Snowman Sugar Cookies
36 cookies
Make these super easy snowman sugar cookies and snowflake cookies, and decorate them with your favorite icing! With options to decorate with royal icing, easy cookie icing, or buttercream.
Equipment
4 disposable icing bags
2 inch round cookie cutter
Ingredients
For the sugar cookies:
- 1 cup (225g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3½ cups all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Royal Icing:
- 3 cups (360g) powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons meringue powder
- 6-7 tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Food coloring
Food coloring used (Wilton):
- Black
- Orange
- Aqua
Instructions
To Make the Sugar Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C or 160°C fan oven, and line 2 cookie sheets with Silpat silicone mats or parchment paper.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugar until smooth, light in color and creamy (2-3 minutes).
- Add vanilla and egg and mix again until the egg is incorporated but don’t over whip (the longer you whip the egg, it can souffle up and the cookies will rise and you don’t want that).
- Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix again until just combined. Scrape the sides with a spatula so no dry flour is left. The cookie should pull away from the sides of the bowl (if it doesn’t add ½ cup of flour).
- Divide the dough into 4 portions, and roll out each using a rolling pin into ¼ inch thickness. Cut out using a cookie cutter and with the help of an offset spatula transfer to the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes rotating at 6 minutes for even browning (one sheet at a time). Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before icing the cookies.
For the Royal Icing:
- In a bowl combine the powdered sugar with meringue powder and water (add the water gradually, start with 6 tablespoons and then add more as needed). Whisk until combined but do not overmix .
- Divide the royal icing among bowls, depending on how many colors you plan to make. Add gel food coloring with a toothpick, and stir to get an evenly colored frosting. Add more food coloring as needed.
- Place the icings into separate disposable piping bags, and secure the open ends of the bags with small rubber bands. If you're using piping tips, insert a coupler into the bag before adding the icing. This keeps the tip from being pushed inside, and lets you swap out different tips as needed. You can also simply cut a small bit off of the end of the bag.
To Decorate the Cookies:
- Place each color of icing in a pastry bag and set aside.
- Divide your baked cookies in half, so you decorate a batch of snowmen and a batch of snowflake.
- For the snowmen cookies, begin by piping the white Icing around the outside of the cookies, and then fill in the center. Allow to dry and then start filling the aqua cookies, aqua around the edge and fill the center, let dry for 20 minutes. Next, take your black icing and draw two eyes and a smile for the snowman's face.
- Next, take the orange icing and draw on his nose, repeat until all of the snowmen's faces are finished. Then, take the white icing and draw an "X" on top of the aqua cookie and then draw another "X" to make the snowflake lines and then draw smaller lines to make the intricate part of the snowman.
Notes
- Allow Icing to Fully Set and Harden: It is really important that you let your icing set completely before you stack the cookies. Royal icing takes about 6 hours to fully set and harden, buttercream takes around 3 hours but it won't fully harden to be able to stack the cookies. The easy cookie icing takes 24 hours to fully set and harden.
- Use Gel Food Coloring: To color your icing, use gel food coloring rather than a liquid, so that the food coloring won’t alter the texture of the icing. I like this set from Wilton that has 12 different colors.
- Avoid overmixing the royal icing. If you add too much air to it, it becomes dull.
- If you're making buttercream, whip it with the paddle attachment rather than using the whisk attachment to avoid air bubbles in the frosting.
- To Store: Decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. The icing keeps the cookies from drying out. Undecorated cookies will stay fresh for up to 1 week if you’d like to make the cookies one day and then decorate them later.
- To Freeze: Seal the cookies in an airtight container with a layer of parchment or wax paper between layers. Decorated and undecorated sugar cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie without icing | Calories: 113kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 19mg | Sodium: 53mg | Potassium: 17mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 165IU | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 1mg