Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Sugar cookies are the other re-do on my 2018 baking challenge. They’re my Achilles heel. I have failed at them many times, and haven’t even tried to make them again for like…seven years? Yeah, and I was making them for Christmas gifts, so it was a little stressful, but spoiler, they totally worked! My friend, Jill, told me about Wilton’s no-chill sugar cookie recipe, so I decided to try that: https://www.wilton.com/roll-out-cookie-dough/WLRECIP-31.html

For the Dough:

1 c granulated sugar

1 egg

3 ¼ c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 c butter, softened (2 sticks)

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract *have I said that I hate almond extract? Yes. I know I have. I hate it, so I didn’t add it. I will say, though, that I felt like I wanted the cookies to be a little sweeter. Maybe the almond extract gives some of that sweetness.

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a stand mixer, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extract. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture one cup at a time.

3. Do not chill dough. Divide into two balls. *Can I just say at this point I was freaking out? This dough looks like fucking pie crust. It’s crumbly and chaotic. The more you work it, the better it becomes. It DOES actually come together, so if you see something like this, you’re okay.

4. On a floured surface, roll each ball out until approximately 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each cut.

5. Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet for 8 – 11 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. *It took my cookies a bit longer than this. I think it was 12-ish minutes, but you’re looking for something like this:

For the Royal Icing:

I used Pioneer Woman’s recipe that doesn’t require meringue powder: https://thepioneerwoman.com/food-and-friends/how-to-make-royal-icing-without-meringue-powder/

1 pound powdered sugar

3 pasteurized egg whites

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1. Sift sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer. *You do want to actually sift here- no lumpy icing!

2. Add remaining ingredients to bowl. Using paddle attachment, mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, and then increase speed to medium for about five minutes. Check for stiff peaks.

3. Once stiff peaks are formed, transfer the icing to bowls for coloring.

*This consistency is going to be your border frosting. I put some of each color into a piping bag. Then I added a little bit of water to each bowl so that I got a runnier consistency for flooding the rest of the cookies. So you have stiff icing to keep the softer icing in. You can also use the thick icing for detail work. I thought that I wasn’t going to have enough icing because I was making four colors, but I totally did, and I made a little over three dozen cookies.

**One final side note: They didn't have any more black gel coloring, so I bought this:

Don't fucking buy this for cookies. This never dries. I ended up having to take off all of the black and put melted chocolate in its place. It was horrible.

Other than that, just go to town! It's actually easier than you'd think, but it requires some time. Start by doing your borders. Then you can fill them in with the same color. Finally you can use additionally stiff icing to do your details. Here are some of my other cookies:

Rating (Scale 1 to 5):
Difficulty: 3 (really only difficulty is icing)
Amount of Time: 3 (again just with icing cookies- do it with a buddy)
Awesomeness: 4 (I wish they were sweeter, but they were adorable and impressive)