Often prepared for holidays such as New Year, Christmas or Easter. But, despite this, it can become a frequent guest on your table. After all, a holiday can be arranged on any day, and please the family with something beautiful and unusual. The main thing is time and desire! :)
Ingredients sugar cookie and glaze
Sugar cookie:
3 cups (390 grams) wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 cup (227 grams) butter room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (liquid vanilla)
Glaze:
2 large (60 grams) egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups (330 grams) powdered sugar
Preparing sugar cookies and frosting
Sugar cookie:
In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and soda.
Beat butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Continuing to beat, add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk until all ingredients are well mixed.
Add the flour mixture to the resulting mass and knead a smooth elastic dough.
Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in polyethylene film. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for about one hour so that it rolls out well enough and takes the desired shape.
Preheat the oven to (180 degrees C) and place a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in the center of the oven.
Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm. Check that the dough does not stick to the table by turning it slightly.
Assistant:)
Using a lightly floured cookie cutter, cut out cookie dough of the desired shape, and then carefully transfer the cookies to the baking sheet.
There are many forms of such cookies. Personally, we made a family of deer, Christmas trees, circles, a skate, a bear, stars, bells, squares.
Place the tray with raw cookies refrigerate for about 15 minutes to chill the dough. This is necessary so that the cookies do not lose their shape during baking.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges just start to brown.
Then take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool.
Makes about 36 cookies per serving. We got this much from 2 servings of dough.
Egg White Frosting:
Whisk egg whites with lemon juice in a mixer. Then add sugar and beat on low speed until smooth. homogeneous mass. Add more sugar or water until desired consistency is reached. Add food coloring if needed. Glaze should be used immediately or stored in an airtight container as it hardens quickly when exposed to air.
After the cookies have cooled, we proceed to dye them with icing.. There are many options here too. Here's what we got:
Cookies can be frozen with frosting if needed. Make sure the frosting is completely dry before storing or packing (this may take several hours or overnight).
Store cookies between layers of parchment or wax paper.
After the icing dried, we packed it in transparent bags, tied it with ribbons and attached small postcards with the signature of the author. It turned out a box of wonderful sugar cookies with icing for a gift to relatives and friends.
Surely, on the "Internet" or at Christmas markets, you have seen cookies, gingerbread or other painted with icing. confectionery that almost looked like works of art. As a rule, as such a glaze is used icing or, in other words, icing sugar. Today I will tell you what it is and how to cook it quickly and deftly.
Icing(English "Royal icing", translated " royal icing”) is a protein drawing mass for decorating desserts and all kinds of pastries. The mass can be white or colored when food coloring is added to it. I will do icing, which will be used as a glaze for and.
Ingredients
- egg white 1 PC.
- powdered sugar 200 g
- lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon
To prepare icing, we need only two main ingredients - egg white and powdered sugar.
Cooking
We prepare everything necessary ingredients. Wash the egg thoroughly with soap. Egg white very carefully separate from the yolk. 
Add the sifted to the protein powdered sugar. It is necessary to sift, there may be sugar crystals in the powder, which must be removed. Otherwise, in the future, they may interfere with work a little, clogging the cut corner of the confectionery bag. 
Beat with a mixer or blender with a whisk attachment at low speed for 2 minutes. The icing will begin to gradually turn white, this is due to protein oxidation. Next, add half a teaspoon of lemon juice, from which the icing will shine and shimmer a little in the light, and beat again for 3 minutes. The sugar-protein mixture will become a thick, homogeneous, white mass. 
Actually icing almost ready. The glaze dries quickly, so if you are not going to work with it for the next few minutes, then it is better to cover it with cling film or a lid. Further, if you need glaze of different colors, then we lay out the icing in different containers and add food coloring of the color we need. I use Americolor gel color. The amount is determined by the intensity of the color you want to get. But it is worth considering that when the glaze dries, it darkens a little and the color becomes more saturated. 
We mix. See how beautiful! 
But that's not all! As a rule, glaze is conditionally divided into 3 types:
- thick - for gluing parts for gingerbread house, drawing small details and inscriptions;
- medium density - for contours of drawings;
- liquid - for filling inside the contours.
We need to decide what pattern will be on our gingerbread, this is necessary to understand how much icing of each type we need.
Thick icing is already ready. The consistency should be quite thick: the mass on the spoon holds and does not fall even when turning the spoon on its side.
To obtain an icing of medium density, add a little water to the initial mass and mix. It is better to add drop by drop so as not to overdo it. If the mass is still thick, then repeat the process. The consistency is of medium density: the mass on the spoon slowly slides down when turning.
