Sugar cookies

I have been busy the last two days trying to finish up all the food prep for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas. So far I think I have used at least 10 pounds of butter-wouldn't Paula Dean be proud! Thankfully much of that is in gifts!!!-so hopefully the 10 pounds won't be added to my rear end!!

I love the look of royal frosting, but hate the taste so I have been using a few different recipes to try to get the royal frosting look without the icky, hard as rock taste.

First I have found that using americolor instead of wilton makes a significant difference. The other thing I have learned is that I am not really a fan of sugar cookies-so I have been using shortbread cookie recipes instead-and they make the cookies sooo much better!! I have also been using a glaze type frosting adapted from Toba Garrett's cream glaze recipe. Then I use the icky tasting royal icing as the pipping-therefore it can taste not so grand because the glaze is good and so are the shortbread!!

Here are the recipes I used:

Scotch Shortbread

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 cups flour

chill 30 minutes

roll out to 1/2" cut and bake 325 for 10 minutes

Cream Glaze

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 Tablespoon light corn syrup

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon flavoring (vanilla, lemon, rum, peppermint . . .)

Royal Frosting

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons Meringue Powder

5 Tablespoons water

(flavoring if desired)

-I use this for pipping so I use about 4 tablespoons of water-you want it fairly stiff