Play Dough Cookies

So as I've mentioned before, I'm on the hunt for the perfect sugar cookie recipe. There are sugar cookies that taste really good and then there are sugar cookies that hold their shape really well. I want one that does BOTH. I know that both Bakingdom and DorieGreenspans recipes taste good but don't have the most perfect shape. (Greenspan's being the worst when it comes to shape.) AnnieEats and thedecoratedcookieblog cookies look way good but aren't sweet enough. I really liked the Bakeat350 sugar cookie recipe. It tasted really good and held its shape excellently, however it didn't taste as good as Sugarbelle's recipe. downfall with Sugarbelle's recipe, is it doesn't hold its shape very well. So tonight I wanted to make sugar cookies with the kids. Ive seen on several blogs the idea of coloring several chunks of sugar cookie dough with several different food colors and letting the kids create cookie sculptures /creations and then baking them. (Like play dough you can eat.) SO I though this would be so so fun for them. I wanted to use THIS recipe from the blog site that originally gave out this fun cookie play dough idea, however the recipe was the same as Annie-eats recipe and I already know that recipe isn't sweet enough. But (after making these cookie sculptures) I later emailed the blog writer about her recipe and apparently she had forgot to include 1/2 cup sugar in her posted recipe. so next time I'll for sure try her recipe. So anyway, before i was aware of the bloggers mistake, I at last second decided to give Sugarbelle's recipe one last shot because i was in the mood for a good tasting sugar cookie, and so far taste-wise her recipe tops the charts. (and by the way, every kid cares way more about taste than presentation. I really didn't want to hear the words "yuck or gross") The cookie play dough activity was a blast. Caleb's little friend Oliver was over and they both had so much fun, both making the dough and making their cookie creations. We made brooms, witch hats, wands, harry potter, a castle , etc... The cookie creations looked way cute before they went in the oven but they came out looking, mmm basically they spread out way too much upon baking. But... of course they tasted super good, and the kids didn't notice the spreading. To them, their creations looked perfect. Except they did notice the hats - or should i say the hats that no longer were. They at 1st were 3-d hats and then after baked, they were just round circles. But like I said, all and all the kids had a blast and the cookies were super yummy. I study recipes a lot and There are 5 recipes I have a strong feeling about that are going to be perfect in both taste and stability. 1st one: Iambaker, 2nd: IDmommy, 3rd: youngidealisticbaker, 4th: PeggyPorschen, and 5th: Cookiecraft. None of these recipes (except Iambaker) call for leavening agents (like baking powder) and leavening agents can cause spreading. I'll for sure be doing this with the kids again but next time with a sturdier recipe (probably IDmommys recipe.) After making the cookie sculptures, I had some leftover Sugarbelle cookie dough that I used to roll out and I made a few Christmas cookies with my new Christmas Wilton cookie cutters. And these turned out super cute. And then I iced them with royal icing. So pretty!! I still really LOVE Sugarbelle's recipe. Taste wise I honestly don't think I'll ever find better, and it does work decently enough as a cut-out cookie. But as a cookie sculptor, not so well.

Oh and no way will I EVER use THIS recipe. So don't suggest it. Cream cheese in my sugar cookie? no thank you!

One last thing: I'm not blasting any of the recipes I listed above. They're all really great recipes, that's why Ive even bothered mentioning them. I'm just saying what does and doesn't work for me or what I'm in the mood for at the moment. Recipes also just depend on personal preference. Like if you care more about taste, or more about presentation, or if your like me and have to have both. Recipes also depend on the situation: are the cookies for kids or adults, will they even be eaten or are they just for decor? Do they have to be shipped somewhere, so is stability a huge factor. It also depends a lot on your oven or the altitude of the state you live in. There are a lot of factors that go into baking and what makes a good recipe, so nothings personal here.