Polar Bear Sugar Cookies

Polar Bear Sugar Cookies are a perfect sweet to make for Valentine's Day, or to use as winter birthday or baby shower favors! We're sharing one of our tried and true sugar cookie recipes plus a super easy way to decorated them!

Let's Talk About Icing: When I'm on a time crunch or don't feel like making cookie icing I use Betty Crocker Cookie Icing. It is easy, convenient and pretty inexpensive. It sets in a few hours and the taste is more enjoyable than royal icing. The Cookie Icing can be found in most supermarkets. We can find it here in Maine for around $1.54 making it well worth the cost to save me on a mess to clean up. If you are decorating a lot of cookies you will need quite a few bottles so keep that in mind. I tend to keep a few on hand for unexpected cookie making and decorating.

Note: This is not the best icing to use if you are making cookies that need to be shipped. It sets firm but not as hard as royal icing.

For this project I used 2 bottles. When decorating sugar cookies that will be covered all over in icing you start decorating by outlining the the top of the cookie leaving a little space at the edge of the cookie. I snipped the tip on the first bottle so it only let out a small amount of icing. On the second bottle I snipped the tip off a little further down (there are guidelines on the icing tip) so I could "flood" the inside of the outlined space on the cookie with the cookie icing.

*Flooding is known as covering the complete surface area of the top of the cookie. Outlining the edge first will keep the icing from leaking over the edge of the cookie.

Tip: If you want to add a flavor and color to your icing simply cut the top off the bottle and add it to a bowl. Add a couple drops of LorAnn Flavors, which come in a variety of flavors and are highly concentrated, a little really goes a long way! To add color add a drop of Americolor Food Gel Color, mix until blended and then place in a disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler. Writing frosting tips work well to line and "flood" the top of the cookie. Use a fine tip to do the outline and then switch to a larger plain tip to do the "flooding".

I wanted to create an elegant look to the cookies so I used our Wedding White Sprinklefetti sprinkle mix to decorate one side of the cookie. To get your sprinkles to stick to the icing it is best to decorate large cookies one at a time right after you've iced them. For smaller cookies like the hearts you can ice a few, then sprinkle them with our Pink Ombre Sprinklefetti sprinkle mix.

Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (sifted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Add egg and vanilla bean paste, mix until smooth. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture. CHILL DOUGH FOR SEVERAL HOURS. When the dough is chilled heat oven to 325. Roll dough out until it is 1/4". Use our mini heart and polar bear cookie cutters or the cutters of your choice. Bake for 6-10 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. When the edges are just starting to brown is an indicator on when they are done. Place cookies on a wire rack to cool.

Tip: If you want to give your cookies a flavor other than vanilla try one of our Bakery Emulsions in place of the vanilla bean paste.

Once you've decorated your heart and polar bear sugar cookies and have allowed them to set completely you can display then on a pretty platter or cake stand. If you are having a party or shower and want to provide take a way favors you can package them up pretty using our paper goodie bags. Add a sweet white heart gift tag with some bakers twine and use a mini wooden clothespin clip to create a perfect presentation!

We hope you try out our cut-out sugar cookie recipe and our easy way to decorate them. Polar bear sugar cookies are perfect for all winter long! Surprise your kids or your partner with some "I love you Bear-y much" cookies for Valentine's Day!

Happy winter baking!
Esther & Shauna

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This post was written, styled and photographed by Esther of the Bakers Party Shop. If you share a photo from our post a link must be displayed back to this post and credit given to The Bakers Party Shop. All photos and content are copyright of The Bakers Party Shop - The Bakers Confections, All rights reserved 2017.