Sugar cookie dilemmas

So yes, in my last post I was contemplating baking sugar cookies. Now I have done it!

I have been trying to find the best sugar cookie recipe... my word, the internet is full of them -- search but beware!

I tried recipe a couple weeks ago for soft, chewy sugar cookies and they were horrible! I think the fault was entirely my own, so I won't say where I got the recipe from (that, and I don't really remember which one it was --oh bugger in case I try using it again!).

I got back on the horse today (I really really have wanted to use my fall cookie cutters) and tried another recipe. This one is from Annie's Eats and it's her Christmas sugar cookie recipe. I liked it, it was easy to work with, easy to make and has easy ingredients (except for the almond extract, I skipped that for obvious reasons).

I liked it, I was happy. And I forgot to take a pre-baking picture. Sorry!

Then I decided I wanted to decorate them prettily. Since I had used almost all the powdered sugar in the cabinet for the dough, I thought "hey, why not try making colored sugar and decorating with that?". So I found this recipe, halved it and shook the jar like they instruct you to do. Oh gee, they didn't have gel coloring, did they? I had to mix it with a fork, but that's fine, too. (I am telling this so you won't shake a jar in vain for  minutes on end like a moron...) Lol!

Then I came to my next dilemma - how does one decorate with colored sugar? Aha, they must use an egg wash and then sprinkle it on top... wrong. At least, it turned out like this.

Oh noes! And that was two sheets of cookies! Argh!

Then I decided, they must sprinkle it on without the egg wash...and it turned out better, but still wasn't was what I had had in mind. Now I'm confused, how do you decorate cookies with colored sugar?

Thanks google, I found an answer that satisfies me!

At eHow.com they say you can sprinkle it before baking and be done with it, or then bake the cookie and then brush it with syrup and water and then sprinkle the sugar on and tap off excess (sounds like applying glitter).

Well, I tapped the excess off of my baked cookies too. So ha.

And if you were wondering about what the salmon casserole (from my last post) looked like on this inside, here ya go! A picture of my dinner tonight! :)

Thanks for reading my cookie ramblings. Perhaps there is more to blog about this weekend, food related or crochet related. We are having enchiladas for dinner tomorrow night, my favorite!!!