Canadian Sugar Cook-eh’s

This recipe consists of a melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookie base, topped with a thin, sugary glaze, and festive sprinkles. Canadian Sugar Cook-eh’s are brightly coloured with vivid red and white sweets to keep your Canada Day celebrations full of high energy!

Is there anything new about these Canadian Sugar Cook-eh’s? No. But, they are most certainly bright and festive! My goal here was to re-create one of my personal favourite cookies with the bold colours of our national flag. Complete with red and white glaze, and red and white maple leaf sprinkles, this cookie just screams Happy Canada Day!

As I’m writing up this post, we are still in the middle of a lockdown here in Ontario. At this point, who knows if the lockdown will be over or not by the time Canada day rolls around! Either way, I’m pretty sure that our ability to celebrate our nation’s birthday with friends is out of the question. So, why not bake a few batches of these cookies and share them with your friends and neighbours?

I’m sure many Canadians will be spending July 1st with their immediate families this year. I bet you that John.e and I will be alone, because McKenna is planning to go back to Toronto for the summer. We will probably fire up the grill for dinner and then relax with a fire and roasted marshmallows once the sun goes down. But, I might make up a few bags of cookies up and drop them off to our neighbours too. It’s the Canadian thing to do!

UM… YOU SPELLED COOKIES INCORRECTLY

Well, yes, I did, Dear Reader. But, I did it on purpose. Just like in the past, whenever I want to post a recipe that is fun and festive, I turn to my two favourite word-play people. Both John.e and McKenna have a slight fascination with word play. They like to spin the way things are said or make up words out of thin air. I’m not witty enough for that, but I do enjoy their banter.

For this post, I wanted something original and unique. Canadian Sugar Cookies wasn’t going to cut it, so I asked them both their opinions, but did so separately so that I would get two sets of ideas. At this point, I already forget what most of their suggestions were, but this one stuck with me. Canadians use the word “eh” quite often. It’s a well-known fact and we’re reminded of it by non-Canadians regularly. In the end, McKenna won the battle with her “eh” suggestion.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

For the Cookies:

• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.
• Salt – In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness. 
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes.  In cookies, the sugar will help the dough to spread, and will create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies.

For the Glaze:

• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often.  When dusted lightly onto cakes and cookies, it adds just a touch of sweetness, but more importantly, it looks very visually appealing!
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 
• Food Colouring
• Sprinkles

HOW TO MAKE CANADIAN SUGAR COOK-EH’S

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside. In a large bowl, use a mixer to beat together the butter and sugar until creamy and light yellow in colour. (About 4-5 minutes.) Add the eggs one at a time and beat into the butter and sugar mixture. Finally, beat in the vanilla extract.

Next, sift in the flour, salt, and baking powder. Beat into the wet mixture until well combined. Portion the cookie dough into heaping tablespoons. Roll into a ball and place onto the prepared baking sheet. Press down on each ball until ball is flattened to just over 1/4 inch thick. (I used the bottom of a drinking glass.)

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling. Once completely cooled, stir the milk into the confectioner’s sugar until a thin, smooth frosting is formed. Divide the frosting into two bowls. Tint one bowl of frosting with red food colouring and leave the other bowl of frosting white.

Working with one cookie at a time, dip half of the cookies facedown into white glaze. Next, dip the second half of the cookies facedown into the red frosting. I topped some of the cookies with sprinkles and left some plain. Place them onto a wire cooling rack. Allow frosting to fully dry before packaging cookies.

FOOD COLOURING

Before I get too far into this, I am just going to get this one thing out of the way. I did use food colouring to dye the frosting. Using food colouring is not ideal for some people, but I don’t personally have an issue with it. I know there are many “natural” ways of coloring food, so if you already employ those in other recipes, feel free to do so here too.

I have used only red. The frosting on the white cookies is what the frosting will look like without any added colouring. I’m a huge advocate of gel food colouring. But, just to be contrary, in this case, I’m going to suggest you use liquid food colouring. The gel will allow you to tint the frosting without changing the viscosity, but liquid food colouring will get you a deeper, brighter colour.

LET’S TALK ABOUT ‘EH’

In linguistics, “eh” is called an invariant tag. That’s fancy talk for a word, sound, or short phrase added after a thought which shifts that thought in some way. “Eh” is of the invariant variety because it doesn’t change every time it is used. In the sentence, “Nice day, eh?”, it is used as a tag which changed the thought into a question. The “eh” here could be replaced by “isn’t it?” and have the same meaning.

“Eh” is also called a confirmational, which means a word attached at the end of a sentence to confirm if something is true. For example, “It’s getting cold, eh” or “That game was intense, eh.” Aside from frequent use, it is also said to be a reflection of Canadian identity because it connotes politeness, friendliness, and inclusivity. It softens a sentence to involve the listener, asking their opinion on the matter and including them in the conversation.

THE MANY USES OF ‘EH’

In Canada, eh can be used to:

• To state an opinion – “It was a good movie, eh?”
• As exclamation or to express surprise – “What an ending, eh?” or “What a game, eh?”
• To state a request or command – “Put that here, eh?”
• To confirm (or soften) a criticism – “You really messed that one up, eh?”
• As the narrative used in storytelling to denote that there is more to come. It also engages the listener, using it to make sure that the person is still listening. “So I went to this party, eh?” “And everyone there was drunk, eh?” “And so, I …”

RED AND WHITE ORIGINS

So, happy Canada Day, folks! For my non-Canadian readers, Canada Day is the national day of Canada. It is a federal statutory holiday which celebrates the anniversary of July 1, 1867. That was the date of the Constitution Act which united the three separate colonies of the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a single Dominion within the British Empire called Canada.

Originally, the day was called Dominion Day, but was renamed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed. Canada Day is celebrated on July 1. I wanted to share some Canadian fun facts with you – are you up for it? Our most popular phrase is I’m sorry! We apologize a lot. When someone bumps into us, we say sorry. It’s very common. When you come to Canada, don’t worry about offending anyone; if you do, a Canadian will apologize for you.

Canada and the United States celebrate the first weekend of July together. Canada Day and Independence Day are both celebrated at Niagara Falls with a huge fireworks display on July 1 and July 4.

Canada’s National Symbol is the Beaver. It might look cute and cuddly, but they can be vicious. Beavers have been known to attack humans and there have been reported deaths by beaver.

Canada is influenced by both the US and Britain. Canada is on the Metric System but most people weigh themselves in pounds and measure themselves in feet and inches. Our temperature is in Celsius and our speed limits are measured in kilometres. We follow the British way of writing by using the “u” in words like colour and neighbour. Canadians flip the “er” with “re” in words like theatre and metre. It’s also acres and not hectares. We really have no idea what rules we’re following!

CANADIAN SUGAR COOK-EH’S

We should really get back to the reason you’re here – the Canadian Sugar Cook-eh’s recipe! If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might have come across this sugar cookie recipe already. However, like I said at the beginning of this post, it has been re-purposed and decorated to celebrate our nation’s birthday.

Some other red and white foods you can find here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen are my Red and White Canada Day Cupcakes and my Red Berry Swirl Tartlets.

Truth be told, there’s not a lot of Canadian-themed, red and white food floating around out there. In contrast, there are endless recipes that incorporate the red, white, and blue for America’s 4th of July celebrations. So, let’s all try to make something red and white this coming Canada Day. And, don’t forget to share with your friends and neighbours, because that’s the Canadian thing to do!