Can you lend me a Paw?

I played with fondant for the first time and wow, just wow.  I don’t know why I was always so scared of it.  It’s certainly not easy but it’s not nearly as hard as I imagined it to be.  I found a simple recipe here and used that to make cookies in the shape of paw prints for my sorority with some friends.  The plate they are on is a gift from my big sis :-)

I used a basic sugar cookie recipe and cut out shapes in the fondant with cookie cutters.  They aren’t perfect but I’m very proud of how my first trial run went.

Sugar Cookies

Faithfully replicated from my “King Arthur Cookie Companion”

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp Vanilla
• Grated Nutmeg (ok this is my addition)
• 1.5 Tbsp baking powder
• 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 375 and prep a cookie sheet.  Beat the butter and sugar at high speed for 2 minutes until they are light and fluffy.  Add the egg and beat for one minute.  Mix in the vanilla, baking powder and freshly grated nutmeg.

Now add half the flour, all the cornstarch and half of the cream.  Mix until blended and then add the rest of the flour/cream but only just until blended.

At this point I rolled the dough into a ball, flattened it into a disk and refrigerated it for a few hours before rolling it out to make the shapes.  Bake your cookies for approximately 15 minutes.  They should be puffy but not yet brown.  This will ensure super soft sugar cookies.  If you want them to be crispier then let them bake longer but I like them soft and chewy.