Hours later I found myself elbow deep in flour and forrest green frosting on my cat's paws and as a result splattered on surfaces all over the house. It was all worth it though because I have found THE PERFECT sugar cookie for decorating. And although I do have a little experience baking, I certainly didn't think I would be capable of whipping up beautiful iced cookies that require time and effort.
So I bring to you the best sugar cookie that a) keeps it shape when baked, b) is delicious and soft, c) makes a shit ton of dough that can be split into two and frozen for last minute times when your mother-in-law, neighbour, or coworker stops in to say hello. Oh and I also can't forget if you don't want to go all Julia Child during the busy Christmas months because you have better things to do (e.g. criminal minds marathon) then don't fret because these cookies are equally as good without the icing. I made some when we had people over watching Love Actually and I think I stuffed about 10 in my mouth during the intense scene where Colin Firth is searching for the Portuguese women in her home town...... #stresseater
The original recipe comes from Rose Bakes but I omitted the almond extract for two reasons, the first time I made these cookies I was oblivious to the fact that I owned almond extract and the second time when I added almond extract my roommates and I agreed that we liked it better without.
Ingredients- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk (KEEP the egg white for the icing)
- ¾ tsp vanilla
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Directions
✿ Cream together the butter, sugar, and salt in a mixer until the mixture becomes light and fluffy.
✿ Next, add the egg yolk, mix a little and then add in the other whole egg. Mix in the vanilla.
✿ Add the sifted flour and mix until well-combined.
✿ Now the next step is really important!! Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour. I often do it the night before and then make the cookies the next morning to break up the baking process (cause I'm an old lady and sometimes I get tired baking). Or if you're in a big rush just pop the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes.
✿ When you're ready to bake the cookies let the dough come to room temperature for at least 10 minutes, then knead it to make it smooth.
✿ Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Sprinkle some flour on your rolling surface and roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness.
✿ Use cookie cutters to cut out your desired holiday shapes! Then place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
✿ This next step is also really important, place the cookies on the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will make sure that the cookies keep their shape.
✿ Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on the size and shape of your cookies, but keep checking to make sure they haven't started to brown around the edges.
✿ Let them cool for a while before starting to ice them!!
Now for the icing I put on my lab coat and started coming up with royal icing recipes.
Ingredients
- 3 tsp water
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 egg white
- 2 cups of sifted powdered icing sugar
Directions
You have a couple of different icing options depending on how much time and effort you want to commit to these cookies. I have tried all three options and they are all tasty, so no judgement if you're opting for the easy way out.
Option 1
The easiest option would be to say forget it and eat the cookies without any icing.
Option 2
The other option would be to make one batch of white edging icing with the ingredients above, which makes a stiff consistency that is pictured in the snowflake cookies I have pictured here. I then got some coloured sugar at Bulk Barn, sprinkled it on, and called it a day!
Option 3
The most time consuming option is to make two different icing consistencies: One thicker batch for the contour of the cookie and a thinner batch to "flood" the interior. This is if you want your cookies to look really snazzy like the one's you'd see in a bakery around Christmas.
✿ Edging
With an electric mixer beat together the lemon juice and egg white, and then add in the icing sugar. Then, one teaspoon at a time, add in the water. This icing should be fairly thick because it is going to be the walls that keep the runnier icing from flooding over the sides of the cookies.You can add colouring to the icing now. My favourite icing colouring are the Wilton gel icing colours because a little goes a long way. Once you have added your colours beat away to incorporate one consistent colour!
Now you're ready to pipe the outline of the cookie. I used this tutorial to guide me through and it helped a lot!
✿ Flooding
Next, keep adding water to the leftover coloured icing to thin it out. This should be a couple extra teaspoons and it should be runny.
Then fill a squirt bottle with the flooding icing and fill in the edges of your edging. Tap the cookie a couple times to pop any air bottles and then let the icing set before adding any detailing.
And there you go! Perfect cookies.
If you have any questions about this process just comment below because it can be quite finicky but once you've got the hang of it, it's super easy.
You can check out the rest of my cookie guide here.
Merry Christmas lovelies!!
