The Perfect Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Amazing for those holiday cookie cutters you’ve been dying to use!
Your Cookie Ingredients:
2 ½ sticks (20tbsp) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 C sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 C AP flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp fine salt
Bake it!
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together butter & sugar using a hand mixer or a wooden spoon
Mix in the egg, egg yolk & vanilla until well combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder & salt.
Add half dry mixture to the butter mixture and gently mix until flour is just about absorbed. Then add the remainder of the dry mixture and mix until just combined.
Working with about 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface (ensuring your rolling pin is also lightly floured).
Roll to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut using your holiday cutters and transfer to the prepared tray.
Bake for 11-13 minutes. Since all ovens vary start your timer with 10 minutes and see how they look. These cookies are done when they are barely golden brown on the edges.
Allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes and transfer to a baking rack to finish cooling. Decorate as desired.
Your Icing Ingredients:
1 and ½ cup (180g) powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons (30mL) warm water
½ Tablespoon (10g) light corn syrup
⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract (you can use almond extract instead if you prefer!)
Mix it & Decorate!
In a small bowl, combine warm water, light corn syrup, and extract. Stir until corn syrup is dissolved.
Add liquid mixture to powdered sugar and stir until completely combined. Mixture will be thick. The consistency you want is a slowly dripping icing that disappears into the bowl within about 12 seconds. Add water by drop if you think it's too thick. If it becomes too thin, add more powdered sugar by the teaspoon.
If using different colors, separate into bowls, color with food coloring, and spoon/pour into piping bags.
Once your cookies are cooled completely, snip you piping bags and decorate to your heart’s content!
TIP: Outline the area you’re filling with a thin line of icing, allow a minute or two to dry, and then fill in the area - the outline will act as a boundary to hold your icing in place while it dries!