To get liquid icing in the original mass, a little more more water and mix. If the mass is still thick, then repeat the process. The consistency is slightly thicker than condensed milk. The mass from the spoon when turned on its side flows down. We do the filling like this: first, with a thick icing, draw a line around the perimeter of the future filling, and then fill the inner space with liquid icing.
We lay out our mass in pastry bags. You can use ordinary heavy bags or even zip bags if you don't have pastry bags. Or a pastry syringe. 
Cut off the edge and start painting. The main thing is not to be afraid of this case. Gingerbread will still turn out to be a decoration for any tea party. I have quite a bit of talent as an artist, but I still drew well, as it seems to me. So, you can apply glaze as you like, as your heart tells you. In general, there are no restrictions. Children simply adore such creativity, do the most with them. The easiest option is to make a solid fill with one color. First, we make a contour with thick icing, which we fill with liquid icing. Gently distribute everything inside and smooth out with a toothpick. 
Two-color mitten. I think everything is clear from the photo: first we draw a contour, fill it in, then draw white “peas” on red and draw it through the center of the circle with a toothpick. The final touch: sprinkle the base of the mittens with sugar. 
Another option for decorating gingerbread cookies: draw several lines with liquid icing in a different color into the filled contour and immediately draw a toothpick along the lines perpendicular to them, first in one direction, then in the other, and so on. It turns out here is such a simple, but beautiful drawing. 
Ice dries in different ways: thick in 30 minutes, liquid icing dries for a couple of hours at room temperature. If a thick layer of icing was placed on the cookies, then the time increases. In a couple of hours, the icing will dry for sure! 
The main thing in this business is creativity. Experiment with drawing! You can involve the whole family, as this is quite a fun and exciting process. If you did not use the entire mass at once, you can store it in a tightly closed container for a couple of weeks. Keep in mind that frosting hardens quickly when exposed to air. 
I make Christmas cookies with icing for the New Year - they always diverge in new year holidays like hot cakes. In our region, there is still the good old habit of sowing on New Year's morning, that is, sowing the house with rice or other cereals (rice is now expensive), which the neighboring children strictly observe and wake me up on January 1 literally at 6 o'clock in the morning. In return, they receive sweets and money, so these cookies become very relevant when you pay them off))))))
This recipe for gingerbread cookies is the easiest, the dessert is similar to both cookies and gingerbread, especially on the second day, when it absorbs air humidity at room temperature, swells slightly and becomes fluffy, loose.
Call your children to decorate the treat - they make the best helpers, because each of them wants to try the cooked goodies. Don't forget to serve cookies with fragrant tea!
So, prepare the necessary ingredients and start cooking!
Mix in the bowl of a food processor ground cinnamon, ground ginger, salt, sugar, baking powder and wheat flour, pre-sifted.
Chop butter, warmed up to room temperature, and add it to the container. Stir gently at low speed.
Pour in any kind of honey, beat egg but only one. You will need the second chicken egg to create the glaze, or rather, only the protein.
Mix everything again, forming dough crumbs - this is how it should be.
Knead it with your hands, forming a dense bun. cover cling film and leave for 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator, you can overnight.
Lightly sprinkling flour on the work surface, roll out part of the dough, since it is very plastic and obedient, cut figures out of it by cutting. At this time, preheat the oven to 180C.
Transfer them to parchment paper placed on a baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet with the blanks in the oven and bake the dessert for 7-10 minutes, without bringing it to a strong ruddy! Better to underbake than overbake! Let the cookies cool at room temperature for 1 hour.
At this time, form the glaze yourself: break the egg into a bowl, separating the yolk from the protein - you only need the protein. Stir in a couple of pinches or a couple of drops of green dye and all the powdered sugar, but in parts. Do not beat, namely mix in the powder, it will take a lot. Do not add lemon juice or water! Put the finished glaze in a culinary bag and cut off the thin tip from it. Moving diagonally, decorate your cooled blanks with green icing.
The edges of the blanks, until the glaze is dry, quickly decorate with bright beads (confectionery decor). Involve the kids in this activity - they will be happy to help you!
Let the finished elegant cookies dry for about 2 hours and you can taste it!
Looks especially festive christmas cookies with icing in a gift box. Happy New Year to you!
Cookies, even if they melt in your mouth, become dull and uninteresting without frosting.
Would like to favorite treat gave pleasure not only taste buds but also pleasing to the eye. There are plenty of ways to decorate baked goods.
By giving baked goods a festive look, you achieve several goals at the same time.
Firstly, cookies with icing can be served at a celebration, since they appearance allows you to do this without a twinge of conscience.
Secondly, pastries stay fresh longer. And thirdly, you do not have to spend money on glaze, because all the ingredients for its preparation are easily available and cost mere pennies.
