Carrot Cookies (Kind of)

Today marks the beginning of my parade of Easter treats! I have these carrot cookies, plus a few other treats to share over the next few weeks. To be honest, I hate carrots. But I love how they are associated with spring and bunnies and all things cheery. And orange is a great color.  So here are some carrot cookies — that don’t involve any real carrots!

If you are a new to decorating cookies with royal icing, here are some helpful tips and links:

• I used my grandma’s sugar cookie recipe, which is listed below.  Another good cut-out cookie recipe can be found at Bridget’s wonderful Bake at 350.
• I used a royal icing recipe from Annie’s Eats, which is listed below.
• If you are new to decorating with royal icing, please visit this post by Annie’s Eats, which will teach you about outlining and flooding.  Bake at 350 is also a great resource for cookie decorating and ideas (I love Bridget’s book, too!).

Here are the specifics on how I made these cookies:

• I found the carrot-shaped cookie cutter on Amazon
• I dyed the icing orange using Wilton’s gel coloring.
• For the leaves, I used Wilton’s Leaf Green gel coloring — and a medium-sized Wilton leaf tip.
• Once I flooded the cookies with orange icing, I let the icing set for just a few minutes — then I dipped each cookie into orange sanding sugar.  I think the addition of the sugar gave the cookies more detail and dimension. (and MORE SUGAR!)
• I used the recipe below for the sugar cookies — and it will make a lot of carrot cookies, so you may want to cut the recipe in half.  Or not.  Depends on how many cookies you want!
• On a related note, it’s hard to tell you how many cookies you’ll get out of the batch of dough.  It depends on the size of the cookie cutter you use.  But it’s safe to say that you’ll get at least 2 dozen large carrot cookies out of the recipe listed below.

Omi’s Sugar Cookies
Print Recipe
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Beat butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients gradually. Chill the batter overnight or for at least 4 hours. Roll out dough and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350F until golden (in true fashion, my grandma didn’t give a specific baking time. I baked the cookies for about 8 minutes).

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.