I need much, much more practice with royal icing. I did a little better this time, but it’s an art to get it perfectly smooth.
I used a classic butter cookie recipe, rolled slightly thick, to make cute flying pig cookies. I started with the wings – plain royal icing, which is pure white, topped with edible glitter. The body of the pig was more challenging – flooding is not too bad, but getting the icing to merge nicely with the border isn’t easy.
The best part of these cookies is that they taste great. They’re buttery and not too sweet, and tender without being crumbly.
Basic Butter Cookie Dough
Source: Fine Cooking #12, December 1995/January 1996
Yields about 6 dozen 2-inch cookies.
Ingredients
8 oz. (16 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened
4 1â„2 oz. (1 cup) confectioners’ sugar, sifted after measuring
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1â„4 tsp. almond extract
10 1â„2 oz. (2 1â„3 cups) all-purpose flour
1â„2 tsp. salt
Directions
Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer or a wooden spoon until well blended. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. Sift the flour with the salt; gradually add the flour to the butter mixture until you have a firm but silky dough that does not stick to your hands. If necessary, add more flour a little at a time until you’ve reached the right consistency. Chill the dough for at least an hour before rolling and shaping.
Heat the oven to 350°F. Divide the dough in half. Roll each piece between sheets of waxed paper to about 1â„4 inch thick. Lightly dust the dough with flour. If the dough becomes sticky, chill it for about 10 min. Press the dough with cookie cutters. (If mailing, keep the shapes simple.) Reroll the scraps and cut more shapes. Repeat the process with the second half of the dough.
Bake the cookies until they turn light brown, 10 to 12 min. Remove from the baking sheet immediately and cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled, decorate with royal icing or other decorations, if desired.
Royal Icing
Because it becomes quite stiff, this icing works well on cookies that are to be shipped. Yields 1â„2 cup.
1 large egg white
1â„4 tsp. cream of tartar
4 1â„2 oz. (1 cup) confectioners’ sugar, sifted after measuring
Beat the egg white until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and the confectioners’ sugar, a little at a time, beating until the mixture forms soft peaks. The icing dries quickly, so keep it covered with a wet cloth until ready to use; it will hold about 12 hours covered this way. Pipe the icing on the cookies using various small pastry tubes.
- Classic Butter Cookies (Fine Cooking #12, December 1995/January 1996, p. 34)
Adorable!