Fall Sugar Cookies

Fall and Winter are two of my favorite times of year. In my head Fall usually stands for things like cooler weather, pumpkin baking, and falling leaves.
Unless you live in Phoenix.
Fall in Phoenix means 85 degrees instead of 95, if you're lucky. It means you can bake with pumpkin, but you should probably do it at night since the rest of the day the kitchen will still be burning hot. And falling leaves? Ha, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen those since vacation.
Fall is, without a doubt, one of the most frustrating times in Phoenix for people who love the season. Generally because most years, it doesn't exist. It's been in the 90's here for the past week and I've been getting desperate for a sign of weather change. So, I'm making one in my house. Fall Leaf sugar cookies, my own personal vision of how fall should be. (Baked at night of course.)
I haven't had a lot of experience with Royal Icing, but it something I want to try and work with more. I seem to have a lot of trouble getting the colors the shade that I really want them. I'll probably try again soon using more basic colors so I can work on my actually decorating skills. But for now, these are pretty delicious.


Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour
Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to 1/4” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.
Source: Annie's Eats

Royal Icing
Ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2.5 tbsp. meringue powder
5 tbsp. water (may need a little more/less)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined with a smooth constancy. Add a little more water to create a thinner icing to fill the cookies, use a slighty thicker icing to create the outlines.

Most recipes I read for Royal Icing are made for use with a stand mixer. They all say to mix the icing for 7-10 minutes until it becomes for matte looking and loses its shine. I personally don't have a stand mixer so I wasn't able to try out this method, but it seems like it would create an easier to work with icing.

Photos by Keegan Orange