4th of July Cookies

Learn how to make a colorful and delicious variety of decorated 4th of July cookies, using my tried and true vanilla-orange sugar cookie recipe paired with lemony royal icing.

Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 15

Servings cookies

Calories 169 kcal

5 from 3 votes

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Equipment

Star, corn, firecracker, watermelon, and ice cream cone cookie cutters (see Notes)
1 Rolling Pin
Squeeze bottles or piping bags
Decorating tips (recommend #1, #2, and #3 round tips)
Gel paste food colors (yellow, pink, red, black, green, blue, brown)
White fondant (optional)
Toothpicks or skewers
Silver sprinkles (optional)

Ingredients

Lemon Royal Icing

2 lb confectioner's sugar
⅓ cup meringue powder
14 tablespoon warm water
1 tablespoon lemon juice (plus more for thinning)
1 Vanilla Orange Sugar Cookies Recipe

Instructions

Sugar Cookies

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt.
In the bowl of a mixer, beat sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, zest and vanilla until combined.
WIth the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until combined.
Turn dough out onto a work surface and divide into four equal pieces Shape each piece into a flat disk. Wrap each disk tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until cold, or for up to 3 days.
Preheat oven to 350 °F (180℃.). Line baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one disk of dough to a thickness of ¼ inch. Using a cookie cutter of your choice, cut out shapes and carefully transfer them to the prepared sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Reroll scraps as necessary. Repeat process with more dough until both cookie sheets are full.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes, until cookies are set and lightly browned. Let cookies cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely before decorating. As shown in the tutorials in the blog post.

Royal Icing

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat sugar and meringue powder on low speed until well combined.
In a measuring cup (preferably one with a spout), stir together water and lemon juice. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add water mixture, mixing until combined. At this point the icing will be fairly runny.
Increase the mixer to medium and mix for 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Increase mixer speed to high and beat for 3 minutes or until the icing is stiff and glossy and the whisk attachment can stand up in the icing without sinking.

Video

Notes

This sugar cookie dough will make anywhere from 36 to 60 cookies, depending on the size of the cutter.
Unbaked dough can be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to one month.
Baked and decorated or undecorated cookies will keep, tightly wrapped, for up to 3 months in the freezer.
Use your own variety of cookie cutters if you don't want to make the investment in specific shapes. You can also draw shapes freehand on a circular cutter or trace a shape that you've printed from your computer.

Nutrition

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