Mini Sunday Dinner and More Sugar Cookies!

Hi Everyone,
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Today I decided to make a nice 'mini' Sunday dinner for tea. I called it a 'mini' dinner because I wasn't roasting a joint of meat.

I made poached chicken breasts with mashed taters, roasties, Yorkshire puddings, garlic green beans, rosemary roasted carrots, pigs in blankets and gravy. It was delicious but I didn't enjoy washing and drying everything up. I think I might hate washing the pots as much as I hate ironing!

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I also made another batch of sugar cookies. Yes this is the fourth batch I've made in 7 days. The recipe I tried tonight was by Martha Stewart. I love her. I really want to be an audience member and watch one of her shows being filmed. The audience members always get to take great gifts home. I watched one where every member of the audience got a sparkly new kitchenaid! Pah!
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The recipe for Martha's cookies can be found here.
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I also made a batch of royal icing. I've tweaked Miss Trulys recipe to this:
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1 x Large Egg White
1 x tsp x Cream of Tartar
1/2 tsp x Lemon Extract
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This gave me a nice, stiff paste for piping. I coloured it pale lemon then put half in one of my disposable piping bags (I couldn't live without these - use and then bin, no nasty smelling piping bags for me!). I then watered down the remaining half to a flooding stage. This is when the icing makes a ribbon effect on the surface when drizzled for about 5 seconds before disappearing back into the mixture. I hope that makes sense?!
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I piped the outline with the stiff icing, waited 15 mins for it to dry then filled with the 'flooding icing'. I'm leaving them on the counter overnight to dry before I pipe on the details. I should have made the icing a bit more runny as it was still a bit thick as you can see from the picture.
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Results: The first batch I made, I was disappointed with... It was nice and firm, rolled out lovely, cut the shapes nicely but once baked, they spread a bit so didn't hold their shape. They did taste absolutely delicious but I had to flatten them with my palate knife once out the oven as they had risen slightly. Also, I had not made the flooding icing runny enough as you can see in the pics below of the first batch.

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The First Batch:
Rolled 1/2 inch thick, chilled for 1 hour, baked for 15 mins

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For the second batch, I rolled the dough to 1/4 thick (the first batch were a lot thicker at 1/2 inch) and they came out perfect. I baked them for 18 mins, they were a lot more golden but definitely more crunchy and they held their shape so overall I'm pleased with this dough. The dough must have chilled for around 2- 3 hours before I rolled, cut and baked.
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The Second Batch:
Rolled thinner, baked for 18 mins, chilled before baking for approx 2 - 3 hours

I also removed the icing from the piping bags and put back into a bowl, added a bit more water and then iced them with the back of a spoon. They turned out much better than the first batch although the icing should have been a touch thicker.

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End Result:

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The dough made approximately 15 7cm x 7cm butterflies and 16 4cm x 4xm flowers.

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The icing gave me enough to ice the cookies you see in the photo and there was stil half left of each colour in the tube.

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I have another recipe to try from the lovely Leslie over at The Hungry Housewife. Fingers crossed that one works out for me.

;-)