Best Ever Cut-Out Cookies with Royal Icing

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is plowing in like a runaway train, and at the last minute this week I had to prepare a giant cookie tray for my daughter’s holiday party at school.  Typically this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but things have been so busy that I didn’t have time to whip up multiple cookie recipes for the tray.  I did consider bringing in a few packs of Christmas themed Oreos from the gas station, but didn’t want the class moms to get all judgy that the baking blogger brought Oreos…  I’m sorry but Oreos rock. Oh, the horror.  So instead, I decided to bake one cut-out cookie recipe and used the best-ever royal icing recipe to decorate the cookies in different shapes and sizes.  Ta-daa!

I took the tray into the school this morning and one of my friends started commenting about the cookies.  She was telling me that she had tried so many different cut-out cookie recipes, but never found “the one.”  Some are flaky, some are dry and chalky, and some blow up like enormously fat versions of the shapes you so carefully cut out. Been there!  Additionally, she said that she has seen tons of pretty royal icing cookie decorations on Instagram that look so great, but making royal icing seems difficult.  Well, if you are like my friend and so many others, this post is for you.  After thousands of cookies, countless recipe tweaks, and loads of epic fails, I have FINALLY put together the only cut-out cookie and royal icing recipes you will ever need.  Merry Christmas.

Start with our cut-out cookie recipe:

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Best Ever Cut-Out Cookies - The Only Cut-Out Recipe You'll Ever Need.

Ingredients

• 1 cup room temperature butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Combine sugar and butter.

2. Add eggs and combine.

3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to the mixture and combine.

4. Add vanilla and milk.

5. Place the cookie dough on wax paper and let sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of one hour.

6. Once chilled, roll out onto a floured surface and cut into shapes.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

8. Place on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

9. Once cooled, decorate with royal icing or glaze.

Now for the royal icing.

Okay so I have experimented with different ways to make royal icing for years.  For the most part, I have used our simple royal icing recipe which works great if you prefer to avoid egg whites.  However,  last night I went rogue.  I decided to use pasturized egg whites, (Egg Beaters) instead of meringue powder, and oh my goodness, it made all the difference!  The icing was easy to work with, and dried a little smoother and more opaque than the previous recipe that I had always used.  And while I would love to whip up a professional looking recipe for you guys for this royal icing, it’s just not that complicated.  Ready?  Here goes.

Royal Icing:

1 box of confectioner’s sugar (1 lb. box like this one from Domino)

Dump your confectioner’s sugar in a mixer or large bowl.  I know you should sift it, but I didn’t have time to and it was totally fine.  Don’t tell Martha.

Next, start adding your Egg Beaters to the bowl of sugar one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you need.  Thicker icing is best for boarders, and thinner icing is best for flooding the cookies.

Add a tablespoon of lime juice.

Add food coloring and stir.

Put icing in a piping bag with a small piping tip, and decorate.

Crickets…….  yep, that’s it.  I know that cookies with royal icing look fancy and complicated, but they really aren’t.  Here is a peek at the ones we made.

In the end, I suppose I’m glad I made these cookies instead of opting for the gas station Oreos. If anything, my daughter was so proud of the cool cookies that she helped make, and you guys that was absolutely worth everything. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and happy baking!