Spring-themed sugar cookies (such as bunny, carrot, duck, egg and butterfly shapes) welcome the season. Paste food colouring works best for creating pastel hues. Go for multicoloured polka-dots or choose just one colour and white. You'll need many piping bags, but if you have only one, use plastic sandwich bags, cutting away a corner tip of each to pipe through.
- Portion size 32 servings
- Credits : Canadian Living Magazine
Ingredients
Royal Icing:
Method
In large bowl and using fingertips, rub sugar with lemon zest until combined. Beat in butter until fluffy. Beat in egg and lemon juice. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; stir into butter mixture. Divide in half; wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.On lightly floured surface, roll out half of the dough to 1/4-inch (5 mm) thickness. Using about 3-inch (8 cm) spring-themed cookie cutters; cut out cookies, rerolling and cutting scraps.
Arrange, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart, on parchment paper–lined baking sheet; bake in 375ºF (190ºC) oven until edges are light golden, about 10 minutes. Let cool on rack. Repeat with remaining dough.
Royal Icing: In large bowl, beat egg whites until foamy, 30 to 60 seconds. Beat in sugar, 1 cup at a time, until thickened and glossy, 6 to 8 minutes. Divide among 6 bowls. Cover each with damp paper towel to prevent drying out.
Using food colouring, tint 5 of the bowls to desired pastel shades, leaving 1 white. Place half of each of the icings in separate small piping bags fitted with small plain tips. Adding a drop of water at a time, thin remaining icings in bowls until consistency of maple syrup.
For each cookie, pipe outline of thick icing around edge; let dry, about 5 minutes. Spoon or brush thinned icing of same colour onto cookie to cover; let stand until icing is firm but not completely set, about 1 minute.
Using thick icing, pipe polka-dots onto cookies. (Make-ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 5 days.)
Nutritional facts Per cookie: about
- Sodium 40 mg
- Sugars 14 g
- Protein 2 g
- Calories 129.0
- Total fat 4 g
- Potassium 17 mg
- Cholesterol 16 mg
- Saturated fat 3 g
- Total carbohydrate 21 g
%RDI
- Iron 4.0
- Folate 9.0
- Calcium 1.0
- Vitamin A 4.0
