(Recipe for Cookies & Icing)
To me there is no more quintessential holiday dessert than the sugar cookie. We see them at the grocery store, at work office parties, and in the homes of loved ones around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. But not all sugar cookies are created equal. My below tips and tricks will help you create some of the most beautiful and yummy sugar cookies!
The Sugar Cookie Recipe
1 ¼ cup salted butter (room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
- Measure out the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Place together in the bowl of your mixer and mix. Mix on medium to low speed until smooth. (This is normally about 3 minutes.)
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add egg and mix.
- Scrape down the side of the bowl again.
- Slowly add in flour and mix until a soft dough forms. You will know the dough is ready when it pulls away from the side of the bowl.
- Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll with a rolling pin to desired thickness.
- Place the dough in the freezer for at least one hour.
- Cut the dough into desired shapes with cutters.
- Bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10-13 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool before frosting.
Pro Tip: Make sure to freeze your dough- it really does make all the difference! If the dough gets warm between you cutting out the shapes and baking put the cut out dough back in the freezer for a bit before it goes in the oven.
The Royal Icing Recipe
2 lbs (one bag) of powdered sugar
5 tablespoons meringue powder
¾ cups warm water
- Measure out powdered sugar and meringue powder in the bowl. Mix together.
- Slowly add in warm water until you get your exact consistency. For me that means the icing is dripping off the mixer head at a pretty even pace.
- If the icing is too runny add more powdered sugar. If the icing is too thick add more warm water.
- Add dye to create desired color(s).
- Yes, the icing recipe is really this simple.
Pro tip: If you need white frosting, take that out and bag it first. Then mix in the dye for your next lightest color. Continue mixing colors over top of each other. For example I mixed white, then light orange, then dark orange, then brown. This was all with the same white starting color and added dye for each different color I wanted to the same mixing bowl.
I find that the right tools make this baking process a lot easier- and quicker! For both the cookie recipe and the icing recipe, hand mixing is not going to get the consistency you want. To achieve smooth dough and icing, I recommend the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6 Quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer. Normally this mixer costs about $400 but through the eBay refurbished program you can get one for about $220. To make it even sweeter the item comes with up to a 2 year warranty. That’s great savings for an item that will literally last you decades! (I know this from personal experience as my mom has had her KitchenAid mixer for about 35 years!). Another tool you need to have for this is a rolling pin. There is no way to get the dough the right thickness without rolling it out. And if you do not roll it out there is no point of freezing the dough…which will lead to your shapes spreading in the oven. And the last tool I recommend is a scribe. Without this little piece of metal it’s basically impossible to flood the cookies correctly and get a nice even texture.
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