My good friend invited me to join her in a cookie class the other week. We decorated Christmas sugar cookies! At first I was a little disappointed, because I have decorated sugar cookies in the past with Royal icing. BUT! I did learn some new techniques and had so much fun!
Baking for me is such a stress reliever. It allows me to follow a recipe and just focus on the task at hand. And then when you're done, you have a nice treat!
Below I have the recipes for the sugar cookies that I make every year, and the Royal icing. (You may remember the Gingerbread Snowflakes With Royal Icing I posted last December here).
Cookies
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Directions
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and combine.
3. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
3. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
4. Divide dough in half, wrap in wax paper, and refrigerate for two hours.
5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
6. Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with flour. Remove one wrapped dough from refrigerator at a time. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shape.
7. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges. Rotate cookie sheet halfway through baking time.
8. Let sit on cookie sheet for two minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Once cool decorate as desired.
Icing
Ingredients
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
10 tablespoons warm water
Flavored emulsion if desired
Food coloring gel
Directions
1. Combine ingredients above in an electric mixer on low speed for about 8 minutes.
I like to make my icing the consistency of pancake batter. No stiff peaks she. You mix but a little shaking will even it out. Add more powdered sugar or water until you get desired consistency.
2. Divide icing into several bowls and add food coloring.
3. Transfer frosting to pastry bags or squirt bottles.
4. Outline cookies and then fill in the inside. Add sprinkles and decorations.
Happy Holidays!!
XO, N