Buttery and lightly sweet, these butter cookies have a crisp and crumbly shortbread texture. One cut out and baked, they're ready to decorate with royal icing. The Brown's royal icing is the perfect consistency for piping. It can easily be colored or thinned to flood for decorating. Have fun making these using different cookie cutters and colors of royal icing. My mother-in-law used to make these cookies every Christmas. She gave me her recipe back in 1988. Sadly, she passed away in 1993. I waited until last year to try them myself. Not sure why. They are very tasty and fun to make. I've used this recipe on Halloween as well. I'm sure any holiday or even just because would work, too. There was no yield on this recipe, but my guess is between 4-6 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.
Ingredients :
- FOR COOKIES
- 1 pound(s) butter
- softened
- 1 cup(s) granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
- 4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
- FOR DECORATOR'S ICING
- 1 pound(s) powdered sugar
- 3 - pasteurized egg whites (from a carton)
- 1/2 teaspoon(s) cream of tartar
Intructions :
- FOR COOKIES: Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Separate 3 of the eggs.
- Add the three egg yolks and the other whole egg to the butter/sugar mixture. Refrigerate egg whites.
- Add vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
- Gradually stir in flour until well mixed.
- Shape the dough into a round disk. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Chill for 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease cookie sheets.
- Divide dough into 4 equal parts.
- Roll dough out 1/4 at a time on a lightly floured surface to 3/8 inch thickness.
- Cut with floured cookie cutters. Space on cookie sheet 2 apart.
- Lightly beat the three egg whites.
- Brush on cookies.
- Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
- Cool on a wire rack.
- FOR DECORATOR'S ICING: Beat sugar
- egg whites
- and cream of tartar in a bowl on low speed.Note: Follow the directions on the carton of egg whites to determine how much equals 3 egg whites. Pasteurized egg whites are safer to use for icing.
- Beat until a knife drawn through icing leaves a clear path, about 7 minutes.
- Tint this icing with gel food coloring.Cover unused icing with a damp cloth to prevent the icing from drying out.
- Put some of the colored icing in a pastry bag with a small tip. Outline your cookie design first using the pastry bag.
- Add water
- a little at a time
- to the leftover colored icing. Add just enough water to make a smooth and somewhat thin consistency.
- Put the icing for flooding into additional piping bags (or plastic bottles) with small tips. Put a toothpick in the tip so the icing doesn't run out.
- Flood a little icing into the cookie's outline.
- Take a toothpick and gently spread out the icing.
- Let the icing dry. Once dried
- add additional embellishments with the remaining icing.
Rated 5/5 based on 74 Reviews
Keyword : recipe-American-Cookies-Bake