thick, beat in 1 additional teaspoon milk. Frost cookies. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired.