Foodie Friday (Christmas Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing)

Every Christmas for as long as I can remember my grandmother has made her famous "Santa Cookies" and in fact, the last time I was at her house two or so week's ago, she had her apron on and was icing cookies. So, in the Christmas spirit of my cookie-baking grandmother, I thought I'd try my hand at it. Two sugar cookie recipes and three batches of Royal icing plus icing bags and squeeze bottles, food coloring, decorator tips and endless research has led to lots of Christmas goodies.

 

This came from Betty Crocker's Best of Christmas Cookbook.

Melt-in-Your-Mouth-Sugar Cookies

Prep: 25 mins.; Chill: 2 hrs; Bake: 8 min per sheet; Cool: 30 mins

Makes about 5 dozen

 

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 

Beat powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and egg in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed or mix with a spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours.

 

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease the cookie sheet. Divide dough in half. Roll each half 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

 

Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool completely. Then proceed with the decorating.

 

Note: I will say this -- Make sure you put in the cream of tartar. I didn't and I had a sticky mess but I got through it by adding more flour while rolling the dough out. You can live without the almond extract if you don't have any. Some people like lemon in their sugar cookies. I just stuck with the vanilla. I don't think I got 5 dozen cookies but that depends on the size of your cookie cutters.  

Now, the challenge -- Royal Icing. This recipe comes from Sweetopia. I looked at several recipes and all are basically the same.

Royal Icing
3/4 cup warm water
5 tablespoons of meringue powder
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2.25 lbs. of powdered sugar

Hand whisk water and meringue powder for 30 seconds; add cream of tartar and whisk for 30 seconds; and finally add all the powder sugar and use the electric with paddles and slow mix for 10 mins. Separate and tint with food coloring. To prevent drying, place a damp towel over the bowl to prevent drying out.

Notes: In this state, you should be able to remove the paddle and turn it upright and a stiff peak (like pie meringue). This is the perfect consistency for outlining your cookies with your icing bags and tips (No. 2 tip). And once that's done, don't touch your cookies.

About 30 mins. later, you can fill them in but you need to thin your icing a little. Do this in 1/2 teaspoon increments.  Bake at 350 has a great post on this.

And you get this....

And the final result...

If you don't like crispy, crunchy cookies, I suggest using this recipe for Sour Cream Sugar Cookies. It makes a lot of cookies. You've been warned!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and fun making cookies. My sister, niece and I are going to be decorating some on Monday. She's almost 2 so it's going to be interesting.