Decorated Acorn Sugar Cookies

Because I’ve already found the perfect sugar cookie recipe, making creative cookies for every holiday/party/birthday really just comes down to food coloring and how you pipe the icing out. You can go to town creating all sorts of holidayish cookies {like the awesome acorn cookies I’ll show you how to make today} and be the envy of the entire PTA. Take that Pinterest!

Cookie Ingredients

1 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Royal Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons meringue powder {This is what I use}
food coloring {I use Gel Food Color}

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375. In a stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl often {you can use a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer}. Add the eggs and vanilla, and stir just until blended. Slowly add in the flour about a cup at a time, pausing to scrape the sides after each cup.

Once dough has formed a ball, roll out onto floured surface {you can divide the ball into smaller portions if your counter space is limited}. This dough will not puff up once cooked, so I like to roll my dough about 1/4″ thick. Use an acorn and various Fall cookie cutters to cut out cookies. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or use silpats. Carefully transfer cookies onto baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cool completely on wire racks before decorating.

Divide your icing into separate containers and mix desired food coloring {you’ll need dark brown, light brown or tan and green for these cookies}. Fill 3 piping bags {or Ziploc bags work too, just not as well} with your 3 different icing colors. Start with the tan icing and outline the bottom half of the acorn and then pipe extra icing in to fill the acorn.

Using a small knife, craft stick or Popsicle stick, spread the icing evenly within the lines on the bottom of the acorn.

Pipe the darker brown icing around the top of the acorn.

Fill top of acorn with icing and spread, being careful to keep the icing within the outline you’ve made.

Use a smaller tip or cut a smaller opening for the piping bag that contains the green icing. Using a criss-cross pattern, pipe the green icing over the dark brown icing.

Allow icing to dry completely before plating and serving.

Need some cookie decorating inspiration? Check out this book:

Cookie Decorating: 60+ Designs for Holidays, Celebrations & Everyday

Looking to get your cookie fix? Check out more Cookie Recipes.