First, I made a batch of sugar cookies. Again, I chose to stick with Sweet Sugar Belle’s recipe. It doesn’t require refrigeration after dough preparation and has worked consistently for her after years of experience. So, why mess with a sure thing? Experience is the best teacher.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Line cookie pan(s) with parchment paper, or silpat.In stand mixer, with paddle attachment, cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Don’t take shortcuts. What I mean by that is don’t try to soften the butter in the microwave. It will change the texture of the dough. Wait for the butter to reach room temperature (2 to 3 hours); or cut into small pieces and wait 30 to 45 minutes.
Crack the egg in a separate bowl (don’t whisk), and add the flavoring extract.
Add that to the creamed butter sugar mixture. Mix until the egg is completely incorporated. In separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture. The dough is done when most of it sticks to the paddle, has some give to it, but is not sticky on your fingers. The dough will need to rest a little after mixing to firm up a bit (1 to 2 minutes should suffice).
The Peeps cookie cutters are available on the Peeps website, Wilton and other on-line sites. I bought mine through eBay (to save a little cash).
Roll dough out on parchment paper to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Use flour for dusting, as necessary. Apparently there are “sizers” available for your rolling pin (told you I was a rookie). Not having sizers, Mike made me two flat dowels, each 1/4-inch in height, so I could roll over the dowels with my rolling pin to ensure a uniform cookie height of 1/4-inch. Pic below should give you an idea. (Again, my instructions are not as thorough as Sweet Sugar Belle’s. She covers everything in more detail in different areas of her blog.)
Use cookie cutter to cut dough shapes. Try to get as many Peeps as possible on rolled dough. Re-roll dough as necessary to get as many cookies as possible. Bake at 400° for 7 to 8 minutes. If you’re unsure of your oven’s precise temp, use an oven thermometer. If cookies start to brown, you’ve kept them in too long. This is a trial and error process and precision is key to perfect results. The cookies will "spread" a little, but not a lot. You'll still be able to achieve desired cookie cutter shape.
Remove cookies from oven when done and “let sit” on cookie sheet for about 4 hours before removing. Cookies are very fragile and will break if touched too early. (So if you’re making more than 2 trays of cookies, make sure you have ample cookie pans available.)
After cookies have rested about 4 hours, transfer to an air-tight container. Do NOT attempt to decorate until “at least” the next day. Oil from the cookies will leach into the icing if you try to decorate on the same day. Day-old cookies are less likely to leach back.
Now, if you think that was cumbersome, get ready for day 2! I apologize, but from this point on, you won't get as many "step by step" photos as I usually provide. It was too difficult to take pictures during this portion of prep.  |
| The bag of powdered sugar in photo is 7 pounds (as I buy in bulk), but I weighed out 2 pounds for recipe. |
Tip: If you are looking for a "quicker," easier icing method: purchase some decorating icing, with tips already attached. Use that to ice your cookies, then just sprinkle with sanding sugar.Make sure your stand mixer equipment is clean, dry and oil-free. Oil is the worst enemy of Royal Icing. You will be using the paddle attachment. Again, I am going by Sweet Belle’s learning experience. She recommends a paddle over the whisk attachment.
Begin by stirring the extract (extract must be oil free) into “half” of the water, in small separate bowl. Pour the balance of the water into a spray bottle. This is another good tip provided. When you are close to getting the right consistency on the icing, spritzing the water into the icing (instead of pouring) helps to eliminate the failure of adding too much water and having to start over again.
Gently mix the sugar and meringue powders in bowl of stand mixer. Pre-sifting the sugar is not necessary. I used a wooden spoon rather the paddle attachment, as even at the lowest speed, I would have gotten a “powder” dust cloud all over my kitchen if I tried to mix with stand mixer.
With the mixer on its lowest setting, slowly add the water/flavoring mixture to the dry ingredients. The icing will become thick and lumpy as water is added.
Using the remaining water in the spray bottle, continue to spritz water until the mixture reaches a thick, honey-like consistency. Increase mixer speed to medium and whip 2 to 4 minutes, until icing is thick and fluffy. Stop when icing is thin enough to form a soft peak.
