My Morning Chocolate

Tish Boyle's Decorator Cookies

These sugar cookies are a big hit with my family.  The cookies aren’t too sweet.  The icing dries to a thin, glossy hard shell, which means these cookies look very professional and finished – a nice ego boost for you, the baker.

They also take four days to make.

I spend day one mixing the dough and letting it chill overnight.  Day two is for rolling and baking the cookies.  Days three and four are for decorating, depending on how much decorating you want to do.  It’s a process.

As you’re slowly icing the cookies, slopping it on with your paintbrush and making sure it gets into every corner of the cookie, you may wonder why the hell you decided to make these.  Wouldn’t a chocolate chip cookie be easier? you think.

If this happens, finish icing one cookie and eat it right there.  Don’t wait for the icing to dry.  Don’t worry if it’s 7:00 in the morning or well past dinner time at night.  Just eat it.   See? These cookies are worth it.

These recipes come from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle, a indispensable book of recipes for cookie lovers.  I made the cookies in the pictures for my cousin Jackie’s wedding, but these are easily decorated for the holidays.

Basic Decorative Cookie Dough
from The Good Cookie by Tish Boyle

When cold, this dough isn’t sticky and works really well.  I use the sil-pin silicone rolling pin and a baking mat to roll the dough.

3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange zest

1)      In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and salt, set aside.

2)      In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and orange zest and mix until well blended.  Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture one-third at a time, mixing just until combined.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide it into 4 pieces.  Shape each piece into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes until firm (or up to 2 days).  (I refrigerate overnight)

This is what your dough will look like

3)      Position a rack in the center of the oven (The recipe recommends baking only one sheet of cookies at a time, but I am far too impatient for this.  I bake two sheets at a time and rotate them halfway through cooking) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

4)      On a lightly floured work surface (This dough is not extra sensitive flour so don’t worry about using too much), roll one of the dough disks out to a thickness of 1/8 inch.  Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes (save the scraps for rerolling).

Roll the dough; cut the cookies out with cookie cutters

Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a prepared baking sheet, spacing them ½ inch apart.  Bake, one sheet at a time (see my note above) for 10 to 15 minutes, until pale golden brown (baking time will very depending on the size and shape of the cookies).  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.  Repeat with remaining dough.

The cooked cookies

Decorator’s Icing
This icing recipe calls for meringue powder, an ingredient that makes the icing smooth and helps it dry to a hard coating.  You can buy meringue powder at Michael’s craft store.

3 tbsp meringue powder
6 tbsp warm water
One 1-pound box confectioner’s sugar
I also mix in some lemon juice)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment (or just using a regular whisk), beat the meringue powder, water, and confectioner’s sugar at medium-low speed until the icing forms stiff peaks, about 7 minutes.  Thin the icing to the consistency you want by adding a little warm water, a few drops at a time.

Use a paint brush to scoop icing onto your cookies, and to spread it out to the edges.

Ice the cookies with a paint brush

When finished, you can package the cookies in a bag with a ribbon.  These makes a nice little holiday gift.

The finished product