Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

This past weekend was the busiest weekend I've had in a long time. Friday night was my sister's bachelorette party, that I helped host (we all spent the night out of town). Then Saturday (after 4 hours of sleep), I came back to help with her lingerie party, that I also helped host. After her lingerie party, we drove 2 hours to go to a an engagement party for my cousin. Then on Sunday, my sister had a tea. She was really nice to have most of her parties in one weekend to save me from having to travel so much, so I wanted to make something nice for her and the guests.

One reason I love these cookies so much is because of the creativity of using a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make boobies and booties. I did not come up with the idea... not really sure who did. I've seen several of these cookies online, and they looked easy enough to make. The only down side was that the cookies took several forevers to ice. It's because I used so many different colors of icing. The lingerie party was a "hot and spicy" theme, so I wanted to incorporate the colors we were using at the party. I'm glad I did, though because they turned out really cute.


I've been following the Bake at 350 blog, and really wanted to try Bridget's sugar cookie and royal icing recipes. I'm so glad I did because these will be my go-to recipes from now on. I feel like I say that every time, but I really think I've found my favorite recipes. The dough really behaves nicely when rolling out, and it tastes amazing when cooked (and raw, too)! I also love how the butter does not have to be softened before making the dough. I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to make a recipe and then I read that the butter needs to be softened. Arg! That's so frustrating!
The icing recipe was really easy to make. I added almond flavoring because I wanted the flavor to match the cookies.

These cookies freeze really well, which is nice since they take two forevers to make. I baked the cookies a week before I was able to ice them. I layered them in zip top bags with wax paper between layers and placed them in a tuperware box. Then I placed them in the freezer. When I was ready to ice them, I took them out of the freezer and let them thaw in the bag for at least 2 hours. Then I placed them on the counter so I could ice them.
These are even supposed to freeze well after icing them. I haven't tried that yet.

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (I used bleached)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar (Bridget uses vanilla that she's stored vanilla beans in. I need to try that)
2 sticks cold butter (I cut into small cubes)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

Roll onto a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Make sure they don't get golden. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen (3-inch) cookies.


Royal Icing

Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons meringue powder
scant 1/2 cup water
1 pound (about 4 cups) powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
few drops of clear extract (I used almond)

Directions:
Combine the meringue powder and water. With the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat until combined and foamy (about 2 minutes).

Sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low to combine (Do NOT skip the sifting!).

Add in the corn syrup and extract if desired. (This helps keep the icing shiny.)

Increase speed to high and beat for about 5 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form. (You should be able to remove the beater from the mixer and hold up and jiggle without the peak falling.) Do not overbeat.

Cover with plastic wrap touching the icing or divide and color using gel paste food colorings.

This "stiff" icing is perfect for outlining and even for building gingerbread houses and monogramming. To fill in your cookies, add water to your icing a teaspoon at a time, stirring with a rubber spatula, until it is the consistency of syrup. This technique of filling a cookie with thinned icing is called "flooding."

This will cover 2-3 dozen 3.5-inch cookies in 2 colors.

Source: Bake at 350