Here's where I started getting frazzled, had time constraints, and started scrimping on photos. Depending on the different colors you will need for cookie decorations, portion out your icing into measuring cups or small bowls. Add desired amount of food coloring until you achieve the color you are looking for. If icing starts to thicken during this process, just spritz with additional water and stir to mix. I’m not going to go into all the specifics on achieving piping and flooding consistency on the colored icing. Sweet Belle does it so much better than I can. The first step is take that bowl of colored icing, spritz it with water until it is “piping” consistency. It needs to be thin enough to flow through a #2 decorating icing tip without breaking up when piping, but not so thin that it will overflow onto the edges of the cookie. You will be outlining the shape of the cookie, and the piping will work as a “dam” to contain the flooding icing later.
Transfer some of the icing into icing bag with #2 tip. Working in one steady, continuous movement, outline the cookies. When cookies are outlined with piping icing, you are ready to flood.
Go back to remaining colored icing in bowl. Again with spray bottle, spritz the colored icing with water, until you achieve a “flooding” consistency. This will be thinner than a piping consistency, but not so thin that it will “flow” over the outline you just created. If you are a novice, like me, you’ll probably mess up on a few cookies along the way, until you are able to determine the consistencies that work best.
Transfer this thinner icing into a decorator bag with #2 tip. Flood the cookies (fill the area of the cookie within the outline) with the icing. Using a small spatula, spread the icing carefully across the cookie, without letting it go over the “piping dam.” By using a spatula to spread the icing, you will also be able to eliminate air bubbles on the finished iced cookie. Work quickly, as you will need the flooded icing to still be wet enough for the sanding sugar to adhere to.
Over wax paper, sprinkle sanding sugar over top of cookie. Let set for a few minutes to adhere to icing, before gently shaking off excess. The leftover sanding sugar on the wax paper can be funneled back into the container, for less waste of the sugar.
If using more than one color for your cookies, you will have to repeat above steps – coloring, piping and flooding for each color you use in your design. When all cookies have been iced and decorated with icing sugar; wait about 30 minutes or so, before adding facial features.
Still using original batch of Royal Icing, scoop out enough to use for putting facial features on all of your cookies. Transfer to a small bowl, spritz with enough water to get a consistency somewhere between piping and flooding. Add enough food coloring to try to achieve a dark brown (or even black) color. This will be for the eyes and nose. Transfer the icing to a pastry bag, again using a #2 decorating tip. Quickly add eyes and nose to each of the Peeps cookies. I had a difficult time trying to get the icing “eyes” to adhere to the sanding sugar. I had to use a toothpick to “burrow” out the area for the facial features, then pipe in the icing in those burrows for it to stay put.
Let cookies rest for a while, so icing facial features have time to fully dry. After decorated, cookies should be consumed within 2 to 3 days (so don’t ice until you are ready to distribute). Cookies without icing can be stored for much longer (up to a week) without losing their soft texture. Freezing not recommended. In the meantime, have fun cleaning up the “tornado” mess that all this left behind!
When icing facial features are fully dry, carefully store the cookies in air-tight containers. Because of the sanding sugar, you may have to store in different containers (one for each color cookie).
I only ended up with about 16 cookies out of this whole process. That was more than what we needed, and ample enough to give me a new “learning” experience in the kitchen. Now grab that glass of wine (I talked about above) and rejoice!!!!! Mission accomplished.
There are numerous other tips and tricks available over at Sweet Sugar Belle.
BASIC SUGAR COOKIE
Source: Sweet Sugar Belle
Posted by: www.meldingmagic.com
INGREDIENTS:- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temp
- 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 to 3 teaspoons flavoring extract (I used 2-1/2 teaspoons Almond extract)
- 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt (or less if your prefer)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line cookie pan(s) with parchment paper, or silpat.
2. In stand mixer, with paddle attachment, cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar.
3. Crack the egg in a separate bowl (don’t whisk), and add the flavoring extract.
4. Add that to the creamed butter sugar mixture. Mix until the egg is completely incorporated.
5. In separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
6. Gradually add to the creamed mixture. The dough is done when most of it sticks to the paddle, has
some give to it, but is not sticky on your fingers. The dough will need to rest a little after mixing to firm
up a bit (1 to 2 minutes should suffice).
