Need Good Recipe for SOFT Sugar Cookies and Pretty Icing

Back at Christmas I did a search for a recipe to match those yummy Lofthouse cookies you buy at the grocery store. This is the recipe (sorry I don't have the actual link anymore). But they were DELISH!

Sugar Cookie Ingredients
1 cup shortening(I use Crisco)
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 1/2 - 5 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cookie Directions
Mix the shortening, sugar, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs together. Stir 4 1/2 cups flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix. Now, the dough works best if cooled, so refrigerate the dough (in the bowl no need to cover the bowl) for 45 minutes. Generously flour your counter top and roll out the cookies. I had to flour the dough as well to keep it from sticking to my rolling pin. Cut the cookies, I used the rim of a drinking glass to cut my cookies. I was able to roll and cut 48 cookies total. Make sure you use non-stick foil or butter/flour your pan and bake them at 400 degrees until just barely light golden brown on the bottom, for me this was 9-10 minutes. After cookies have cooled you can frost and decorate.

Butter Cream Frosting Ingredients
2 pound bag powdered sugar (I added an additional cup to get the thicker consistency I wanted)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
Food coloring, if desired

Frosting Directions
Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Generously frost the sugar cookies! Top with sprinkles for extra fun :-)

I've tried several recipes in the past & the cookies were never exactly what I wanted. At X-Mas, I tried some at a friends house & they were soooo yummy. I asked her to give me the recipe & it was actually the Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix! And the icing was the Betty Crocker Whipped Butter Cream. So incredibly easy & tasty. Good luck! :)

I have been told that the best thing to do is take the cookies out before they look done, so before they brown... that way they actaully finish baking while cooling and stay soft.

No idea for the icing, I know I have many recipies but have not tried any of them yet so no idea if they are good.

You can get a shiny icing by using the wilton meringue powder and following the recipe for royal icing. It will dry hard but not break your teeth hard lol. Just make sure that everything is grease free when using royal icing as grease will cause it to break down. you can color it using colors designed for icing (found at wal-mart and micheals). I like to add some powdered vanilla for extra flavor but you can use a teaspoon of vanilla in place of a teaspoon of the water when making the icing. makes it taste much better! You will need to thin the icing to ice your cookies. Do this by adding just the tiniest amount of water at a time. If it's too thin it will run right off your cookies and make a mess.

My MIL puts a piece a bread in the bag with the cookies and it softens them right up.

Not sure about the icing, but the betty crocker cookie mix with real butter and a table spoon full of sour cream makes a great moist cookie!

This isn't an exact answer, but I hope it helps. Cookies make with butter get crispy, while those made is shortening stay soft (as does under-cooking the cookies a bit). Royal icing is the one that gets hard.