Sugar Cookies with Colored Dough

I have been looking for new cookie ideas - particularly ones for the upcoming holiday season. Since the standard American sugar cookie coated in buttercream frosting is far too sweet for most Korean, I have been looking for ways to "decorate" the traditional sugar cookie without the need for all the extra frosting. I was searching Pinterest last week and came across this pin - which I thought was the perfect solution to my problem!

I made the dough according to the instructions and divided into sections to color. Sadly, my cheap plastic cookie cutters from Daiso (the Korean equivalent of a Dollar Store) didn't work so well. If I tried to make a thicker cookie, the dough got stuck in the cutter. I eventually got a stack of yellow stars and began to mold lengths of plain dough around the shape as instructed. Unfortunately, this completely failed! My original star shape was destroyed, and I ended up with a mess that looked much more like an egg yolk than a star! Fortunately, I was at least able to again separate the yellow and plain doughs. (If I was going to try this again, I might try freezing the yellow stars so that they hold their shape a bit better.

Since the original technique failed, I had to revert to plan B. I cut small yellow stars with my smallest cutter; then, I cut larger stars from the plain dough and made a smaller hole in the center. I, next, had to fill the holes with my yellow stars. It was a bit labor and time intensive, but I'm happy with the final results.



Sugar Cookies #2
(yields 2½ dozen cookies)

1½ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
½ c. sugar
½ c. butter, cold
½ egg
½ t. vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

In a small bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture in parts. Once dough has formed, divide into three parts and color one part (optional.) Roll the color dough to about ¼" and cut with the smallest cookies cutter available. Roll the plain dough to the same thickness and cut with a larger cookie cutter. Use the original (smaller) cookie cutter to make a second cut in the cookie center. Fill with the colored-dough shapes. Bake at 350°F (176°C) for 8-10 minutes. Remove cookies before the edges brown.