Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Royal Iced Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
Cookies
1/2 cup earth balance vegan butter
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
 + 2 tablespoons water)
3-3/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Icing
5 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons corn syrup
4 tablespoons almond milk, added 1 at a time

Directions
In medium bowl, beat together butter, powdered sugar, and almond milk. Once combined, stir in corn syrup, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Stir in remaining ingredients, adding the flour 1 cup at a time. Wrap in plastic and let chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or overnight.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 350°F.

On floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with about 2 1/2- to 3-inch cookie cutters. On cookie sheets, place cutouts 1 inch apart, they won't expand very much. Use a silicone mat or parchment paper on your pan for easy clean up.

Bake 6 to 11 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely on racks, about 15 minutes. Cookies should be completely cooled before decorating them.

Combine all icing ingredients, adding only 1 tablespoon of almond milk at a time. Divide icing into 3 or 4 bowls, depending on how many colors you want to make, and stir in food dye. Transfer to piping bags to decorate cookies. Icing can be thinned by adding a teaspoon of water at a time to use "flooding" technique to cover cookies. Allow icing to dry completely before stacking cookies.

Nutrition
makes 4-5 dozen cookies