Almond Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing

This year we’ve decided to keep things cheap and cheerful with our gifting.  Mostly because I’m known for going overboard with gifts and because I’m going to America at the beginning of next year so we need to be smart on the money front.  I can’t just skip on giving people gifts, it’s just not going to happen!  So I had to be creative with my thinking and this is both simple and fun!

We’ve decided to give friends & family a batch of freshly baking sugar cookies with fun festive designs.  It’s a great way to give something homemade that doesn’t look like you’ve just forgotten to add them to your gifting list.  For the last few weeks I’ve been on a mission to find the perfect recipe for the cookies & icing.  And in the end I’ve settled on Almond Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing.  The combination is delicious without being overwhelming, in fact it’s a very subtle flavour.

I’ve adapted the sugar cookie recipe from In Katrina’s Kitchen for you guys & created my own recipe for the royal icing because I wanted it to be super lemony.

Almond Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing Recipe:

(the best thing about these cookies is that you don’t need to leave the dough to chill!)

Almond Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing

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Serves: 36 Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 8 minutes

Ingredients

• ALMOND SUGAR COOKIES:
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond essence
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2½ cups flour
• LEMON ROYAL ICING:
• 2 egg whites
• 2 cups sifted icing sugar
• Lemon juice to taste (I do ¼ cup for a real lemon flavour but start with 5 teaspoons if you're not a crazed lemon fan like me!)

Instructions

ALMOND SUGAR COOKIES:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until the mixture is smooth and pale in color, about 3 minutes.
3. Beat in the egg and extracts.
4. In a separate bowl combine together all the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder & salt.
5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to your wet mixture.  If the dough becomes to thick to beat, knead the dough by hand.
6. If your mixture is too crumbly to roll out add a little bit of water as needed.  If your mixture is too sticky, simply add a little more flour.
7. Divide into four batches and roll out on a floured surface & cut using your desired shapes.  The thickness of the biscuits is up to you, but I like them to be about 1cm thick.
8. Line your baking try with baking paper and bake cookies for 8 minutes.
9. Once you remove them from the oven, allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
10. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.

 

LEMON ROYAL ICING:

1. Beat egg whites on high speed until the look foamy.
2. Gradually add icing sugar and lemon juice.
3. Beat on high speed until thickened.  It needs to be at least firm peak stage for delicate icing detail.
4. If your icing mixture won’t thicken, add more icing sugar gradually.
5. Spoon into piping bag and start icing your cookies.

Almond Sugar Cookies with Lemon Royal Icing was last modified: December 21st, 2017 by Le'Chelle

Notes

Royal icing can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Make sure to cover it with cling film and a lid when storing in the fridge. You may need to remix it before using.

If you need some pattern inspiration for cookies check out my Pinterest board and if you want to laugh at my baking process while making these cookies check out this video.

Please tag me in pictures on Instagram/Twitter if you use this recipe. I love seeing what you guys create!

Happy baking!