HOW TO BAKE
Learn the secret of sugar cookie success

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Tiffanie Luke used an assortment of cutters to create sugar cookies made from a classic sweet pastry dough — very crisp, not too sweet and easy to cut. Photos by Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Tiffanie Luke adds flour to cookie dough. Ingredients should be measured by weight rather than volume for more consistent results.

"Don't overmix, don't overbake," advises 22-year-old student chef Tiffanie Luke, who has specialized in pastry at Kapi'olani Community College, where she is in her last year.

Luke, a Maryknoll High School graduate who grew up on Wilhelmina Rise, gave us a sugar cookie lesson recently and surprised us with the recipe she chose: a classic sweet pastry recipe (pate sucre) that is the same one used in making tarts. It's just sugar, flour, butter, eggs and a little vanilla.

She likes this recipe because it's not too sweet, it cuts cleanly, it retains its shape in baking and it showcases the butter flavor, her favorite. Standard home sugar cookie recipes include leavening — usually baking powder — and so are lighter and puffier, and they are often considerably sweeter.

Whichever type of recipe you use, Luke's advice remains the same: Keep ingredients cool. Mix just until ingredients clump. Flour surfaces lightly before rolling. Bake just until golden, not brown.

We noted one professional trick that Luke employs: She flours the board by plucking up a little flour with her right hand and sending it showering across the board horizontally, right to left, with a professional flick of the wrist. This requires less time and motion (important when you're flouring countless boards a day) and assures a very light coating.

Pro- or home-style, butter cookies are yummy

Here are two approaches to the basic butter cookie.

The professional approach:

Tiffanie Luke's sweet dough cookies are made with the professional formula known as 1, 2, 3: That's 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter (or butter and shortening), 3 parts pastry flour — all weighed, not measured by volume, because weight is more accurate. The sugar and chilled chunks of butter are combined in a standing mixer and creamed; an appropriate number of eggs are added along with vanilla; then the flour is added and mixed just until it clings together and forms a dough. This one takes some practice, and pastry flour isn't readily available to home cooks.

Here's a home version of sweet pastry dough (pate sucre) suitable for making cookies similar to the ones Luke prefers. Choose this recipe if you plan to go to town decorating the cookies and want clean cutting lines and not too much sweetness.

Crisp Sweet Dough Cookies

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a large bowl or mixer, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together flour and salt; stir into the sugar and mix until dough forms. Divide dough into two balls or discs, cover and chill for at least one hour.

Bring one piece of dough out of the refrigerator and allow it to warm up for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly flour rolling surface. Line cookie sheets with parchment. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out dough, working lightly and turning dough between each roll. Cut dough as desired and gently lift cut cookies onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Decorate as desired. Repeat with remaining dough (or dough may be stored in refrigerator, tightly wrapped, for a couple of days, or frozen for a couple of weeks.)

The home-cookin' approach:

If you want old-fashioned buttery, tender, crisp and sweet cookies, this recipe from the Land O' Lakes butter people is the type you'll prefer. These are good enough to serve without any decoration.

Best-ever Butter Cookies

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Combine 1 cup butter, sugar and egg in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add orange juice and vanilla; mix well. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds; wrap in plastic food wrap. Refrigerate until firm (2 to 3 hours).

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface, one-third at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 3-inch cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 6 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Repeat with remaining dough. Cool cookies completely.

Color your cookies with icing or sprinkles

When it comes to decorating cookies, there's the easy way and the slightly harder way.

The easy way: Use the pre-made decorators' icing in the cake section of your store to draw designs on the cookies. Or spread the top of the cookie with pre-made frosting. You can even melt frosting in the microwave and drizzle it over the cookie to resemble a glaze, then let it set. You can use dots of corn syrup as glue to affix candies or other decorative items. Or paint the top of the cookie very lightly with a little corn syrup using a pastry brush, then sprinkle the cookie all over with colored sugar or sprinkles.

The slightly harder way: This involves making royal icing — a mixture of confectioner's sugar, egg whites and lemon juice or cream of tartar — and spreading or piping it onto the cookie. The icing starts out soft but firms up.

The formula pastry student Tiffanie Luke was taught at Kapi'iolani Community College is 1/2 cup egg whites, 1 pound and 8 ounces powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar or lemon juice. Blend, divide into bowls, color each as desired, then cover with a damp towel so it won't dry out as you work.

Here are two royal icing recipes from pastrywiz.com, one made with egg white and another with powdered meringue, for those who don't care to eat raw egg whites.

Royal icing: Sift together 1 pound powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar. Beat 3 egg whites until stiff but not dry; beat in sugar and cream of tartar.

Meringue royal icing: Combine 4 tablespoons meringue powder, 7 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar; gradually drizzle in up to 7 tablespoons water while beating until stiff but not dry.

Use a few drops of food coloring or the paste-type coloring to color the icing as desired.

You can make a pastry bag out of a zippered plastic bag with one end snipped off but you'll be able to do more if you invest in a pastry bag with different tips. Use a sheet of parchment paper on which to practice, piping lines and creating dots and such before you try your hand at cookies. Check out some books from the library or go on the Internet to get ideas and tips.

Silver and gold dragees can be used to make Christmas ornaments on a tree-shaped cookie. Luke adapted a technique from "Christmas Family Gatherings" (Chronicle Books, paper, $22.95) to create textured sugar balls: Pipe out a bit of royal icing and let it dry a bit, roll it into a ball and then roll these in sugar (plain white or colored).

Better-cookie advice from pros

• Sift dry ingredients together for lighter texture.
• Cut butter into 1-inch pats and keep chilled.
• Keep all ingredients cold. A marble rolling surface helps.
• Mix only until dough clumps.
• With floured hands, form dough into thick disc or ball.
• Let dough rest a half-hour in refrigerator. Warm a bit before rolling.
• When rolling, use firm, light strokes in one direction and rotate.
• Thickness affects texture: thinness brings crispness.
• To prevent cracking, do not stretch dough.
• Dough scraps can be rerolled once. Don't over-work dough.
• Dip cookie cutters in flour before cutting.
• Line cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat, silicon liners, for less cleanup, no sticking.
• Pre-heat oven for best color and texture.
• Cover royal icing with damp towel to prevent drying.
• For smooth icing, dip spatula in hot water and shake off excess.
• For variety, make a large batch of dough, divide and add ingredients.
• Tasty additions can include chopped macadamias, Maui brown sugar, colored sugar or food coloring.

Sources: chef-student Tiffanie Luke, chef-instructor Daniel Swift