I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe:
Basic Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
To Make the Dough:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until its light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg and the vanilla and almond extract.
- In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the butter/sugar mixture 1/2 cup at at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Divide the dough into two balls. If your not going to use the mixture right away refrigerate it, but take it out of the fridge about 1/2 hour before your going to use it.
- Bake them 8-11 minutes or until lightly brown.
Then use your favorite color flow or royal icing recipe. I prefer royal because they get a shiny, glossy look to them.
Royal Icing
Yield: Approximately 3-4 cups
- Sift together 1/4 C. Meringue Powder & 1 lb. Confectioner's Sugar into a mixing bowl.
- Add 1/2 C. warm water LESS TWO TBSP
- Beat at medium speed until a spatula drawn through the mixture will leave a clean path and the icing stands up in stiff peaks.
You can and will want to adjust the water depending on what your doing and the humidity in the air. While your better off to be cautious with the water and add water slowly until the consistency is correct, if you accidentally make it to watery, you can add a little confectioners sugar to stiffen it.
When making the icing for cookies you will want to add more water to get to a consistency you can use to flood the cookies. Be careful, if you add to much water the cookie will have a dull appearance and the icing will never fully harden. I suggest making the recipe above exactly as called for. Then separate the icing into the bowls for different colors. Be sure to put damp towels over each bowl or the icing will dry out. Once you have the desired colors, split the icing again, using most for flooding the cookie, but keeping some at a harder consistency so that you can add details later. (If its a moist day you might want to start with even less water then the recipe above calls for.) Once you've separated your colored icing take the flood icing and add water, but add it a tsp at a time. The moment the icing is soft enough to spread, stop adding water.
When icing cookies you have two options, most people pipe an exterior line first using your harder icing. Then add the softer, watered down icing to flood the center of the cookie. If you are going to do a cookie with a lot of flat detail, this is the way to go. This makes a neater cookie and with practice you can do it without seeing the raised line. Use a toothpick to get the icing into the corners of the cookie. Others prefer to just spread the icing around without a line. The best way to do this is to apply the icing to the cookie with a spoon or a knife and then use a toothpick or a popsicle stick to carefully spread the icing around the cookie. Both methods have their advantage and disadvantage. Outlining first usually gives you a cleaner edge, but you must be a good piper and spreading the icing evenly is more difficult. Using only the flood icing you run the risk of the icing getting to close to the edge of the cookie. I use a combination of methods depending on what cookie I am doing. I spread the icing around the cookies using a knife, a toothpick and a popsicle stick. Unless you want the designs to blend into the cookie, let the cookies harden a bit before adding the details. Remember to keep the remaining icing damp while you wait.
Focusing on Different the Styles of Cookies:
The Ghosts: For the ghosts, which were my favorites, I just spread the icing around, because they shouldn't have a perfect edge. This is my favorite cookie to make because I use the black and orange icing to do the details and give each ghost a different facial expression.
The Tombstones: My least favorite, because you may be able to see that the tombstones lack the luster of the other cookies. The reason why? Because my decision to make grey came later in the process and by then I had used all my white icing. I had to lighten the black icing and to do so I added more water. This backfired because the icing was to loose. The moral is, always save some white icing in case you need it.
The Candy Corn: Work in progress. I tried them several different ways trying to figure out which version I liked. I felt flooding only was to boring, but adding the lines was to messy looking. Jury is still out.
The Spider Webs: The spider webs came out great. The best way to do them is to add the web detail while the cookies are still damp. This way the web detail spreads into the cookie. Then I waited until the cookie was completely hardened to pipe the black spider on top.
The Pumpkins: I had some trouble with the pumpkin leaves. This is because the green icing got to soft, not from the amount of water added but from the heat of the kitchen. Icing can be very temperamental and is effected by the elements.
When making the icing for cookies you will want to add more water to get to a consistency you can use to flood the cookies. Be careful, if you add to much water the cookie will have a dull appearance and the icing will never fully harden. I suggest making the recipe above exactly as called for. Then separate the icing into the bowls for different colors. Be sure to put damp towels over each bowl or the icing will dry out. Once you have the desired colors, split the icing again, using most for flooding the cookie, but keeping some at a harder consistency so that you can add details later. (If its a moist day you might want to start with even less water then the recipe above calls for.) Once you've separated your colored icing take the flood icing and add water, but add it a tsp at a time. The moment the icing is soft enough to spread, stop adding water.
When icing cookies you have two options, most people pipe an exterior line first using your harder icing. Then add the softer, watered down icing to flood the center of the cookie. If you are going to do a cookie with a lot of flat detail, this is the way to go. This makes a neater cookie and with practice you can do it without seeing the raised line. Use a toothpick to get the icing into the corners of the cookie. Others prefer to just spread the icing around without a line. The best way to do this is to apply the icing to the cookie with a spoon or a knife and then use a toothpick or a popsicle stick to carefully spread the icing around the cookie. Both methods have their advantage and disadvantage. Outlining first usually gives you a cleaner edge, but you must be a good piper and spreading the icing evenly is more difficult. Using only the flood icing you run the risk of the icing getting to close to the edge of the cookie. I use a combination of methods depending on what cookie I am doing. I spread the icing around the cookies using a knife, a toothpick and a popsicle stick. Unless you want the designs to blend into the cookie, let the cookies harden a bit before adding the details. Remember to keep the remaining icing damp while you wait.
Focusing on Different the Styles of Cookies:
The Ghosts: For the ghosts, which were my favorites, I just spread the icing around, because they shouldn't have a perfect edge. This is my favorite cookie to make because I use the black and orange icing to do the details and give each ghost a different facial expression. The Tombstones: My least favorite, because you may be able to see that the tombstones lack the luster of the other cookies. The reason why? Because my decision to make grey came later in the process and by then I had used all my white icing. I had to lighten the black icing and to do so I added more water. This backfired because the icing was to loose. The moral is, always save some white icing in case you need it.
The Candy Corn: Work in progress. I tried them several different ways trying to figure out which version I liked. I felt flooding only was to boring, but adding the lines was to messy looking. Jury is still out.
The Pumpkins: I had some trouble with the pumpkin leaves. This is because the green icing got to soft, not from the amount of water added but from the heat of the kitchen. Icing can be very temperamental and is effected by the elements.
You will see my cookies are by no means perfect, but they get better every time I make them.
Practice Makes Perfect.
Practice Makes Perfect.
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