7. Roll dough out on parchment paper to about 1/4 of an inch thick. Use flour for dusting, as necessary.
Use cookie cutter to cut dough shapes. Re-roll dough as necessary to get as many cookies as possible.
8. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes.
9. Remove cookies from oven when done and “let sit” on cookie sheet for about 4 hours before
removing. Cookies are very fragile and will break if touched too early. After cookies have rested about
4 hours, transfer to an air-tight container. Do NOT attempt to decorate until “at least” the next day.
Oil from the cookies will leach into the icing if you try to decorate on the same day. Day-old cookies
are less likely to leach back.
ROYAL ICING & DECORATING INSTRUCTIONS
Source: Sweet Sugar Belle
Posted by: www.meldingmagic.com
Tip: If you are looking for a "quicker," easier icing method: purchase some decorating icing, with tips already attached. Use that to ice your cookies, then just sprinkle with sanding sugar.
INGREDIENTS:- 2 pounds (1 standard size bag) powdered sugar
- 5 Tablespoons meringue powder
- 2 to 3 teaspoons oil-free extract (I used 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon almond extract)
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water
- Sanding sugar, assorted colors of your choice
DIRECTIONS:
1. In small bowl, or measuring cup, stir the extract flavoring into half of the water. Pour remaining water
in spray bottle to add gradually later in the process.
2. Gently mix the sugar and meringue powders in bowl of stand mixer. Pre-sifting the sugar is not
necessary.
3. With the mixer on its lowest setting, slowly add the water/flavoring mixture to the dry ingredients.
The icing will become thick and lumpy as water is added.
4. Using the remaining water in the spray bottle, continue to spritz water until the mixture reaches a
thick, honey-like consistency. Increase mixer speed to medium and whip 2 to 4 minutes, until icing is
thick and fluffy. Stop when icing is thin enough to form a soft peak.
5. Depending on the different colors you will need for cookie decorations, portion out your icing into
measuring cups or small bowls. Add desired amount of food coloring until you achieve the color you
are looking for. The first step is take that bowl of colored icing, spritz it with water until it is “piping”
consistency. It needs to be thin enough to flow through a #2 decorating icing tip without breaking up
when piping, but not so thin that it will overflow onto the edges of the cookie. You will be outlining
the shape of the cookie, and the piping will work as a “dam” to contain the flooding icing later.
Transfer some of the icing into icing bag with #2 tip. Working in one steady, continuous movement,
outline the cookies. When cookies are outlined with piping icing, you are ready to flood.
6. Go back to remaining colored icing in bowl. Again with spray bottle, spritz the colored icing with
water, until you achieve a “flooding” consistency. This will be thinner than a piping consistency, but
not so thin that it will “flow” over the outline you just created.
7. Transfer this thinner icing into a decorator bag with #2 tip. Flood the cookies (fill the area of the
cookie within the outline) with the icing. Using a small spatula, spread the icing carefully across the
cookie, without letting it go over the “piping dam.”
8. Over wax paper, sprinkle sanding sugar over top of cookie. Let set for a few minutes to adhere to
icing, before gently shaking off excess.
9. If using more than one color for your cookies, you will have to repeat above steps – coloring, piping
and flooding for each color you use in your design. When all cookies have been iced and decorated
with icing sugar; wait about 30 minutes or so, before adding facial features.
10. Still using original batch of Royal Icing, scoop out enough to use for putting facial features on all of
your cookies. Transfer to a small bowl, spritz with enough water to get a consistency somewhere
between piping and flooding. Add enough food coloring to try to achieve a dark brown (or even
black) color. This will be for the eyes and nose. Transfer the icing to a pastry bag, again using a #2
decorating tip. Quickly add eyes and nose to each of the Peeps cookies.
11. Let cookies rest for a while, so icing facial features have time to fully dry. After decorated, cookies
should be consumed within 2 to 3 days (so don’t ice until you are ready to distribute). Cookies
without icing can be stored for much longer (up to a week) without losing their soft texture. Freezing
not recommended. When icing facial features are fully dry, carefully store the cookies in air-tight
containers. Because of the sanding sugar, you may have to store in different containers (one for each
color cookie).
