Seeing as I don't really have time to bake for orders anymore, I would love to share my sugar cookie recipe with you, so that you can make these yummies yourself.
This recipe makes the softest, almost melt-in-your-mouth biscuits - which my husband calls soft Zoo Biscuits. The icing adds extra sweetness that just blows your taste buds away with every bite.
I haven't had a single unsatisfied customer (except my dad, who always complains that the cookies are too sweet - is that even possible?!)
Prep time: 30-40 minutes
Baking time: 180'C for 9 minutes
Makes roughly 40 biscuits
Both recipes for the cookies and the royal icing can easily be doubled or tripled.
INGREDIENTS:
230g butter/baking margarine
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2-3 drops almond essence
2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups cake flour
METHOD:
- Preheat the oven to 180'C.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together SOFT butter and sugar. If you're anything like me and always forget to take the butter out of the fridge ahead of time, you can microwave the butter in a heat-safe mixing bowl until soft, NOT melted (usually about 30 seconds) and then add the sugar. Mix it together until soft and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla essence and almond essence and quickly mix it through.
- Sift in the baking powder and flour - I add the flour one cup at a time. By the time you add the third cup of flour, you need to start mixing the dough by hand. The dough should be soft but shouldn't stick to your fingers.
- For this recipe, the dough doesn't need to stand, so you can use it immediately.
- On a clean surface, sprinkle some flour and roll out the dough. I divide the dough in half so that it's easier to work with. Roll it out evenly to your desired thickness - I keep it somewhere between 0.5-1cm thick.
- Press out your shapes with a cookie cutter. You might need to dunk the cookie cutter into flour first so that it doesn't stick to the dough. Gently lift the cut-out shapes and place it on a greased baking tray. (I spray my tray with oil spray).
- Bake it for 9 minutes for a soft biscuit with crispy edges or longer if you want the whole biscuit to be crispy.
- Once you take it out off the oven, immediately loosen the cookies (I use a very thin-tipped spatula) and place them on a cooling rack. Be careful when you loosen the cookies coz intricate shapes can easily break.
- While the biscuits are cooling, make the icing.
ROYAL ICING:
2 tablespoons meringue powder
1/4 cup water
4 cups icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon caramel essence
- I haven't found ready-made meringue powder in South Africa. But it's super easy to make: simply crush the meringues or grind them in a blender. Then sift it to remove any larger particles. I use store-bought vanilla meringues. 2-3 large meringues gives you about 2 tablespoons meringue powder.
- Mix the meringue powder and water together with an electric beater. The powder will dissolve in the water and become bubbly.
- Add vanilla and caramel essence and mix through.
- Sift in the icing sugar, one cup at a time. Mix thoroughly - like for 5 minutes.
- Separate the icing sugar into however many colours you need, and add food colouring. I love gel food colours but anything is fine. (Add as little colouring as possible to get your desired colour - this will help prevent the colours from running into each other)
- To check the thickness: use a toothpick and draw a line in the icing, then count how long it takes for the line to disappear. I use 25-30 seconds for edges, 15 seconds for words, and 5 seconds for flooding. (If it's too thin, just add some more icing sugar. If it's too thick, SLOWLY add small amounts of water. )
- Then divide each colour into 2 or 3 (for edges, words and flooding).
- I use thick plastic bags as piping bags. Place the plastic bag into a glass to help keep it open, and the add the icing. Use an elastic band or clip to close the end of the bag. You can alternatively use proper icing bags or bottles with nozzles.
- When you're ready to ice, cut a tiny whole in the tip of the bag for the edging and word icings, and a larger hole for the flooding icing.
- Ice away! The icing needs to dry completely between layers (at least 1 hour) - or you can cheat like me, and put the biscuits under the air con to speed up the process. If the icing doesn't dry between layers, the colours will run into each other.
- I usually let the iced cookies stand 24 hours before packaging them.
Get inspired on Pinterest - you can follow me (Fatima Roomaney) and my many party boards with cookies for every occasion.
