Bake Sale Season!

It's almost summer! The end of the school year is always a busy one for us moms and teachers. It always seems like there is somewhere to go, something to do or something to bake! Recently, our church held an end of the year bakesale and I thought I'd share some ideas. Moms, there is no doubt in my mind that there will be a bake sale in your future so here are some time-saving tips and creative ideas for you!

Idea #1-Buy the dough in bulk from your kids sport's team/scout group or whomever is selling the massive boxes of cookie dough! They are delicious and easy and you will always have something to whip up that tastes fantastic. Plus, they usually sell fancy dough like white chocolate macadamia.
If you don't have kids knocking you down to buy cookie dough or there isn't a fundraiser in your area, try
http://www.davidscookies.com/ -where you can buy the dough in tubs or preformed in cookies with many gourmet flavors that are bound to impress! ( I don't have any connection to this company only that I have used them in the past.)

Idea #2-Brownies or Chocolate cookie dough baked-like-brownies always cuts nicely and can be arranged in bags tied with festive bows. In my experience-since these are pretty traditional they tend to sell well.

Idea #3-Bake your own sugar cookies with shapes/colors for the season, holiday, or event. You could really go crazy with this idea. You could buy cookie cutter letters (I got mine at Michael's) and use the letters of the school, sport, etc. For my recent church bake sale, I went with a spring theme and dyed the dough the spring colors and used flower and butterfly cut-outs and tied with spring ribbon.

Below-you will find my sugar cookie recipe that I have revamped over the years. This recipe is flavorful and the cookies always poof up nicely-not too much and not too little. :) Enjoy!

Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon zest

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in  flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least 2 hours (or overnight-THIS IS BEST).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Yield= 4 dozen. (approx. on size of cookie cutters-you can also just roll the dough and slice it, then bake. Bake @ 450 degrees then cool. Decorate as desired. To decorate quickly-you can brush the cut out cookie dough with an egg white wash and add sprinkles. (as I did in the pictures)

To finish them off, ensure they sell well and they are preserved well I put them in plastic sandwhich bags and tied with a ribbon. (You could use cellophane...but come on...we are busy mom's and we always have sandwich bags in the house, right?)

Happy Baking!
Jennifer