They're Iced Iced Baby...

Here are my secrets to making the yummiest, prettiest, rolled and iced cookies. I used to make these for Valentine’s, Easter and Halloween. I’ve even made them for July 4th. There are lots of great cookie cutters out there, ya know.

You can obviously make them at Christmas/Hanukkah also, but there are so many delicious cookies and candies, gingerbread houses, pies and cakes to be made then! I’ve made a different version of these at that time - rolled gingerbread cookies with white icing…

Rolled and iced cookies are not that hard to make. They are time consuming, though, so you need to set aside two afternoons. One to make the cookies and one to decorate them. And these are not cookies that you hand out by the dozen. These make beautiful treats for friends and family, or can make your holiday desert table yummy and stunning.

Dust off your mixer and let’s get to it!

First comes the dough - I love this recipe that I got years ago from a friend. It makes a delicious sugar cookie. You make the dough and chill overnight -up to 3 days.

Break apart the discs in half to roll on a floured surface. Also, if you get a sock for your rolling pin, that makes the dough less sticky. You can get them locally at the grocery store. Rub some flour on that too.

I use a cookie spatula to get the cookies up if they get stuck to the surface. sometimes this happens even if you dust with flour well. I just quickly stick the spatula in the flour and then slide it under the dough.

I put smaller cookies in the middle or in front by the oven door and larger and/or thicker ones on the perimeter. They seem to cook more evenly that way. I usually use a Silpat, but forgot to get it out this time! 😜

I cool them on a metal cooling rack.

I use a small spatula to ice the cookies with thinner icing. Then I use decorating bags and metal tips to decorate on top of the hardened icing.

*Full disclosure - every single one of these bags split open on me, when I filled them. (They are pretty old.) I ended up using a huge cake bag and tip, and so this batch was not my best effort!

You can also make Royal Icing with Wilton Meringue Powder, if you are worried about the egg whites. I do not think it tastes as good, and I have never had anyone have a problem with the icing.

I made two batches this time, and divided it up into 5 colors as well as white.

I use Wilton Gel Icing Color to color the icing and you use the tiniest amount.

You actually add it with a toothpick and then stir with a spoon.

Now we’re ready to ice with the spatula.

Here they are after icing and ready to be decorated. This is where things went south. Every icing bag split except for a huge cake one. (I guess they are older than I realized! :/ )

But I made do with what I had and they turned out ok.