Little apple cookies! Aren’t they cute? I am in the camp that hates (hates) pumpkin spice anything, so I choose to make fall all about apples instead. Apple pie. Apple cider. Hard apple ale. It’s all good. What’s your favorite type of apple? It’s a tie between honeycrisp and granny smith for me. Here’s the scoop on how I made these cookies!
If you are a new to decorating with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:
- I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below. Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350 [1].
- I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats [2], which is listed below.
- If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats [3], which will teach you about outlining and flooding. Bake at 350 [4] is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).
Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:
- I used a small apple cookie cutter — mine was only about 2″. I wish more cutters would come in this size!
- You will need red, yellow, and green sanding sugar; as well as red, yellow, and green food coloring. I used AmeriColor gel colorings. I chose more of a lime green so that my green apples would look like granny smiths.
- I bought a tub of chocolate frosting for the stems. I wasn’t about to waste the time making a whole batch of homemade chocolate buttercream just for those little stems!
- I outlined the cookies with icing first using a small round tip (see below for the recipe I used); once the outlines set, I flooded each apple. Immediately after flooding, I dipped each apple into sanding sugar.
- The last step is to pipe a little chocolate stem onto each apple.
Omi’s Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg
Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).
White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.
Divide the icing into three bowls; dye one red, one yellow, one green. Outline the apples with the icing; wait a few hours then flood — and dip into the sanding sugar. Pipe a little chocolate stem onto each apple.
Note: depending on how big your apples are or how many you are making, you may need to make a few batches of this icing.