Table of Contents
- Times of Wool, Chocolates, and Biscuits
- Royal icing
- Mastering Peanut Butter Royal Icing: Perfect Borders and Fills
- The icing Challenge
Times of Wool, Chocolates, and Biscuits
It’s official – autumn starts right here. I’ve started wearing woolly jumpers, the Christmas shopping has begun. Heck, I’ve even gone and bought a new winter coat. There’s something special about this time of year that just gets me so excited about the next few months of cold crisp weather, dark evenings snuggled up under fluffy blankets, and Starbucks red cup hot chocolates. And now we’ve got some fall leaf cookies topped with Peanut Butter Royal Icing to finish things off.
Royal icing
And they’re not just any sheet cookies. They are peanut butter flavored beauties, with no spread and covered with royal icing. This is my first experience with royal icing and I have to say it wasn’t bad at all. Lesson learned: royal icing is not as scary as you think!
To be completely honest, I did take the easy royal icing route. There’s no complicated patterns or fiddly bits here. It’s as simple as piping a border around the outside of the cookie, and then filling in the middle. You can get a bit more creative than me if you want, but I think that drawing on the extra detail with an edible pen seemed to work pretty well. You’ve got to make sure they are completely dry before you try and write on them, though, trust me!
Mastering Peanut Butter Royal Icing: Perfect Borders and Fills
How to master borders and fills
But let’s rewind to the actual cookie batter. Once you’ve got the perfect vanilla sugar cookie recipe, the possibilities are endless, and so I swapped out some butter with smooth peanut butter. And that’s about it. I know this recipe is guaranteed not to spread in the oven, so I don’t have to worry about chilling the cookies before baking. It’s that good!
Speaking of good, the best treats make you feel like celebrating, like an ice cream sundae birthday cake does for any special occasion.
Don’t Leave Them in the Oven Too Long
The only way you can really go wrong here is to leave the cookies in the oven for a bit too long. These cookies go from ‘ready’ to ‘over-done’ in about 2 minutes, so you’ve got to keep your eyes peeled. If you spot a bit of browning on the edges, then whip them out straight away – they are more than ready. The perfect sugar cookie (in my opinion) is all one color – no golden edges in sight!
Don’t worry if they seem a little underbaked when you get them out, as they will keep cooking for a little while longer as they cool off on the hot baking sheet. Don’t be tempted to move them off the baking sheet too soon, or they will break.
The icing Challenge
Oh, what about the icing? I was super skeptical that I would be able to pull these cookies off, which is why I skipped out on any frosting at all when I made both the vanilla sugar cookies, and last autumn’s pumpkin spice sugar cookies. But, after about three hours of non-stop cookie tutorials on YouTube, I finally felt ready. One little sugar cookies wasn’t going to defeat me.
Effortless Cookie Decorating with Peanut Butter Royal Icing Recipe
Instead of making two different consistencies of royal icing (one for outlines and decoration, and one for flooding the middle of the cookie), it’s much easier to make one middle-strength batch that you can use for both. I guess it depends on how detailed you want to get, but if you’re just looking to do something a bit like these peanut butter sugar cookies, then you’ll be fine with just the one.
Powdered Egg Whites
The only special ingredient you’re going to need is powdered egg whites (you can get them in little sachets at the supermarket – they’re in the baking aisle). Yes, you could use actual egg whites, but I’d much rather skip the chance of salmonella when powdered ones work just as well.
A couple of tips I picked up for Peanut Butter Royal Icing Recipe
Make sure you don’t leave the royal icing out for too long, as it will start to dry out. This is especially an issue at the very tip of your piping bags. I handled this by wiping the end of the piping bag with a piece of kitchen towel and then pressing the piping bag shut so no icing was touching the air.
The consistency of the royal icing is key – you don’t want it too runny, or it will run down the edges of the cookie. You also don’t want it too thick, or it will be impossible to get a nice smooth flat finish. There’s a nice trick to work out when you’ve added enough water: drizzle some icing back onto itself, and time how long it takes for the drizzle to completely disappear. You are aiming for 15 seconds, or just over.
If you’re a royal icing guru, then please let me know any tips you have to help me reach my sugar cookie goals. And if you’re a novice like me, then I hope I’ve convinced you to at least give it a go. If I can do it, anyone can.
Peanut Butter Royal Icing Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Stand mixer
- 1 Bowl
- 2 Baking trays
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Cookie cutters
- 2 Grid
- 1 Toothpick to even out the icing
Ingredients
FOR THE SUGAR COOKIES
- 115 g Unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 125 g Smooth peanut butter
- 200 g Caster sugar (US granulated sugar)
- 2 unit Large eggs
- 1 tbsp Good quality vanilla extract
- 500 g Plain or all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp Baking powder
- ½ tbsp Salt
FOR THE ROYAL ICING
- 400 g Icing sugar or powdered sugar
- 15 g Powdered egg whites
- 1 unit Edible pen (optional)
- 1 tbsp Food coloring (optional)
Instructions
FOR THE SUGAR COOKIES
- Beat the butter, peanut butter, and sugar together using a stand or hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, along with the vanilla extract, beating well between each addition.
- Add the flour to the bowl, along with the baking powder and salt, and mix together on low until a dough forms. Split the dough in half, form into balls, and wrap in cling film or plastic wrap. Place in the fridge for an hour if possible, as this will make the dough much easier to work with, especially if you are going to stamp the top of the cookies. You can bake the dough without refrigerating, though, and it still shouldn’t spread.
- When you are ready to roll out the dough, preheat the oven to 180 °C / 355 °F (160 °C fan), and line two large baking sheets with baking parchment or a silicone mat. Roll out the first ball of dough on a floured surface using a lightly floured rolling pin, until about ¼ inch thick. Using cookie cutters of your choice, cut out the cookies and place them on the baking sheets.
- Bake the cookies for about 8–10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. Turn the baking sheet around halfway through baking to make sure they are evenly baked. If you prefer your cookies soft, like I do, then remove them from the oven as soon as they start to go ever so slightly brown at the edges. Leave the cookies to cool for 5–10 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
FOR THE ROYAL ICING
- Sift the icing sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the powdered egg whites as well as 4 tablespoons of water. Beat for five minutes using the beater blade attachment. Add food colouring (or split the icing into separate bowls and colour each individually if using multiple colours). Add a little more water, half a tablespoon at a time, until the icing is at the right consistency for piping: see tip in post above.
- Pipe the icing around the edge of each cookie, and then fill the middle with more icing. Use a toothpick to even up the icing until it is smooth and covers the whole cookie. Leave the cookie to dry for 15 minutes before adding any further colours, so they don’t bleed into each other. Leave the cookies to completely dry (overnight is best) before drawing on with an edible pen: I used a brown one.
Video
Notes
- The baked and iced cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for almost a week: there is no need to keep them in the fridge. The baked (not iced) cookies can also be frozen for up to three months. Defrost at room temperature and then store in an airtight container for up to 7 days. 2. The unbaked cookie dough can be frozen for up to three months. Wrap the dough tightly in cling film or plastic wrap, and then defrost at room temperature before rolling out and baking.
