Sugar Cookies Iced with Royal Icing

My friend Billie invited me over to ice some Sugar Cookies with her & a few other people! I was thrilled to be invited & eager to go! 

I make Sugar Cookies a few times a year… & I ice them but not usually the way Billie decorates her cookies. She uses a royal icing that hardens & can be used to make the most beautiful cookies.

Billie was making some cookies for a bridal shower, her daughter was there making some Christmas cookies & another friend of Billie’s was there also making cookies for a bridal shower as well! All the cookies were so beautiful. 

I got there & Billie had everything set out & organized!!! I was going to make Chanukah cookies, so she had a couple sheets of pictures of decorated Chanukah cookies that she Goggled for my reference….. an icing bag with blue icing & another bag with white icing.! Wow, I was so impressed & happy!!!

Here is a recipe for Sugar Cookies from Norene Gilletz…THE PLEASURES OF YOUR PROCESSOR by NORENE GILLETZ.. this recipe is non-dairy & so is the icing… which is good if that is important to you. This cookie recipe is good without the royal icing also…you can sprinkle them with sugar before baking, make any icing you want.. I usually use one with corn syrup & icing sugar …

I will also give you the recipe for the Royal Icing that Billie gave me to share with you. The icing was easy to work with.. A tip for the icing … the icing gets hard quickly so it can harden in the end of the icing tip which is annoying to fix..so, if you put a damp pepper towel in the bottom of a glass & keep the icing bags there when not in use, the tip stays open! GREAT TIP!

Here is the recipe for the cookies, from Norene Gilletz

Ingredients

For the Cookies

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup orange juice or water

2 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

For the Royal Icing

3 tbsp meringue powder

1/4 cup water + more for thinning the icing 

4 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

gel food colouring in desired colours…i use Wilton colours

Method

Preheat oven to 375f

You will need baking sheets lined with parchment paper, a rolling pin & cookie cutters

 These are mixed in a food processor but you can use a mixer if you do not have a food processor

You will need pipping bags & #2 size pipping tips…each colour needs its own icing bag…

Making the Cookies

1. In the bowl of the processor, mix the eggs with the sugar, oil & juice until well blended.
2. Add the baking powder & flour
3. Process until just mixed
4. Take the dough out of the processor & divide it into 4 pieces…form into balls & flatten them a bit…this makes it easier to start rolling them
5. Lightly flour a surface that you will roll your cookies on & lightly flour your rolling pin
6. Roll one ball at a time, roll into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick… 
7. Cut the cookies into desired shapes 
8. If you are not going to ice the cookies, you can dip these into granulated sugar! Put them sugar side up onto the cookie sheets
9. Put the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets & bake for 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown around the edges
10. Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack before icing

Making the Icing

While the cookies are cooling you can mix the icing, but this icing dries out very quickly so you should colour it with food colouring in your desired colours & then put them into piping bags right away…and as I mentioned above… put some wet paper towels in the bottom of some drinking glasses & put the filled piping bags into the glasses with the tips on the wet paper towels… This icing has to be mixed with a mixer… stand mixer or you could use a hand mixer…not the food processor

1. In the bowl of a mixer, mix the meringue poser with the 1/4 cup water until a slight foam forms. 
2. Add the powdered sugar & mix until this becomes light & airy, about 2 minutes…If this is too thick you can add more water but do it very gradually since you can’t go back if the water is too watery! So add water about a teaspoon at a time, mixing & checking consistency… you might need to add up to 1/8 cup of water Billie says!
3. Put the icing into separate small bowls… a bowl for every colour you want…mix the colours …when you use the gel food colouring, add the colour with a toothpick, using a new toothpick every time you dip into the food colouring..not getting icing in there
4. Mix the colour & the icing
5. Fill your icing bags with the icing
6. If you do not know how to use icing bags & icing tips, go to this link to see how to fill a cookie with rosy icing. On the  Wilton Website there are a lot of resources for you 
7. Decorate your cookies any way you want! If you are going to add icing on top of icing, you have to let the first layer dry a bit so they the icing does not run… and then, let your cookies dry before stacking them or storing them! 
8. Thesecookies can be frozen once completely dry

• For ideas on how to ice the cookies go to Pinterest…there are tons of pictures. Here is the link

I don’t have any picture of baking the cookies… but they are really simple… if you want some help just get in touch with me…