Recipe: Painted Sugar Cookies - Cookie Baking with Little Bakers

While searching for some requested cookie recipes I ran across this one and remembered your post regarding baking cookies for children to frost. Thought it was an interesting alternative. You will need small, clean paintbrushes.

PAINTED SUGAR COOKIES
Beatrice Ojakangas

1/2 cup unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour

Corn Syrup Paint:
4 teaspoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon water
Four different paste food colors or liquid food color

With an electric mixer, cream butter, shortening, and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until light. In a small bowl, stir the baking soda, salt and flour together. Stir the dry ingredients into the creamed ingredients until well mixed. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 30 min. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Divide the dough in half. Rewrap 1/2 of it and return to the refrigerator until you are finished with the first half. Roll out the dough to 1/8" thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut the cookies with a cookie cutter of any design and place on ungreased cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Put 1 teaspoon corn syrup and 1/4 teaspoon water into each of 4 different custard cups. Tint each of the four mixtures with food color. Stir each well. Paint designs on the unbaked cookies, using small paintbrushes. (Or, if you prefer, decorate with colored sprinkles and tiny candies.) Bake for 9-20 minutes or until the cookies are light brown. Remove the cookies with a spatula and cool on a wire rack. Makes about 60 cookies