Fall Leaf Cookies

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Two years ago I found some fun leaf cookie cutters and was excited to make them in the fall.  Unfortunately September through December is my crazy cookie time and I have orders to fill almost every weekend.   These orders are mostly for homecoming, Halloween, and Christmas.  This means there isn’t much time for making other cookies for myself.

When I tell people that making decorated sugar cookies takes a lot of time I think they think I’m crazy.  However, to make sugar cookies I have to prepare the dough, refrigerate it for at least 1 hour, roll out the dough, and bake the cookies.   Then the cookies have to cool before I can do anything else.

After cooling I can make the royal icing and then decorate the cookies.   Decorating the cookies is a painstaking task that takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.    A few weeks ago I had some extra dough so instead of putting it back in the refrigerator I grabbed my leaf cookie cutters and cut a dozen out.   I baked them, cooled them, and put them away to decorate the next day.

The great thing about these cookies is that they only have 1 color on them per cookie.  Most of my cookies have between 2-4 colors per cookie which is why they take forever.   When using 1 color it makes it really easy.   I simply outlines and filled all the cookies using red, orange, or yellow and let them dry for 30 minutes.   Then I drew the “veins” on the inside of the cookie in the same color and sprinkled it with the same colored sprinkles.   That’s it!   They were super easy to make and I love the shimmering sprinkles on them.   I wish I had made them sooner because they don’t take much effort at all!

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Fall Leaf Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing and sprinkles!

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Ingredients

For the cookies:

• 2 sticks of butter, softened
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the royal icing:

• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon meringue powder
• 3-4 Tablespoons water
• red, orange, yellow food coloring
• red, orange, and yellow sanding sugar

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine the butter and sugar. Mix until well combined.
2. Stir in the egg and mix well. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl. Mix for 2 minutes or until well combined.
4. Place the dough in plastic wrap, cover completely, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
6. Sprinkle an area with flour and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out leaf shapes. Place on a cookie sheet, 2 inches apart, and bake for 7-8 minutes.
7. Keep a careful eye out on the cookies as you do not want them to brown.
8. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. To make the icing combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder in a bowl. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
10. Divide into 3 bowls. Color 1 bowl red, 1 orange, and 1 yellow.
11. Put half the icing into zip top baggies. Snip off a corner of the baggie and pipe an outline onto each leaf. Fill in the leaf with remaining icing. Allow icing to harden for 30 minutes.
12. Using the icing still in the baggies, pipe on "veins" inside the cookies, doing 1 at a time, and quickly sprinkle with sanding sugar. Continue until they are completed.

Notes

A Hezzi-D original recipe