How to make cookie icing experienced housewives they probably know, but for novice cooks, this article will come in handy.
I think that those who have decorated pastries with their own hands more than once will have something to learn.
Recipe: Milk and Powdered Sugar Glaze
Icing sugar will come in handy as a decoration if you decide to serve pastries on the festive table.
For young children who like to eat with their eyes first and then put food in their mouths, I recommend using this technique more often. They will experience delight and surprise as soon as they look at such cookies.
Yes, and hostesses will not hurt to improve their culinary experience when they try to paint pastries sugar icing.
You will need a mixer and products from the following list:
half a glass of powdered sugar; 5 ml of milk; teaspoon sl. oils; a few salt crystals; some vanilla.
Cookie frosting preparation:
- Soften the butter.
- Pour in powdered sugar and salt.
- Add vanilla and milk to the mixture.
- Beat everything with a mixer until you get a homogeneous mixture.
- The icing is ready, you can start working with it: decorating cookies or other pastries.
Recipe: Caramel Icing
To make a decoration, you will need the following ingredients:
2 large spoons of butter; 1/2 cup brown sugar; powdered sugar - one glass; 45 ml milk and vanilla essence to taste.
Cooking steps:
- Melt the butter, mix it with brown sugar and milk.
- Boil the mass for only one minute, then remove from the stove to the table.
- Add some of the powdered sugar, beat with a whisk until smooth and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and remaining icing sugar, continue beating.
Caramel flavored sugar icing is ready to use. You can fill it with a culinary syringe and draw various patterns on cookies.
Recipe: Icing for Gingerbread Cookies
Decorating pastries, every housewife wants to give her a unique and festive look.
White icing for cookies is also useful for puffs, it will make them sweet, and for baking shortbread dough.
In the latter case, you will get a tea treat that will stay fresh and crumbly longer.
Just two ingredients - powdered sugar and whole milk - are mixed with a mixer and applied to pastries. It will take you a few minutes to prepare the icing for cookies, but the festive look of the treat is guaranteed.
You need: powdered sugar - 150 g; 3 large spoons of milk.
Vanilla can be used as desired, this ingredient is optional.
Let's start preparing the glaze by boiling the milk. Then:
- Remove the bowl of milk from the heat and immediately stir in the powdered sugar.
- Stir the mixture and return to the fire.
- While constantly stirring the icing with a spoon, hold it on the stove for a few minutes until it thickens.
- Lay the pastry on the board and apply a thin layer of glaze with a brush.
- To make it freeze faster, send the pastries to the refrigerator, then sprinkle with multi-colored coconut flakes, chopped nuts or decorate with mastic flowers.
Festive and beautiful decoration ready, call everyone to the table.
Recipe: Chocolate colored icing
Decoration for baking makes it elegant and appetizing. Chocolate glaze for biscuits it is applied in a warm form until the hardening process has begun.
It is convenient to paint the surface of cakes and pastries with icing, it looks favorably on a light background.
But let's not delay the cooking process for a long time, and above all, write down all the ingredients:
100 gram dark chocolate bar; powdered sugar - 250 g; 100 ml whole milk and a tablespoon of butter.
For a piquancy of taste, you can add a pinch of black to the icing. ground pepper, but this is optional.
First, break the chocolate with your hands and place in a bowl.
After:
- Build water bath and melt the chocolate with the milk.
- Add powdered sugar and butter.
- Stir the chocolate colored icing with a spoon until it becomes homogeneous and smooth.
Recipe: Creamy glaze
Having prepared the decoration, you can easily paint the cookies with various patterns. You just need to do it quickly, because it freezes.
For the cookie icing you will need:
5 st. spoons oils; a glass of granulated sugar; 150 ml cream; vanilla to taste.
Cookie frosting steps:
- Measure the butter into a metal bowl.
- Pour sugar and put the dishes on a slow fire.
- Boil the mixture until it turns a light brown color.
- Remove the mixture from the heat for a minute, pour in the cream and beat with a mixer. You should get a lush caramel-colored mass (as in the photo), you need to return it to the stove again and boil for about ten minutes.
- Cool the mass a little in the air, constantly whisking it with a whisk. Add vanilla if that was your plan and start decorating the cookies.
Recipe: Honey Coating
The decoration with the aroma of honey is shiny and festive. Make it at home, because it is not difficult.
The main thing is to have products at hand:
50 g of oil; 45 ml lemon juice; 2 tbsp. tablespoons of honey of medium density and the same amount of granulated sugar (it is better if it is powdered sugar).
The first thing you should do is mix all the ingredients in a saucepan.
Then:
- Put the mixture on low heat.
- Boil until smooth.
- When the mass cools down a bit and begins to stretch, you can decorate pastries.
