the soft pink cookie

this cookie has been my favorite thing since i was a little kid! there's something about waiting in the grocery line and spying that giant, soft, sprinkled, pink frosted goodness.

i tried to find a recipe that captured that excitement and possibility of sweetness and a rush of sugar that is the giant, soft, pink sugar cookie!

i have slightly adapted this recipe from annie's eats. 

you can make them as large or as small as you want, and in any shape. for valentine's day, i am definitely whippin' out my heart shaped cookie cutter and buying some more red food coloring and sprinkles!

for this specific incident, i used blue food coloring, and the kids loved them!

The Soft Pink Cookie

• [for the cookies]:
• 4½ cups all-purpose flour
• 4½ tsp. baking powder
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature (save wrappers for greasing cookie sheets)
• 1½ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tsp. vanilla extract

• [for the frosting]:
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/3 cup (5 1/3 tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 7-8 tbsp. milk (plus more, as needed)
• food coloring
• sprinkles

preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease two cookie sheets with butter wrappers. 

sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium sized bowl. set aside.

in a large bowl (or in the bowl of your kitchenaid mixer) beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy (2-4 minutes) 

add vanilla and eggs one at a time, scraping down bowl with a spatula after each addition.

turn your electric mixer down to low speed, and slowly add the dry ingredients that you set aside, into the large bowl of wet ingredients. 

blend just until incorporated.

cover your ball of dough in plastic wrap, and chill in fridge for one hour, or up until the next day. 

once your dough is chilled,  take a tablespoon and scoop out dough to the size of cookies you want. roll into a ball and use your other hand to flatten it into a perfectly round cookie shape!

repeat with the rest of the dough.

line the flattened dough balls onto your buttered cookie sheets, and spread 3 inches apart, just to be safe.

bake for around 8-10 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! this will ruin the whole point of recreating my your childhood dreams!

to make the frosting, put the powdered sugar in a medium sized bowl, and add the vanilla, melted butter, food coloring, and milk. beat until semi-stiff peaks are revealed. if you need to add more milk, do so a tablespoon at a time.

when they are cool, frost those lovelies, and sprinkle them! store them in an airtight tupperware of sorts. enjoy!!