Soft Sugar Cookies with Icing

 Happy halloween, everyone! To those who a) are young enough to go trick-or-treating or b) don't have midterms to study for, have a blast. I'll be here facing the spookiest thing of all, which is my GPA. I even made this cookie dough in advance since I had so little spare time today- but hey, my siblings will probably share the candies they glean tonight with me. I love those miniature adorable chocolate bars.

A cookie-decorating station!

 My little sister is having a halloween party, and I wanted to make a homemade version of the classic soft sugar cookie one finds pre-iced in myriad colours at the grocery store, perhaps a little suspicious in their extended lifespan but still delicious and sweet. I've made some modifications to half the dough to try making it vegan, with the consequence of it being denser and chewier, but still tasty. I think it's the shortening that really makes them feel like the supermarket ones.

To the left are the non-vegan ones- they're more soft and pillowy. The vegan ones (right) are chewy and almost fudge-like in the chocolate version.

Cocoa variant, non-vegan

I added sprinkles to some of the vegan batters to give it a cool effect (and so I wouldn't forget which was which) and I like it! The dough wasn't really cuttable, except for the vegan chocolate cookie dough, which was firmer than the rest. I also made some icing to complete the experience, and got some candies with which to give a halloweeney decorating job.

I used licorice allsorts to make eyes, candy corns, jelly beans, jujubes and sprinkles- but any cool looking candies will do. The idea's that my sister and her guests can do some cookie decorating as an activity, which always makes them taste better. As for the flavour of the cookies, they're pillowy, sugar and soft- pretty much exactly what I wanted, the appeal of the nostalgic soft supermarket sugar cookie but without additives or an indefinite shelf life. They can be made for just about any holiday you want and customized, too. The icing also works really well- it's spreadable and sticky enough to hold on all the large toppings.

Soft Sugar Cookies with Icing
From Allrecipes.com

For the Cookies:
3 C. AP flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Salt
1 C. Shortening
1 C. Sugar
2 Tsp. Vanilla (or vanillin, for that store-bought taste)
2 Eggs, or equivalent replacer (see notes)
1/4 C. Milk (or milk replacer- not a low-calorie, watery one!)

(Note: To make cocoa variation, I used 1/3 C.+ 1 TBSP  dark cocoa powder in the place of an equal volume of the flour, and half the vanilla. For a more exciting or seasonal look, you can also add sprinkles or food colouring to the dough. The recipe is easy to make successfully vegan, because there's no butter in the recipe to be missed, and the eggs are only really for structure- I tried batches of chocolate and vanilla both vegan and not. Just make sure that the sugar, et cetera, is also vegan in that case!)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt (and cocoa, if using). Set aside.

Cream the shortening and sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs, one by one. Beat in the dry ingredients one third at a time, adding the milk in between additions in two halves. 

Refrigerate 30 minutes. Towards the end of that time, preheat the oven to 180℃.

Shape the dough into uniform balls and press down with your palm or a glass to make circles. You can try cutting the dough with cookie cutters, but this can be tricky as it's very soft.

Bake for about 10 minutes, and allow to set on the sheets. Let cool before frosting.

For the Icing:
3 C. Powder sugar
1/4 C. Butter, or shortening (grocery store cookies would use the latter, and make the recipe easier to veganize)
1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla, or vanillin
Approx. 2 TBSP Milk, or milk replacer
Food colouring, if desired

Beat the ingredients together, adding just enough milk to give a spreadable consistency, until fluffy. Spread only only cool cookies.