Eat * Bake

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's December and that means it is time to put on your elastic waist pants and eat eat away! Okay, i'm kidding. Really, please don't listen to me because I don't want to be the source of the amount of sugar that's in your blood. But these cookies might just do it!

I spent basically a day filled with baking and icing these babies and let me tell you, I had a ball. Nothing quite as soothing as getting lost in a creative process. So if you have the desire to try your hand at icing some sugar cookies for Christmas, or really, any other festive holiday, the Royal Icing recipe I used was brilliant, especially for a first timer like myself.

Ingredients for Sugar Cookies (1 batch):

90g soft unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Royal Icing (makes enough icing for 3 - 4 batches of the sugar cookie recipe)

3/4 cup of warm water
5 tablespoons meringue powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 kg powdered icing sugar
Food colouring of choice

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards mousiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, mix gently. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add flour sparingly. Form into a ball, press down into a fat disc and wrap in clingfilm, rest in the fridge for at least an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place dough on it and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/2cm. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on a lined baking tin.
3. Bake for 8 - 12 minutes. When they are ready, expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges. They'll be soft still in the middle, but will set while they cool on a wire rack.
4. Meanwhile, in a mixer bowl, pour in warm water and meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened for about 30 seconds.
5. Add cream of tartar and mix for another 30seconds. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on the lowest speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes till the icing gets thick and creamy.
6. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea towel to prevent crusting or drying. Tint with food colouring.
7. Use the 10 second rule to test if the icing is too thin or thick. Simply draw a knife through the icing and count till ten. If the icing smooths out the line before 10 seconds, it is too runny and you will need to add extra icing sugar. If it fills in within the 10 seconds, it should be good enough to ice. Remember, if the icing is too runny, you will end up having a messy cookie. If it is too thick, you can add warm water to reach the desired consistency. Have fun!

Click here to see a cool method of icing cookies.