- 500g (4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 250g (1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons) butter, softened
- 350g (1 ¾ cups) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
- 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Royal Icing:
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 500g (just over a pound) icing (confectioners sugar)
- In a medium bowl combine, the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk, set aside
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand held electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Add the eggs and yolk one at a time, beating well between each addition, ensuring that the egg is well incorporated, add the vanilla, you will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl a couple of times to ensure that all the ingredients are well combined.
- At low speed add half the four mixture, mix until combined, add the remaining flour, beat until flour is completely absorbed into the dough, but no more.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently into a smooth mass, divide the dough into 4 equal portions, flatten into thick disks, wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours or up to 3 days. The dough can also be frozen for up to a month.
- Heat oven to 180℃ (350℉) line several baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.
- Let the dough sit at room temperature, for about 10-15 minutes until soft enough to roll out. On a floured surface using a floured rolling pin, roll out dough to about ¼ cm (⅛ inch) thick.
- Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter, as close as possible, and use a palette knife to lift the cookie and transfer it to the lined cookie sheet. Placing cookies about 2 cm (1 inch) apart. Press scraps together and roll them out and punch out more cookies, keep on gathering, rolling, and punching out shapes until all the dough has been used up.
- Bake for 12-17 minutes (this really depends on your oven temperature, size, and thickness of your cookies, but a good guide is that the cookies should be golden. Let sit for 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing or decorating.
For Royal Icing:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the egg whites and icing (confectioners) sugar on low speed until you have a paste, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and beat for an additional 3 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy.
- To color the mixture, separate the icing into as many bowls as you want colors and dab a bit of food coloring into the white icing, mix well and keep on adding a bit of food coloring and mixing well between each addition until you have the color saturation you are after.
- Royal icing will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days.
