Lofthouse-Style Soft Sugar Cookies

When I was a kid, there was nothing more tempting on a trip to a grocery store than the bakery displays of Lofthouse cookies with their brightly colored frosting.  If we behaved, Mom would let us get a free sugar cookie from the lady behind the counter, but they were flat and hard and nothing like the pillowy-soft frosted cookies of my dreams.

Now that I’m all mature (questionable) and grown up (true), I can eat Lofthouse cookies until I’m lying on the floor in a sugar coma if I want.  Fortunately we grow out of our childish urges (mostly) and the few times I’ve had a store-bought Lofthouse cookie at a party or whatever, I find them to be a little dry and far too sweet.  But that nostalgic factor is still there, which is why I keep trying them. So all that is to say, I was a little excited when I came upon a recipe for them. And heart-shaped? Well, it’s perfect for the belated V-Day celebration I’m having with friends this weekend.

Since it's not my creation, I won't post the recipe here but you can find it on Two Peas and Their Pod.

The positive side of a recipe that requires refrigeration is that it cuts a little time out of the process when you’re ready to cut, bake, and frost.  By that I mean I made the dough on Wednesday night, which only took about 25 minutes, and then it was ready to roll out on Thursday.  This recipe makes a large amount of cookies, so I left 1/3 of the dough in the refrigerator in case my little brother & his friend want to make and decorate cookies this weekend. 

Spencer leaned over his homework to make the first cut. And that was the end of his helpfulness, until it came time to taste test.

My mom has a set of heart-shaped cutters with fluted edges but because the cookies rise so much while they’re baking, the pretty shape gets lost in the oven.

Mmm...heart sprinkles.....

My biggest critique of this recipe is the texture of the dough. It was in the refrigerator for 24 hours and it was still SO STICKY.  I didn’t add any extra flour to the recipe and if I made it again, I still wouldn’t because they would probably taste like biscuits. But flour the counter top. And flour your rolling pin. And flour your hands. And sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough just to be safe. And then when that’s all done, throw a little flour over your left shoulder and say a little prayer to the deities of baked goods for good measure. Ok don’t do that.

Also, only roll out a quarter of the dough at a time, keeping the rest in the refrigerator. The colder it is, the easier it is to work with.

So that may seem like extra work but it is worth it. These are amazing. Soft and cakey and the perfect vehicle for the fluffy buttercream.  Somewhere, 7 year old Ellie is laughing and crying and clapping her hands.  Well done, me, well done.