Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl and set aside.
- Beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and light but not fluffy and airy. Scrape the bowl down once.
- Add the whole egg, the egg yolk and the vanilla. Beat 30 seconds, just until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture in two additions on low speed. Stop the moment no dry streaks remain. The dough should be stiff and smooth. Overworking it now gives tough, blobby cookies.
- Divide the dough in two, press each half into a flat disc about 1 inch thick, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour. The butterfat has to re-solidify and the flour has to hydrate, and this is the only reason your shapes will hold.
- Heat the oven to 350 F and line two baking sheets with parchment.
- Working with one disc at a time, roll the dough on a lightly floured board to an even 1/4 inch thick. Lift and turn it once or twice so it does not stick.
- Stamp out shapes with cookie cutters, cutting them close together. Lift them onto the lined sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Gather scraps, press them together, chill briefly and roll once more. Stop after two roll-outs.
- Chill the cut shapes on the sheets for 10 minutes while the oven finishes heating. If you want sugared rather than iced cookies, brush them now with a little beaten egg and scatter coloured sanding sugar over the tops.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just set and barely golden and the centers still look pale. They firm as they cool.
- Let the cookies sit on the sheet 3 minutes, then move them to a wire rack and cool completely. Icing warm cookies will melt and bleed.
- For the royal icing, beat the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder, lemon juice and 6 tablespoons warm water on low, then raise to medium-high and beat 4 to 5 minutes until thick, glossy and holding stiff peaks.
- Transfer about a third of the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Thin the rest with water a teaspoon at a time until a ribbon drizzled off the spoon disappears back into the surface in about 12 seconds.
- Pipe a stiff outline around each cooled cookie, then flood the inside with the thinned icing, nudging it to the edges with a toothpick. Pop any air bubbles.
- Leave the cookies undisturbed at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours, or overnight, until the icing dries hard to the touch and the surface no longer dents. Only then are they ready to stack, box or hang.