Easter Egg Cookies

I had big plans for these Easter Egg Cookies. Big plans. After all, I had confidently purchased three cookie decorating books after my first innocent attempt at cookies with royal pain icing.

Next, I saw some adorable egg cookies in one of the books. The cookies had a baby chick peeking out of a cracked egg. The chick even had airbrushed cheeks!

Yeah right.

Let's just go with sprinkles. I did decide to practice outlining and flooding the cookies with royal icing. After some failed attempts at "wet-on-wet" techniques, I decided to toss on these adorable Easter sprinkles I found. One step at a time. The outlining and flooding went just fine.

I think one of the reasons I love baking bread is because you can get away with the "rustic" look. That doesn't necessarily work with decorated cookies.... unless you have sprinkles!!! Right? You just throw them on and your cookies are pretty!

The dough for these cookies is so easy to work with, and is wonderful for any cutout cookie. It's amazingly reliable. I used Fiori di Sicilia, an Italian flavoring that combines orange and vanilla (sort of like a creamsicle) to flavor the cookie dough. You can use vanilla or any other flavoring you prefer.

Can you see the adorable bunny ears, baby chicks, and tiny ducky sprinkles on these eggs?

I found these sprinkles at Surfas, my personal food Disneyland. If you are ever in southern California, you must add them to your itinerary.

The theme for this month's #CreativeCookieExchange is traditional spring holidays from around the world. In this part of the world (my house), sprinkles are HUGE!!! I have grandchildren!!

For more traditional spring cookie recipes, check out my Hamantaschen with Prune Lekvar or my Glazed Doughnut Cookies.

After the recipe, be sure to check out the Spring cookie recipes from all of the #CreativeCookieExchange bakers.

Easter Egg Cookies Recipe

Makes about 36 three inch long egg shaped cookies.

Ingredients and Instructions

Cookies

142 grams powdered sugar

255 grams salted room temperature butter

1 large egg yolk

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp Fiori di Sicilia or other flavoring

326 grams unbleached all purpose flour

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the powdered sugar, butter, egg yolk, salt, and Fiori di Sicilia. Mix with the paddle attachment until smooth.
2. Add the flour and mix on medium until the dough comes together. 
3. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into disks. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours and up to 24 hours. 
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
5. Line three half sheet pans with parchment. 
6. Roll the halves of dough out between sheets of wax or parchment paper to 3/16 inch thick. Cut the cookies with your cookie cutter and place the cookies onto the baking sheet. Because the cookies do not have any leavening, they can be places close together. 
7. Gather up the scraps, re-roll, and cut.
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time on the middle rack, for 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. 
9. Repeat with the remaining dough, reusing the same parchment lined baking sheets once they have cooled. 
10. Once the cookies have cooled completely, ice and decorate. 

Royal Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
2.5 tbsp water, plus more to thin the icing
Sprinkles!

1. Place the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water into a bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment on medium low for about 7 to 10 minutes, until the mixture looks matte. Transfer the mixture to an airtight container.
2. At this point, the mixture is too thick to pipe. Add more water by tablespoon to the mixture, stirring thoroughly between additions, until it is at a consistency that can be piped. 
3. Place some of the icing into a piping bag with a small tip. Pipe the borders of the cookies and let dry for about an hour.
4. Dilute the remaining royal icing with water, adding it one teaspoon at a time until it runs off of a spoon but is not thin. The goal is to have it thick enough to be opaque, but thin enough to create a level and flat "flooding." You can always add more sugar or water as necessary to achieve the right consistency. 
5. Place the flooding icing into plastic squeeze condiment bottles. 
6. One cookie at a time, squeeze some of the icing onto the cookie and spread it with a toothpick to the edges. 
7. Add the sprinkles to the cookie. 
8. Let the cookies dry for about 3 hours.

Cookie recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour 

We all associate cookies with “The” holidays in December, but spring holidays are a great time for cookies also! Whether you are celebrating Easter, Passover, or something else, we’ve found some great traditional cookies from around the world for you! Check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

Also, if you are looking for inspiration to get in the kitchen and start baking, check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• Chocolate Candy Coconut Cookies from Magnolia Days
• Easter Egg Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Egyptian Date Crescents from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Hamantaschen from Spiceroots
• Ma'amoul – Date Stuffed Cookies from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Malt M&M's Easter Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Peach and Pistachio Frangiapane Hamantaschen from Live Bake Love
• Zesty Citrus Bar Cookies from 2 Cookin' Mamas