Learn how to make these Orange-Almond Mushroom Sugar Cookies! They are a flavorful sugar cookie cut out into a mushroom shape and decorated with red and white royal icing. They are almost too cute to eat.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword christmas cookie, cookie, cut out cookie, sugar cookie
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
To the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, the butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light and fluffy: about 3 minutes.
Add the egg, zest from one orange, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Beat for another 1-2 minutes to combine; scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in thirds. Start with your mixer on low, then speed up to combine. Continue adding and mixing until all of the flour is incorporated.
The dough will seem crumbly in the bowl. You'll know the dough is ready when it starts pulling away from the side of the bowl. Remove the bowl and knead the dough with your hands to fully combine and form into a ball.
Take half of the dough and roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness. Cut out your cookies into the desired shapes and place them onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the baking sheet of cookies into the freezer for about five minutes.
Remove baking sheet from the freezer and bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes. (The time will depend on the size and thickness of your cookies.)
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for just about one minute. Then move the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
In the meantime, prepare the royal icing. Add the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder to the bowl of a stand mixer. (You can also use a hand mixer.) Whisk to combine.
With the mixer on low, add one tablespoon of warm water at a time. Once all six tablespoons have been added, add in the corn syrup.
Continue to mix on low-medium speed adding more warm water, one tablespoon at a time, to achieve the desired consistency. The ideal consistency is something that is a bit thicker than corn syrup.*
Remove half of the royal icing and place it into a separate bowl. Add food coloring to achieve the desired color. I used mostly red, with a very small touch of orange.
Transfer the icing to a piping bag or piping bottle. (I've linked the bottles I used in the notes section below.)
Pipe the red icing onto the cookies first. Let it harden, then move onto the white icing.
Allow the icing to completely harden. Then pack and store these cookies in an airtight container.
Notes
*Making "proper" royal icing takes time and practice. You need to get a feel for it to know the consistency you need. It took me 30 minutes to figure it out and I still needed to adjust things. Have patience and take your time.*You can find the icing bottles I used HERE.*Yield size will vary on the size and thickness of your cookie. For this particular size cookie, I made a bit over 4 dozen cookies.