I noticed last Wednesday that florists had already set out their surge of flowers around SoCal (I was doing quite a bit of driving last week). I thought it was a bit early, since the flowers would not remain fresh up to Sunday, however people have their reasons for starting celebrations early. Then, it occurred to me that Wednesday, May 10th was Mexican Mother’s Day! In California, this day is just as grandly celebrated as the second Sunday in May every year.
Did you know that in Mexico children make themselves present to their mothers on the eve of Mother’s Day? Traditionally in Mexico, Mother’s Day is celebrated with gusto and involves the church. Churches in Mexico hold a special mass and the traditional early morning meal of ‘tamales’ and ‘atole’ is distributed to all local mothers. It seems utterly reverent and there is something angelic about this tradition.
With such a righteous tradition a miss in the United States, I can imagine why Mexican Americans go out of their way with profusion of flowers while city corners are teeming with bouquets and gifts. It inspired me to embrace flowers in my recipe post to celebrate Mother’s Day this week. Flower Sugar Cookies are a sweet treat for Mother’s Day and can be packaged into a charming little gift as well. Simply put each iced cookie into a cellophane bag, attach a tag and present. These Flower Sugar Cookies will delight every mother in your life.
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting and Royal Icing (at least colors of your choice)
Parchment paper
Flower Cookie Cutter
Method
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder and set aside.
- Using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat another minute or so.
- Add the flour mixture slowly in parts
- Blend until all the flour is incorporated and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on a piece of parchment paper.
- Using your hands, knead the dough a few times.
- Place the dough in a large plastic sealable bag and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
- When the dough has chilled and is firm, take out about half of the dough, leaving the rest in the refrigerator (until you’re ready to work with it).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
- Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough and roll out the dough to about 1/3 of an inch thick.
- Cut the dough with cookie cutters.
- Place cookie shapes on a prepared baking sheet.
- Place entire baking sheet (with cookies on it) in the freezer or refrigerator for about 3-5 minutes (Chilling the cookies to help ensure they keep their shape while baking).
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should be just barely beginning to take on a golden tone.
- Allow the cookies to cool. Once cooled, the cookies can be decorated with frosting and royal icing. Use two contrasting colors of your choice. First piping an outline with stiff icing, then filling it in with runny icing of the same color. Once that dries for a few hours, then pipe another border on top, and then pipe on any extra decorations using a different color.
- Let the icing dry overnight.
- Serve on a cookie plate or place each cookie in a cellophane favor bag and tie them with raffia and custom tags.
