Vanilla Cookies

I had nothing to snack on so I thought I make myself something sweet.

A few days before I've seen some painted on cookies on pinterest and I really wanted to try that out. It's kinda like painting in watercolors and I'm not that bad with those.
So I found myself a cookie recipe that would work for that. I'm satisfied with this recipe. The edges stay sharp after baking. But you still have to be careful not to break of the corners. And of course they taste good.

I actually didn't eat all that many of them. Effectivly only those you can see on the picture at the top.
On all the other cookies I put some royal icing, as you can see on the picture beneath.

This was the first time I used royal icing. It was harder to use than I thought. I need some more practise until I can make a straight line.
I had some problems with making the royal icing. I just couldn't get stiff peaks, only really soft soft peaks. The reason for that was most likely that I didn't use cream of tartar. I've never seen it in a grocery store, couldn't find a substitute and I didn't want to buy it online (the shipping costs are as high as the buying price).
But the consistency is alright for cookies.

So my fist try at painting cookies worked out better than I thought. It's really more or less like watercolors. I used Wilton Gel Colors and diluted them with water.

I didn't have the time nor did I fancy to come up with my own motif. So I found myself some illustrations online. Except of the panda (I found that on pinterest), I used illustrations from the French artist Benjamin Lacombe and the German artist Anne Pätzke/Trenchmaker. I love them both. And now I made fanart on cookies.

Another reason why I chose this motifs is that they all have a rather simple form. I could sketch the outlines on the icing with severely diluted black but I couldn't erase anything. So the first sketch had to be more or less perfect. I did't make exact copies. Some things I had to change because of the dimension of my "canvas" and some I changed because I liked it better that way.

So I as I said I was rather satisfied with the outcome. The cookies looked really good. So good in fact that I couldn't bring myself to eat them. But I just couldn't let them laying around either. So I thought I send them to my mom. Not that I think she is going to eat them, but that way it wouldn't be me that has to suffer.

You can see the cookies up close here.

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Vanilla Cookies

Dough

225 g butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 g vanilla sugar, optional
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
4 1/2 cups flour

1. The butter shouldn't be to soft, it's enough if you take it out of the fridge one hour before you need it. Put the butter, the vanilla sugar and the sugar in a big bowl. Mix everything together with a hand mixer until it's creamy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Add baking powder and salt and mix well.
4. Add the flour, one cup at a time. Use the dough hook to mix everything together.
5. Dust your work station with a little flour. Roll the dough out on it. It's easier if you only roll out small portions at a time. Cover the dough you aren't working with with saran wrap, so it doesn't dry out. If you don't want to ice the cookies they should be about 0,5 cm thick. If you want to ice them make them thicker, about 1 cm.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/375°F.
7. Put baking paper on a baking sheet.
8. Cut out the cookies with a cookie cutter or a knife.
9. Place the cut out cookies on the prepared baking sheet. Don't place the cookies to close, they will raise a little during the baking.
10. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes, depending on size. The edges should have a light gold-brown color.

The dough is enough for 2 1/2 - 3 baking sheets.

Royal Icing 

3 egg whites
500 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1. Clean out the bowl you will use, to make sure it is absolutely fat free.
2. Sift the icing into a bowl.
3. Put the egg whites into the cleansed bowl. Beat them lightly for a few seconds.
4. Add the lemon juice.
5. Add the icing sugar one tablespoon at a time, while continuously whipping the egg whites on high.
6. Whip the egg whites for about 5-10 minutes. Until you have stiff peaks (soft peaks worked too).
7. Cover the bowl with a clean damp towel, while you are not working with the icing. To keep it from drying out.

To Assemble

piping bag
decorating tube, small round
decorating tube, medium round
3-6 tsp water

1. Prepare a piping bag with the small round decorating tube.
2. Fill some icing into the bag.
3. Pipe an outline onto the cookies.
4. To make the icing to flood the cookies, add water to the royal icing. One teaspoon at a time. To test the royal icing for the right consistency, move something through it. When the icing smooths out after 15 seconds, than it has reached the consistency you want.
5. Prepare a piping bag with the medium round decorating tube.
6. Fill some icing into the bag.
7. Flood the "outlined" cookies with the icing. Shake them a little from side to side to smooth it out.
8. Let the icing dry over night.
9. Paint the cookies.

Bon appétit!!