cookie recipe

Sugar cookies – they are so lovely.

Very yummy indeed.

I love how perfectly sweet and tender they are.

And they are great for decorating!

This time I grabbed my pumpkin cutter and made a whole army of these cute little faces.

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For the cookies you need:

3 1/2 cups (460 grams) all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated white sugar

2 larger eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the royal icing you need:

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioner’s (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

red, yellow and green food coloring (they can be found at cake decorating and party stores or else on-line)

cocoa powder

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1. Preheat an oven to 350 F (176 C).

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer.

Beat until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes).

4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Then add the flour and salt and mix again until you have smooth dough.

5. Place the dough on a floured surface and form a ball.

6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

7. While you are waiting for the dough to chill, you can prepare the royal icing.

Beat the egg whites with lemon juice.

Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until combined and smooth (soft peaks should form).

8. And since we need four colors for decorating the pumpkins (orange, darker orange, green and brown) we need to divide the mixture now.

So divide the mixture into 4 parts. One half for the lighter orange color and the other half into three even parts – darker orange, green and brown (I used cocoa powder to create brown and mixed red and yellow to create orange).

9. It’s fine to follow the instruction on working with the food coloring because some are strong and some are not.

10. Keep the royal icing in airtight containers as it hardens when exposed to air.

11. Remove the dough from the fridge.

On a floured surface roll it out to the thickness of about 1/4 inch (0,6 cm).

Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure it does not stick to the counter.

Using a lightly floured pumpkin cookie cutter cut out the shapes and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes.

12. Remove from the oven and let cool.

13. Fill your pastry bag with the lighter orange icing and draw a border on your cookie.

Then draw a few lines within the border.

14. Spread the icing with a spoon.

15. And now draw a few lines with the darker orange color to make it look like a real pumpkin.

Let dry for about one hour now.

16. Use the green coloring to draw stalks…

17. … and a scary face.

And this is it!

Let the cookies dry overnight (for at least 12 hours).

Enjoy!

This recipe makes about 24 cookies.

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