Easter Cookies

Easter Cookies

Happy Easter! I love baking Easter Cookies since it reminds me spring is coming. Lately in New York, we have experienced cold temperatures and snow so spring has not really shown itself much yet. I love the cold weather, but I think I am ready for spring. I made vanilla sugar cookies adapted from Sweetopia (link below) and used vanilla sugar in place of granulated sugar, and added 1 tablespoon of coconut milk. I also used half of the lemon sugar cookie dough from the Bird's Nest Lemon Cookies. I made a total of 110 cookies for Easter. I made various Peeps, Bunny Tails, Bunny Butts, Bunny Tracks, Bunnies, Chicks, Lambs, Easter Eggs, Speckled Eggs, and Peter Rabbit Wafer Paper designs. The icing colors I worked with were White of course, Yellow, Pink, Teal, Brown, Orange and Green. I used two different icings, royal and egg-free. The cookie recipe and the two icing recipes are below.

Some of my Easter Cookies

Easter Cookies I brought my family 

Easter Cookies on display at my brother and sister in law's place

Yield: 5 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients
5 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour

2 cups Vanilla Sugar

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened

1 tablespoon Coconut Milk

2 Large Eggs

3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Peter Rabbit Wafer Paper Designs

Peter Rabbit Wafer Paper Design, close-up

Directions
Whisk together flour and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and vanilla sugar in a hand held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment on low; 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix for 10 seconds.

Peeps Cookies

Peeps Cookies

Peeps Cookies

Add eggs one at a time, mix until incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 5 seconds.

Add coconut milk and vanilla extract, and mix on low until incorporated, about 20-25 seconds.

With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture and incorporate. The dough is ready when it begins to clump around paddle attachment.

Bunny Tails

Bunny Tails with Chocolate Curls

Bunny Tail, close-up

Roll dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Take half of the dough leaving unused dough covered with plastic wrap in fridge until ready to use.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Bunny Tails with Mini Marshmallows

Bunny Tails, close-up

Bunny Tails

Use two sheets of parchment paper with dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.

Take cutters and make shapes. Repeat until you use all the dough.

Place onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 15 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.

Bunnies

Bunnies, close-up

Bunnies

More Bunnies

Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned. My cookies baked in 13 minutes.

Wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies on cooling racks to complete cooling.

Decorate once cookies have cooled completely.

Bunny Butts

Bunny Tracks

Large Batch Royal Icing
Ingredients
8 Egg Whites

8 teaspoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed

12 cups Confectioners'/Powdered Sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon Clear Vanilla Extract

1-4 tablespoons Water, As Needed

Chicks and Hatching Chicks

Chick and Hatching Chick

Chicks and Hatching Chicks

Hatching Chick and Chick

Directions
In a large bowl, sift confectioners'/powdered sugar; set aside.

In a bowl, add egg whites.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg whites and lemon juice.

Transfer to stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment and mix on high for 1-2 minutes.

Add vanilla extract and mix for 5-10 seconds.

With mixer speed on low, slowly add sifted sugar and beat on low until smooth.

If needed, you may add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until you reach the right consistency.

Watch the Joy of Baking (link at the end) video for both Flooding Consistency and Piping Consistency Royal Icing. If you prefer a recipe using Meringue Powder, it is also
available at this link.

Carrot and Lamb Cookies

Carrot Cookies

Lamb Cookies

Egg-Free Icing
(Double recipe if you have more than 40 cookies)

6 cups Confectioners'/Powdered Sugar, sifted

1/2 cup Whole Milk + 1 tablespoon extra (for flooding cookies)

1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup

2 teaspoons Clear Vanilla Extract

Easter Egg Cookies

Speckled Egg Cookies

Directions
In a large bowl, sift confectioners/powdered sugar; set aside.

Using stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment on medium-high speed, combine sugar and

1/4 cup of milk and mix for 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Add remaining 1/4 cup of milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you need.

Add corn syrup, vanilla extract and mix for 10 seconds.

Note: The corn syrup gives the icing a lovely shine.

Easter Cookies for hubster! ;)

For both icing recipes, I separated the icing in plastic containers with lids according to the different colors I needed.

I used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in various colors. Use 1-2 drops at a time until you have the color you need.

Keep the containers covered until you are ready to color.

I transferred the icing immediately into squeeze bottles.

If the royal icing hardens due to exposure to air, use a spray bottle and spray a little bit of water and shake bottle well holding the tip with your finger. Test the icing consistency on a paper towel before decorating the cookie. Try to avoid this by making sure you keep the icing covered as adding extra water can make the icing bleed.

I outlined the cookies first and then filled them.

Use a paintbrush or cookie stick to reach edges, and use tip of cookie stick or a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.

Sprinkles, Colored Sanding Sugars, Sugar Pearls, etc... I used. I did not end up using the Mini Chips.

Add sprinkles, confetti, sugar pearls, dragees, etc... over wet icing.

I used AmeriColor Gourmet Writer Food Decorating Pens (Certified U.S. food grade) for some of the designs.

Let cookies dry overnight. This is essential so the icing does not stick together when you stack them or place in cookie tins for gifts.

If you are baking and it is humid, you may need more time for the cookies to dry.

For further information:
Please visit, Sweetopia for the Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/sugar-cookie-recipe/

Please visit, Joy of Baking for the Royal Icing Recipe and Video Tutorial:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/RoyalIcing.html

Please visit, The Slow Roasted Italian for the Egg-Free Icing Recipe:
http://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/12/best-tasting-sugar-cookie-icing-recipe.html

I was inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle's Decorated Peep Cookies to make the Peeps Cookies:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2014/02/decorated-peeps-cookies/

I was inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle's Bunny Face Cookies and made one:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2013/04/bunny-face-cookies/

I used Sweet Sugarbelle's Polar Bear Cookies Tutorial to make the cheeks using lustre dust for the bunny cheeks:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2013/01/easy-polar-bear-cookies/

I was inspired by Sweet Sugarbelle's Bunny Track Cookies and made some:
http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2014/03/bunny-track-cookies/

I was inspired by Noshing With The Nolands Bunny Bum Cookies to make the Bunny Butt Cookies:
https://noshingwiththenolands.com/bunny-bum-cookies/

I was inspired by Pin-Up Cake to make the Easter Egg Marbled Designs
https://pin-upcake.blogspot.com/2013/03/wielkanocne-lukrowane-ciasteczka.html

I was inspired by Erica's Sweet Tooth Malted Milk Speckled Egg Cookies to make the Speckled Egg Cookies:
http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2015/03/malted-milk-speckled-egg-cookies.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys