My sister-in-law does a cookie swap every year, and the last few years she's been having it after the holidays. I think it's genius because trying to fit in one more thing during December can be a lot, especially when you also have to bake for it. This year she held it on the Friday after we got back from vacation. I was originally thinking I might just get some cookies from the bakery since I was zero percent in the headspace to bake having just gotten home. I had no ingredients for baking because I recently cleaned out the pantry and threw everything out figuring I'd be replacing the baking stuff soon enough. (Spoiler alert: I did not, in fact, replace any of it.) But then, when I was picking up my pup from my mom on Wednesday she asked if I wanted a fresh roll of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough. PERFECT! Yes Mom, Yes I do want that. So I took that home along with some confectioners sugar so I could make icing for the cookies. I had food coloring. It was the only thing I didn't toss just about. But you know what I forgot? (This is confession number one today.) I forgot to ask her for some flour so I could do the cut out cookies. I realized this once I was ready to make them. Okay, change of plans! I'll just do regular sugar cookies. Easy fix.
But you can't ice regular sugar cookies. That's not delicious. You need frosting. So I asked Google for some ideas of what I could make with what I had in the house. And thankfully I found a four ingredient recipe for Maple Buttercream. (Which is delicious by the way!) EXCELLENT!
I did have to substitute one ingredient. It called for maple extract along with maple syrup. I had PLENTY of maple syrup since I never run out of the good stuff from my brother's farm. But maple extract was not in my spice drawer. I did have vanilla extract though, and that worked just fine. But now, here's confession number two. I keep one stick of butter in the fridge generally and the rest are in the freezer. But the recipe called for two sticks. It had to be softened but NOT melted, so the microwave wasn't an option. So what's one to do to rapidly soften frozen butter without melting it? (This is confession number 2).
I put it on the heat register and just turned it every so often. Totally did the trick! And yes I know my floors look rough. They're 265 years old, so they are what they are. That's not dirt, it's just many, many years of life happening on them.
Anyway, the cookies were delicious, even if they were from ready made dough. I forgot to snap a picture of them frosted, but here are some of them just before:
I don't know what we did before Google for such emergencies, but I'm sure I glad I live in a time where I don't have to worry about that!
