Lemon Cut Out Easter Cookies - Adventure in Royal Icing

These cookies were my first try at all out royal icing decorating. I got my feet wet with these gingerbread cookies this Christmas, but this time I was dedicated to coloring, outlining, thinning, flooding, etc! Here's how they came out!



Eeehhhh...okay for a first try! I need more practice with finding the right consistency for piping and flooding. And I need more patience. I got tired of coloring and mixing and stirring! Ah! They took me all weekend! I rolled them out and baked them Friday. Then Saturday I started the decorating. And then I ran out of royal icing and had to wait for the first round of icing to dry, so I finished them Sunday. Finally!

If you want to laugh here are the links what I used for inspiration. Wilton chick and bunny cookies.



I'll keep practicing! Both the cookie and icing came out nice and lemony though!

Lemon Cut Out Cookies
Adapted from Bake at 350

For the cookies

3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
   
4. Add in the egg, vanilla, lemon juice and zest and beat until combined.
5. Slowly add in the flour until dough is formed.
6. Roll out on a floured surface and cut into shapes about 3/8 to 1/4" thick.
   
7. Place on parchment lined sheets. Freeze 5-10 minutes on the sheets before placing in the oven (this will help prevent cookies from spreading).
8. Bake 9-12 minutes, depending on cookie cutter size.
9. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
   

For the icing

4 tablespoons meringue powder
scant 1/2 cup water
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1. Combine the meringue powder and water and beat until foamy.
2. Slowly add the powdered sugar on low and beat on low to combine.
3. Add in the corn syrup and lemon extract
4. Increase speed to medium high and beat for about 5-10 minutes, just until the icing is glossy and stiff peaks form.
5. Add more water a teaspoon at a time if consistency needs adjusting to be pipable.

I also used Bake at 350's instructions for decorating, lots of good photos!

Cookie post!

I already did one gingerbread cookie post, but this will finish off my cookie post for Christmas baking! It will be a short one since I made Christmas cupcakes this year instead of cookies, plus some other desserts for parties.

So here was my other Christmas cookie!


I got it from a Martha Stewart Christmas cookie magazine I picked up in the super market! Martha knows her stuff. Dave actually picked this one out. I don't have a photo, but the cookie inside is a chocolate mint cookie, like a girlscout thin mint! Delicious!

Something odd happened with the white chocolate though, it melted, then it got really dry and lumpy and I couldn't bring it back to liquid and melty again over the double boiler. I've been meaning to google it and will post if I find an answer! I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips, plus some bars I had bought for another purpose, but needed after my first bag of chips failed.



So my white chocolate coating came out a little lumpy and not as smooth as Martha's but they tasted good! Only other issue was the crushed candy cane sticks to your teeth when you bite into them, but I didn't hear anyone complaining, haha.

Here's the cookie plate ready for a party!


Next will be my epic dessert post!

Gingerbreading

It's been a long time since I made gingerbread. I think I was in highschool and my friends and I trashed the kitchen because we thought it would be funny to take pictures covered in flour. I never realized until now that my mom was pretty cool about all that... I don't remember the gingerbread being that tasty though, it was hard and the dough was evil and hard to work with. But this try went much better!


Last week I mixed a bunch of gingerbread, chilled it over night, then rolled it out and baked it up. Then let it cool and decorated it for like 3 hours the next day. I used this recipe, and also used her royal icing recipe. It was my first batch of royal icing ever. Exciting. And while my icing was pretty simple and I think it looked pretty good covered in my Christmas sprinkles! :oD


For the cookies, I baked up some normal sized shapes of gingerbread men, reindeer, trees, etc. And I also had a bunch of mini Christmas cookie cutters that made bite size gingerbread cookies. Mini anythings go over so much better with crowds! Recipe is awesome, I've had them covered in tin foil for a week and they're still nice and soft and chewy. Amazing.


For the royal icing though, I required much more water than the recipe called for to make it anywhere close to a good consistency for piping. In fact I could of used more I think, and I had a ton left over. I read it can be stored at room temp in an air tight container for up to two weeks, which I'm doing and had good intentions for a gingerbread house or something else cool, but we'll see.

Here's one more pic of a mini gingerbread tree with Christmas nonpareils.


And one more of a super cool full size gingerbread man.


More are in my baking adventures set, plus more to be uploaded this week!