. 
Easter Sugar Cookies
Here's a fun and festive Easter cookie decorating project that kids and parents will love. Rolled sugar-cookie dough is ideal for cutting into Easter eggs, bunnies, ducklings, flowers and other Spring shapes. If you like, reduce the vanilla to 1/2 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. To decorate, use our Royal Icing recipe.
PREP:
20 minutes
BAKE:
10 minutes
TOTAL:
30 minutes
YIELD:
16
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, Softened
- 2/3 cups Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2-1/2 cups Flour, sifted
DIRECTIONS:
Cream together the Butter and Sugar.Beat in the Egg.
Add Vanilla, Salt, and the Sifted Flour.
Mix until all ingredients are well blended. Chill dough for 3 to 4 hours before rolling, so the dough is easy to roll, and won't spread during baking.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out on a lightly floured counter to 1/4" thick and cut with your favorite Ann Clark Easter cookie cutters, then transfer cookies onto cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper or silicone liners. Bake about 8-10 minutes or until lightly colored. Let cookies cool slightly on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
As pictured, decorate with Royal Icing, which you can apply by dipping the cookie into a bowl of icing [Video] or by "flooding" the surface of the cookie using a piping bag or even a small spatula. Tint the icing with one or more drops of food coloring to achieve varying hues. You can also top the wet icing with sugar sprinkles if you like. To draw fine details like the Easter Bunny faces, fill a piping bag with colored frosting. If you don't have a piping bag, you can spoon the icing into a zip-lock bag and snip a small hole in one corner with scissors. If air bubbles appear in the frosting, use a toothpick to smooth out the surface before it dries.
Enjoy, and Hoppy Easter to you!
