Lemon Sugar Cookies Recipe with Icing (2024)

FAQs

Do you put icing on sugar cookies before or after baking? ›

Many bakers like to let bake their cookies at least a day before decorating to prevent oil spots. Sometimes when using two different icing colors the colors will bleed, especially with black. When your using really dark colors to help prevent this make sure to give plenty of drying time before applying the next color.

Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown. Adding too little sugar can affect the taste and texture of cookies. Adding too much can cause them to be brittle. Take your time creaming the sugar and butter together at the beginning.

Place the powdered sugar, vanilla and 2 1/2 tablespoons of milk or water for the flood icing in a bowl and stir together with a spoon or a fork until smooth. This icing should still be fairly thick, but it should drizzle easily and a bit of drizzled icing should sink immediately back into the icing.

Get a recipe, buy the ingredients (butter, sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla). Why buy ready-to-bake when it is really easy to make sugar cookies? You can add citrus zest, cinnamon, or almond extract to the dough. You could also ice them with a tasty frosting and add some nuts or toasted coconut.

Frosting is the thickest of these confections and is ideal for spreading or piping on cakes, cupcakes and cookies. Icing is a little thinner than frosting and is often poured or piped over coffee cakes, pound cakes, doughnuts and cookies—and it usually hardens when it dries.

Room temperature butter is just the right consistency to incorporate air when it's creamed with sugar. These trapped air pockets result in risen, fluffy cookies. If the butter is any warmer, it won't incorporate enough air and your cookies will have less rise.

Classic signs of a cookie with too much butter include crispy-bordering-on-burnt edges, a greasy surface, an excessively brittle texture, and a predominantly buttery flavor that overpowers the other caramel and chocolate notes.

Brown sugar

Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough. The difference is in the molasses that makes brown sugar brown: It adds moisture and slight acidity, resulting in a moist and chewy texture.

Start by outlining the cookie with piping-consistency icing in any color you choose. Then, use flooding-consistency icing to fill the outlined area, starting by flooding around the edges and working your way towards the center. If the flooding is inconsistent in thickness, redistribute the wet icing with a toothpick.

Undermix, and your royal icing looks translucent and is structurally weak. Overwhip, and you're giving too much volume to the egg proteins via air, causing the structure to weaken in a different way. Overmixed icing usually looks porous when dry, and sometimes will not even fully dry and be soft/brittle.

Do you decorate sugar cookies hot or cold? ›

How to Decorate Sugar Cookies. The main thing to remember is to let the cookies cool completely before applying cookie icing or frosting so the heat from the cookies doesn't melt it off.

If the baked cookies taste a bit bland (and if the dough is fairly soft and receptive to additions), add salt and/or spices to the remaining dough before baking. If, on the other hand, they're a bit salty for your taste, try rolling the dough balls in sugar before baking.

A handful of sprinkles is sure to bring a smile to any face. We've baked starry candy sprinkles right into our sugar cookie dough in this cute-as-can-be dessert bar, topped with a drizzle of melted vanilla baking chips and of course, more sprinkles. A handful of sprinkles is sure to bring a smile to any face.

Attempting to spread frosting onto warm cake layers is a recipe for sloppy disaster. Chill your cake layers for at least 2 hours, or better, overnight. If you've made your frosting ahead, make sure it's at room temperature before you start.

Roll Cookies in Fancy Sugar

For this technique, you'll want to decorate your cookies before baking.

Room Temperature:

Baked and decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks. Make sure that your icing has hardened completely before stacking the cookies, and adding a layer of parchment paper between cookie layers is always a good idea for some additional protection.