Cover the cookies completely or paint them with patterns, how you proceed depends on taste and flight of fancy.
Some cooks like their creation to be a single color of white or brown and sprinkled with nuts.
Others prefer to paint cookies, giving the lines an intricate look. One thing is clear - baking attracts with its originality, you definitely want to try it.
Recipe: Lemon Glaze
The piquant sourness that this decoration gives will appeal to many gourmets. They will certainly appreciate the characteristic smell of citrus fruits, and, as you know, it can improve mood.
Take: 100 g of oil; 30 ml lemon juice. You will need more powdered sugar (3 cups).
Whisk melted butter with sugar and lemon juice. The resulting fluffy mass of snow-white color is suitable for painting baking when it cools slightly.
Colored glaze, which is made from coffee and marshmallows in chocolate
For cookies, a still warm coating is suitable, it should not be cooled for too long.
To prepare the glaze, you need to stock up:
100 ml of milk; 100 g of sugar; 1 teaspoon instant coffee good quality; 3 pcs. marshmallows in chocolate.
Marshmallows cut into cubes, as in the photo, heat the milk.
After:
- Pour coffee into milk, stir until dissolved.
- Melt butter in another saucepan, add sugar and boil until smooth.
- Mix the sweet mixture with coffee milk.
- Add chopped marshmallows.
- When it blooms, hold the colored glaze on the fire for another 12-15 minutes.
Decorate the baked goods and cool completely. Serve on the table, laid out on a dish.
My video recipe
Recently I was ordered to cook a simple homemade cookies with colored sugar icing. I had to search in my records good recipe, which would be inexpensive, but at the same time, so that the pastries turn out tasty and beautiful. I opted for the option that was once my favorite.
There are a lot of ingredients for the dough, but they are all available. In addition, a lot of cookies are obtained from one serving. One of the most important components is potato starch, which makes it possible to make pastries more crumbly and tender. Everything is getting ready quickly hastily, and can be stored for a long time if not eaten immediately.
Recipe Information
Cooking method: in the oven .
Total cooking time: 30 min. (additional 60 minutes in the refrigerator) min.
Servings: 35-40 pcs. .
Ingredients:
- flour - 3 tbsp.
- butter - 150 g
- potato starch - 125 g
- salt - a pinch.
- soda - ½ tsp
- baking powder - ½ tsp
- sugar - 1 cup
- milk - 2/3 cup
- egg - 1 pc.
- vanilla sugar- 1 sachet
for glaze:
- powdered sugar - about 200 g
- lemon juice
- food coloring.
How to cook:
Butter should be at room temperature. Then it is easy to beat. Put it in a bowl and beat with a mixer. But you can just grind with a fork. Pour sugar, vanilla sugar (preparations at home) and grind (or beat) everything together until smooth.
Add one egg.
Mix thoroughly.
Sift the entire portion of flour into a separate bowl, send baking powder, soda, salt, starch (sifted) there.
Pour half of the dry mixture into the oil mass. We mix.
We add milk.
And add the rest of the dry mixture.
Knead the dough and form a ball. Wrap it up in cling film. Place in refrigerator for 1-2 hours or freezer for 30-40 minutes.
We take out chilled dough and roll it into a layer 0.3-0.5 cm thick. Please note that cookies will grow well in the oven. So we make it thinner. Squeeze out the hearts with molds.
Lay out on a baking sheet lined with parchment. We put in a preheated oven. We bake cookies at home at a temperature of 180 degrees for about 15 minutes.
We take out ruddy hearts from the oven. Let them cool down. And we send the next batch to bake. I got almost four batches from one serving of dough.
Prepare the icing for the cookies. Sift the icing sugar into a deep bowl. Pour 3-4 tablespoons into a separate cup. lemon juice or diluted in water citric acid. There's also food coloring. And gradually mix.
You need to add liquid until you get the consistency of liquid sour cream. It is important to catch the moment here so that the icing is not thick, but not very liquid either.
We cover our homemade heart cookies with the resulting fudge and let dry on parchment or on a wire rack. Excess frosting may run off. If you wish, you can decorate the cookies with sprinkles, sprinkling on the icing that has not yet hardened.
Note to the owner:
- This icing can be used to decorate gingerbread, Easter cakes, cookies or shortbread. It does not dry quickly, but then it does not lose its shape. If it seemed to you that the glaze was already dry after half an hour, it is not. It is soft inside. If you start packing the cookies, you will immediately see that the icing begins to melt and lose its shape. So let it dry thoroughly, even overnight.
- if you love chocolate chip cookie, add 1-2 tbsp. cocoa powder. In this case, you need to take less flour by 1-2 tbsp. Or use one of the ready-made
