| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 4 hr |
| Active: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 5 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 sticks (1 cup) plus 5 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dipping cutters
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
- 2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted, plus more if needed
- 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk, plus more if needed
- 2 large pasteurized egg whites
- Red and orange food coloring, as needed
Instructions
- For the cookies: Combine the granulated sugar, butter and orange zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through with a spatula.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk in 2 batches; mix until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough in half and flatten each portion into a disk. Place each disk into a separate resealable plastic bag. Refrigerate the dough until firm, about 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out both pieces of dough until about 1/4 inch thick.
- Using 2 different sized butterfly cookie cutters (2-inch and 3-inch), cut out as many cookies as you can. Use the 2-inch cutter on one portion of dough and the 3-inch cutter on the other portion of dough. Be sure to dip the cutters in flour every other cookie or so while you are cutting them out to prevent the dough from sticking.
- Transfer as many of the cookies as will fit onto the prepared baking sheets and bake until they’re just set but not browned, about 7 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then remove to racks to cool completely before decorating. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
- For the icing: Combine the powdered sugar, milk and egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until thick and glossy. Add more powdered sugar if the icing seems too thin. Add more milk if it is too thick. You may need to play with it until it is just right. The icing should be loose enough to stick to the cookies in an even layer, but not too loose to slide off.
- For decorating: Divide the icing among 3 or 4 smaller bowls. Add 2 to 3 drops each of red and orange food coloring to each bowl, scattering it over the surface of the icing. Drag a toothpick through the drops a few times to make swirls.
- Dip the top of each cookie in the icing and let the excess drip off over the bowl. Transfer the dipped cookies to a rack and allow to dry completely. When the colors in the first bowl of icing become too muddled, move on to the next bowl of icing and so forth until all the cookies are iced. Let the icing dry completely, about 1 hour.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 60 servings |
| Calories | 150 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 27 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 20 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Cholesterol | 17 mg |
| Sodium | 72 mg |
Reviews
These cookies were okay. I love Ree’s recipes but this cookie recipe needed a lot of refrigeration to help with the stickiness of the dough. I needed to roll them out between parchment papers as they were sticking to my counter surface and silicone mats. Mine required 9-10 minutes & the texture wasn’t my favorite either.
LOVE this recipe!! Takes some time but comes out beautifully. Keep in mind that the sugar cookie recipe isn’t very sweet once baked but that where the frosting comes in. Creates a perfect cookie! 🙂 8ï8
I love this recipe and everyone I’ve made these for has loved them. I also use meringue powder (lori ann)for the royal icing and I put a few drops of young living orange dietary oil in the sugar cookie dough recipe to kick up the orange essence.
Tried this recipe out right away. I used meringue powder instead of egg whites in the icing because it’s what I had. And I also used juice from an orange instead of milk in the icing. I don’t think there would have been enough orange flavor otherwise because personally I could have used a little more. I did try the marble effect and it worked ok but I definitely need to practice to find the best way to do it.