… Of the year! (quoting a famous Christmas song :)).

So, I got fixated with icings and, last weekend, I tried the royal icing. And since we're close to Christmas, what could be better than frosted cookies?

Notes on royal icing:

- there are various recipes around, but the base is always powdered sugar + egg white + lemon juice. What can change is the proportion of powdered sugar that makes the icing firm. The lower percentage of water then facilitates drying. I modified the recipe of L’arte del recupero which also gives excellent advices on the preparation of the glaze.

-thanks to its compactness, the royal icing is ideal to decorate cookies. I would avoid it to cover cakes, for which I would opt for a simple water glaze.

- the decoration requires the use of a pastry bag. You will need a small one with a fine spout.

- you can add food colouring to the icing, depending on how you want to decorate your cookies.

- the royal icing dries fairly quickly, especially if you choose one with a higher percentage of powdered sugar. Once prepared, the icing should be covered with plastic wrap to prevent it from hardening.

But let's get to the most important thing, the recipe :)

Cookies with royal icing

For the shortcrust pastry (the usual Ducasse recipe)

• 500 g of all purpose flour

• 300 g of butter

• 200 g of sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the royal icing

• 115 g of icing sugar

• 1 fresh egg white

• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Note: if you want to completely cover the biscuits, double the amount of icing above. The doses I used are only sufficient for decorating.

Preparation of the shortcrust pastry

Put all the ingredients in a standing mixer and mix with the leaf hook at low speed. As soon as the pastry is smooth, stop the planetary mixer and transfer the pastry to a floured pastry board. Wrap half of the dough in plastic wrap and freeze it, you can use it to prepare other biscuits or a tart. * Roll out the other half and cut out biscuits of the shape you like best. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 C, until they turn golden brown. Remove the cookies from the oven and set aside to cool.

* For those who ask me if it is not easier to halve the shortcrust pastry, unfortunately not! It doesn't come the same. So, I prefer to use the whole dose and freeze half for future use.

Preparation of the royal icing

Put the egg white and lemon in a large bowl. Start to whip the whites and add a couple of tablespoons of powdered sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, add more and continue like this until the icing “writes” (take a bit of icing and let it fall on the mass in the bowl. If the icing stays on the surface for a few seconds, it means it is ready).

Decoration

Transfer the icing into a pastry bag with a fine spout and decorate the cookies as you like! Let the icing dry (it will take a couple of hours) and enjoy your cookies :)