Butter Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

The cookies I decorated

We have a neighbor, Ann,  who has a cottage cookie business out of her home. We recently arranged for a group cookie decorating lesson from her and had a lot of fun.

When we'd arrived, the cookies were already made and ready to decorate. She had 5 different colored bags of royal icing she'd made for each of us. 

Of course I had mixer envy. This one means business

Table set for our class

Cookies ready to decorate

We started practicing by piping the icing onto a printed piece of paper, then went to the cookies. This was intricate work and took a fair bit of time for each cookie.

Ann didn't share her cookie recipe, but gave some insight that she modified it from Lolly's Home Kitchen.

Lolly's Sugar Cookies

Mix one cup of salted butter and one cup of regular granulated sugar until it’s fluffy and well-incorporated

Add 1tbsp of pure vanilla extract (Ann recommends half this amt if Mexican vanilla)

 ½ tsp of salt,

½ tbsp of almond flavoring (McCormick’s imitation)

1 egg into the butter-sugar mixture

Gradually add 3-4 cups of flour into the mixture until it cleans up the sides of the mixing bowl

Roll dough to 3/8” thickness using rolling pin with washers in between 2 pieces of parchment or a baking mat. Cut out cookies on the parchment and use the parchment to lift the cookies up to place them on the baking sheet. Chill the cut out cookies in the freezer for 15 - 20 min prior to baking.

Bake 10 to 12 minute at 375 degrees- don't allow them to brown too much.

Makes 3 dozen regular sized cookies

Lolly's Royal Icing

¾ c warm or hot water

1/3 c plus 1 Tbsp Miracle merengue powder

2 Tbsp clear vanilla (Ann uses almond extract instead)

Mix these 3 ingredients

2 lbs of powdered sugar

Start mixing on low, then add 1-2 Tbsp corn syrup

Mix on high 5 min to stiff peaks