Growing up, my family held cookie decorating contests for just about every holiday. With an assortment of colored icings and sprinkles the whole family would sit around the table to showcase their talents.
With that, and just in time for the holidays, here is my cut out sugar cookie and icing recipe. This icing dries shiny in a few hours and is much less complicated than royal icing, making it easier to whip up more batches as needed. While it does not harden to a candy-like texture, it does harden enough to stack and bag.
With that being said, gather the family 'round and commence the cookie decorating wars!
SUGAR COOKIES WITH GLAZE ICING
INGREDIENTS:
for the sugar cookies:
3 cups AP flour
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks room temperature, unsalted butter (1 cup)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
cookie cutters
for the icing:
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp. whole milk
1 ½ tbsp. light corn syrup
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Gel food coloring, optional
INSTRUCTIONS:
for the sugar cookies:
dry ingredients-
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
cream butter and sugar:
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl twice throughout to ensure all of the ingredients are being incorporated. The mixture should be light and creamy.
In a small dish, whisk together the egg and vanilla extract.
Gradually add the egg mixture to the butter and sugar mixture while beating, until combined- about 1 minute.
Place the mixer on low speed and gradually add in the sifted flour mixture and beat until clumps of cookie dough have begun to form.
Dust the top of the dough with a sprinkle of flour and then use your hands to gather the dough and knead for 10-20 seconds until the dough comes together as one. Then, shape the dough into a disk.
Wrap the dough in saranwrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Prepping the dough for rolling: I like to pull my dough out of the fridge an hour before I intend on rolling it out, so that it can soften and then zap the whole thing in the microwave for about 10 seconds which gives it a good rolling consistency. However, if you do not have the time before and you find that the dough is as hard as a rock, quarter it and microwave each section for about 5-8 seconds to soften it a little. The dough should not be very soft, just soft enough to roll out. You will still need to apply pressure when rolling it out.
Dust a rolling pen and your work space with a bit of flour and roll the dough out until it is about a 1/4 of an inch thick.
Cut out as many cookies as you can and place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
Gather the remaining pieces of dough into a ball and re-roll it. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes, turning the cookie sheet halfway through.
Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5-7 minutes.
Once slightly cooled, use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before icing.
for the icing:
In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla. If the icing is too thick, add in the additional tablespoon of milk and stir.
If coloring the icing with multiple colors, divide the icing into separate bowls and color as desired.
At this point, you can either transfer the icing to a piping bag or simply dip them into the bowls to get a full coat and begin decorating.
Enjoy!
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