Pure joy is making imitation Lofthouse cookies that are lighter than air and not having to share. # 172: Cloud-like Sugar Cookies

You know those grocery store cookies that are so so soft and have different color frosting for the each holiday? Yup, those ones. I was always sure they couldn’t be real food – they had to be magic. Now I know that it’s part magic, part cornstarch and sour cream. (A little less glamorous, but just as delicious!)

Also, happy rose season! My mom’s yard is exploding with these beauties and luckily she felt like sharing. My apartment smells downright lovely right now.

So no surprise for some of you, but definitely for me: they contain almond extract. Truly the best surpise of the recipe. I did a happy gasp reading through the ingredients! It’s one of my favorite flavor adds, giving subtle numminess to delicious bakes everywhere. Three cheers for almond extract!

Side note: did you know that almond extract doesn’t always come from almonds? It’s made up of 3 ingredients usually: alcohol, water and bitter almond oil. A lot of them get the oil from “drupes,” or the pits of stone fruit like apricots. The flavor is still on point, and it’s a bit more environmentally friendly (considering how much water it takes to grow an almond, whew.) Cool, huh?

The only downside to halving all my recipes to better suit quarantine is that my stand mixer is struggling. It doesn’t like small quantities and would prefer me to quintuple all of my recipes!

Happy mound of dough, off to nap in the fridge. The super soft texture of the cookie means a barely solid dough at room temperature.

Once chilled and scooped, you gotta flatten em. (A la snickerdoodles!) I put a scrap of parchment paper between the pint glass and the dough to prevent sticking/ripping. Worked like a charm.

Voila! Relatively even – though next time I might try the cookie cutter trick: you take a cookie cutter that’s slightly bigger than your baked cookie and you swirl it around the cookies straight from the oven, so it convinces the edges to keep an even round shape once they cool. It works better with stronger cookies, like chocolate chip, but still!

Frosting time! Ah, soft fluffy butter. The impressionist painting of baking.

I threw in some beet powder and a drop or two of pink coloring to give it a lovely rose color.

Oh hell yes.

Frosting hats required in the baking zone!

Break out the sprinkles! Since we’re going into week 8 of quarantine in the Bay Area, you’re gonna need em.

Try not to eat them all in one go. I dare you.

Happy munching!

Recipe from: https://lifemadesweeter.com/soft-lofthouse-style-frosted-sugar-cookies/