Bonus: Ever wonder about Royal Icing?

smooth royal icing

Every once in a while I do experiments related to improving my baking skills, unrelated (at least, directly) to a Hveiti og Smjör delivery. I became interested in how some bakeries create these glass smooth icing topped cookies, so I went about researching on the internet and doing a test run. I used this recipe for the royal icing.

First, I baked some large soft almond sugar cookies. These might make an appearance soon. They are incredibly soft, moist, and delicious with just a hint of almond.

almond sugar cookies

The main key to the puzzle, is initially making, and using, a stiff royal icing. You can color this if you like, either the same color the smooth top will be, or leave it white like I did, or even color it another color altogether. Pipe it onto the edge of the cookie with a line-tip on your pastry bag. Once this dries, it will act as a dam to keep the frosting from spilling over. Neat, huh?

Next, you thin down the royal icing. If using white lines, or the same color for both the line and top, you can use one bowl, but if you want different colors, you should separate the royal icing into two bowls, one for the stiff original line, and a 2nd bowl for the thinner top. I used one bowl, used it while stiff, then added some water and green food coloring to thin the icing and color it. Next you just pipe it on, careful not to add so much it can run over the border line. 

adding the top icing

Here are the five finished cookies, you can see the icing is still wet.

still wet icing

Once dry, you can see the top has hardened and has a beautiful glass like finish.

finished icing job

It's really satisfying taking a bite, both for the flavor, as well as for the impression you are spoiling this perfect creation with a destructive bite. :-D

mmmm