Where the Wild Things Are Sugar Cookies

• Produce

  • 2 Lemons, zest of

• Refrigerated

  • 2 Eggs

• Condiments

  • 1 tbsp Corn syrup

• Baking & Spices

  • 6 cups All-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • 1 Gel food coloring, Yellow
  • 1 Gel food coloring, black
  • 14 oz Granulated sugar
  • 3 1/2 tsp Lemon extract
  • 1/2 cup Meringue, powder
  • 2 lbs Powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Vanilla extract

• Dairy

  • 1 lb Butter

• Liquids

  • 1 cup Water

• Other

  • Squeeze bottles
  • Piping bags
  • #2 piping tips

Found on sugarhero.com

Ingredients

• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 14 oz (2 cups) granulated sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1 lb butter, cold and cubed
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp lemon extract
• ½ cup meringue powder
• 1 cup water
• 2 lbs (8 cups) powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 1½ tsp lemon extract
• Yellow gel food coloring
• Black gel food coloring
• Squeeze bottles
• Piping bags
• #2 piping tips

Directions

• In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
• In the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar and lemon zest. Work them together between your fingers until the sugar is moist and very fragrant. Add the butter and then beat the butter and lemon sugar together, starting on low speed and moving to medium, until the butter and sugar are well-mixed and the color has lightened. (Because the butter is cold, it will be hard to beat at first, but starting with cold butter will help prevent the butter from being overbeaten and help keep them from spreading.)
• Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition, then add the extracts. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Once it is nearly incorporated, with just a few streaks of flour remaining, stop the mixer, remove the paddle, and stir it by hand with a spatula. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl well.
• Divide the dough in half and press each one into a flat disc. Wrap them well with plastic wrap and refrigerate them until firm, about 1 hour.
• When youre ready to roll, preheat the oven to 350 F. Divide a disc of dough in half, and keep the dough you are not working with in the refrigerator to keep cool. Place the dough between two sheets of waxed paper and roll it out until it is a little less than ¼ thick. (I prefer to roll my dough between two sheets of waxed paper so I don’t have to add any additional flour. If you dont want to, or cant, just make sure your work surface is dusted with flour regularly to prevent sticking.) Cut into shapes and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Re-roll the rest of the scraps together and repeat with the remaining dough.
• Place the sheet in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Bake cookies at 350 F for 10-12 minutes, until the edges have started to take on a golden color. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be made several days in advance and kept on a well-wrapped cookie sheet in the freezer (optimal) or at room temperature (less ideal—they are more likely to get stale this way.)
• Combine the meringue powder and water in the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on low speed until theyre combined, then sift in the powdered sugar and beat on low until the sugar is moistened. Add the corn syrup and extract, and beat them in.
• Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 3-5 minutes, until the frosting is shiny, bright white, thick, and forms stiff peaks when you remove the beater. Press a layer of plastic wrap right on top of the icing until you are ready to use it, so it doesnt start to dry out. If making a day or two in advance, transfer it to an airtight container and press plastic wrap on top of the icing, then put the lid on top. Store is in the refrigerator, and stir well before using.
• Draw or print crown shapes (or your shape of choice) in a repeating pattern on a piece of paper—this will be your template to ensure your decorations are all the same size. Place this paper on your work surface and tape a long length of waxed paper over it.
• Divide out about a third of the royal icing into a separate bowl, and add enough yellow gel food coloring to get a bright, vibrant yellow color. This is your icing for piping the outline of the crowns. Scoop about a cup of the icing into a piping bag fitted with a #2 small round tip pastry tip. To the rest of the yellow icing, add a little water, a spoonful at a time, until it is the consistency of syrup. When you lift the spatula from the icing and let it dribble back into the bowl, the trail should disappear in about 2 seconds. This is your icing for flooding. Transfer it to a squeeze bottle.
• Using your template as a guide, outline about 5-6 crowns in a row on your waxed paper, then squeeze the flood icing in the outline. You can use a toothpick to spread it to the edges so it doesn’t leave any gaps. Repeat, doing about 5-6 crowns at a time, until you have as many yellow crowns as you want. You can scoot the template around underneath the waxed paper to give yourself fresh places to work once you have filled up one area of the waxed paper. I made 60-70 to account for breakage and the occasional ugly crown.
• After all the crowns are filled in with yellow, take about a cup of the stiff white royal icing and mix it with black gel food coloring in a small bowl until you get a strong black color. (This will take a lot of food coloring.) Transfer the black to a piping bag fitted with a #2 tip, and outline the crowns with black icing. Let the crowns dry completely overnight, for at least 8 hours, before transferring them.
• Fill a piping bag fitted with a #2 tip with stiff white icing. Outline all of the cookies in white. Thin the remaining white icing by adding a spoonful of water at a time, stirring gently, until you get the consistency of syrup, as described above. Transfer the thinned icing to a squeeze bottle, and flood the center of the cookies with the thinned icing. Use a toothpick to nudge it to the edges of the outline if necessary so that the entire surface of the cookie is filled. Allow the cookies to sit out overnight to set the icing. Reserve the remaining royal icing to use as glue to adhere the crowns later.
• The next morning, use a thin metal spatula to carefully loosen the crowns from the waxed paper. Dot the backs with a dab of royal icing, and press a crown into the center of each cookie.