This Is the Easiest, Fastest Way to Decorate Your Holiday Sugar Cookies

I’m not ashamed to admit that I have a bit of an obsession when it comes to holiday cookies. Every year my baking extravaganza starts the weekend after Thanksgiving. I make a batch of dough every couple of days and stash it in my chest freezer, then a few days before Christmas I get my double ovens cranking at 350˚F and spend the entire day rolling, dropping, dipping, and sprinkling my way to Christmas baking bliss.

All that to say, while I like to consider myself a great baker, intricately decorating sugar cookies with royal icing is not a skill I was blessed with. But over the years, I’ve figured out a fantastic work-around that still has a big holiday impact: sugar cookies iced using the “dip” method.

Essentially, instead of flooding the surface of a sugar cookie with royal icing, you dip it into a bowl of icing to make quick work of the task. You can do this with plain white royal icing, but my favorite way to do it is to use food coloring to create a marbled effect. It’s easy, my kids love to get in on the action, and it takes practically zero artistic skills. Plus, the end result is really magical.

Here’s How the Dip Method Works:

Step One:

This method works best with traditional roll-out sugar cookies. Any recipe will do, but you want a cookie that is sturdy; save the soft-baked variety for Santa.

Step Two:

Once the cookies are baked and cooled, prepare a basic royal icing. I prefer a royal icing that uses meringue powder as I find it more stable to work with, plus you get the added bonus of not having to worry about raw egg whites, something that is important to me considering the sheer number of cookies my kids put away during the holidays.

Step Three:

Once the icing is mixed, it’s time to perform the figure eight test to find out if your icing is of “flood” consistency. This is a pastry chef tip I learned way back in culinary school: Once your icing is mixed you hold a spoon of it above the mixing bowl and create a figure eight pattern with the icing that drips off the spoon. If the eight remains visible on top of the bowl for exactly eight seconds, your icing is ready to use. If it disappears before eight seconds, you need to thicken it up with a little more powdered sugar. If it lasts for longer than eight seconds, you need to thin the icing slightly with a bit of water. The consistency is key here as you want the icing to be thick enough to cling to the surface of the cookie, but thin enough to allow excess to drip off so the marbled pattern really pops.

Step Four:

Once you have the consistency of the icing just right, it’s time to marble it. I generally try to use all-natural food dyes when baking at home, but this is an instance where real deal food coloring is best. I like to use gel coloring for this as I think the color is more vibrant. You can select one color or multiple; just add a few drops all over the surface and use a toothpick to create a swirled marbled pattern.

Step Five:

Set up a work surface. Place the bowl of icing on top of parchment paper to catch the mess and set a baking rack on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Working with one cookie at a time, it’s time to dip! Press the cookie flat into the icing for about 5 seconds, then pull the cookie out and allow the excess to drip off onto the parchment paper so the swirled pattern is not disturbed. Repeat this process until all of the cookies are iced. If you notice the swirl is not very vibrant, you can add more coloring and swirl it again.

Step Six:

Let the cookies set up at room temperature on the baking rack for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they are dry to the touch.

Troubleshooting

• Royal icing is designed to set up when exposed to air. That’s what makes it great for holding gingerbread houses together! Flood consistency royal icing is much more fluid, but it will still set up fairly quickly. Since I usually have little ‘helpers’ on hand when making these, I like to keep a damp towel within reach to use to cover the icing in the event of a break in the action. If you leave the bowl exposed to air for too long, the icing will start to set and won’t be thin enough to dip the cookies into.

• If your icing thickens up as it sits, you can always add a little water to thin it back out, even if you already added your coloring. Once you mix the drops of water in, you may need to add a bit more food coloring to recreate the marbled effect.

• I like to make one batch of the icing and divide it into two bowls. This allows you a clean slate in case the first batch starts to get muddied after a few cookies have been dipped.
  

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