Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

You will need:
A rolling pin
Some cookie cutters
An oven
A baking sheet
A piping bag to hold the icing
Decorating tips for pretty icing designs

Ingredients for Sugar Cookie Dough:
(for approximately 3 dozen (2 1/2 inch) cookies)
3 cups of all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of unsalted butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon of milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out the dough

Ingredients for Royal Icing:
1 tablespoon of meringue powder
1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Making the dough
1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together by sifting through a strainer and set the mix aside.
2. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl, use an electric stand mixer or hand mixer to beat until light in color.
3. Add the egg and milk and continue to beat the combination.
4. Set the mixer at a low speed while gradually adding the flour, baking powder, and salt mixture.
5. Continue to beat with the mixer until it starts to look/feel like dough.
6. Chill the dough by dividing it in half, wrapping the halves in wax paper, and refrigerating for 2 hours.

Rolling & Cutting Dough - Start preheating the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
1. Sprinkle your surface (cutting board, counter top, etc.) with powdered sugar as well as the top of the dough, and roll out the dough until it's approximately 1/4-inch thick.
2. Cut into the desired shapes (hearts, Christmas trees, stars, clovers, bunnies, anything at all) with your cookie cutters.
3. After cutting the first set of shapes, combine and roll the excess (left-over) dough to cut out more cookies.
4. Place parchment paper on your baking sheet or grease it with butter and then place your cookies on the sheet.
5. Bake cookies for about 9 minutes or until they are just beginning to turn light brown around the edges.
6. Pull the baking sheet out and let cool for 2 minutes and then move the cookies to a cooling rack.

Icing the cookies
1. Mix all of the ingredients for royal icing by using a small whisk.
2. Use this somewhat thick consistency to pipe an outline of your decoration on the cookies.
3. Little by little, add more water or lemon juice to the royal icing mix. The consistency of the icing will become a little thinner which will make it easier to fill in your previous outlines.

Please visit my website for step-by-step photos, baking tips and other recipes.