Two sisters are sharing their baking secrets after winning a local award.
Margaret Price won first place in the Ohio State Fair's 2015 Gold Medal Cookie Contest for her "Maddie's Sugar Cookies." She baked them with her sister Madeleine.
The winning recipe is a simple treat with double fronting. These cookies earned them more than bragging rights; a $200 cash prize and a gorgeous blue ribbon.
Margaret and her sister grew up baking together, exploring all sorts of delicious treats.
Read the recipe below, and you'll soon be baking like a blue ribbon winner.
Maddie's Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
Dough:
1-1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups Gold Medal Flour
Icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
1/2-3/4 cup water
2-3 drops food coloring (optional)
Buttercream:
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/2 cup milk
2-3 drops food coloring (optional)
Directions:
To make the dough, mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla. Add baking powder, salt and flour. Mix well. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight. When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface until it's about 1/4-inch thick. Cut out your shapes with a cookie cutter. Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 8-10 minutes or until they just start to brown, being careful not to over-bake. Remove cookies and let them cool on a rack.
For Icing: Mix powdered sugar and meringue powder together in a bowl. Very slowly begin to pour water in, a little at a time, until the mixture looks like thin pancake batter. Add coloring if you'd like. Spread thin layer onto your cookie, but be careful that it does not run over edge. You can also use a bottle with a tip to be more careful with your icing. Let this harden for about 1/2 hour.
For Buttercream:
Place soft butter in a mixing bowl and begin to slowly whip. Add in 3 cups powdered sugar and the vanilla. Mix, slowly adding in milk until the frosting is as thin as you like. If it gets too thin, you can add more powdered sugar. Too thick, add milk. Then add coloring if you like. You can spread this on your cookies instead of the icing, or use it in a piping bag to decorate with. Makes up to 60 small cookies or 30 large cookies.