Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

It had been a while since I add a post although I had been baking.  Here is something from DailyDelicious.  She is a very amazing baker despite holding a full time job.   See my bottle of cut-out cookies:

Before I have the time to prepare icing for decorating, cookies were all gone :)  Original recipe from DailyDelicious:

Basic Sugar Cookies

Makes Approximately 36x 10cm / 4" Cookies

 
a pinch of salt

200g / 7oz / ½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

400g / 14oz / 3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour

200g / 7oz / 1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar

1 Large Egg, lightly beaten

5ml / 1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

 

Directions

• Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming

creamy in texture.

• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during

baking, losing their shape.

• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

 

Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.

• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.

 

• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)

• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.

• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.

• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.

• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.

• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.

• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.

• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.

• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.

• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.

• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in some cookies being baked before others are done.

• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.

• Leave to cool on cooling racks.

• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Raisin Bread Loaf

I chanced upon Do What I Like blog by Florence. She has very nice bakes and her video on the Wholewheat Bread Loaf showing how soft the bread turns out the next day tempted me to try the recipe.  Indeed, this is my first homemade bread that taste very close to commercial bread and it remains very soft even on the next day.  As I do not have wheat flour, I made some changes to the recipe (highlighted in red) and made it into raisin loaf.  Excellent recipe to try if you have been looking for something super soft.

Ingredients:

Sponge Dough:
150g bread flour
100ml water
1 tsp instant yeast

Main Dough:
50g cake flour
70g wholewheat flour / 70g bread flour
25g brown sugar / 25g castor sugar
50ml whole milk
30ml - 50ml water / 40ml
pinch of salt
15g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients for sponge dough together till it formed a dough. Prove for 2.5 hours.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients from Main Dough except butter. (I put everything into a breadmachine, selected white loaf, light crust.  After 10 mins of kneading, add in the butter. Add in raisins after the machine prompts.  Leave the rest of the work to the breadmaker)

Once the mixture is well-mixed add in the butter and knead till a soft dough is formed. I used the bread machine to do this part of the job.
3. Shape the dough into one round piece and rest it for 15 minutes.
4. Punch the air out of the dough and roll it into a flat rectangular shape. Roll it up swiss-roll style. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 but without resting put the dough into a greased loaf pan. Prove the dough for 45 minutes or till it is 80% full. Once fully proved gently brush the top of the bread with some water and sprinkle some wholewheat flour on it.
6. Bake at 200C for 30 - 35 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan immediately to avoid bread becoming soggy.