Simple Cookie Glaze

My youngest daughter just celebrated her fifth birthday. I would love to freeze time and keep her little forever, but since I can't, I'm trying to just enjoy it as much as I possibly can.

Since we've already established I am no good at stopping time, I can at least share with you a recipe for a cookie glaze that stops in it's own tracks. Really. It's nice and thick, spreads incredibly easy, but then stays where it's supposed to. To make it even more wonderful, it hardens into a pretty (and stackable!) finish.

The birthday girl insisted on a pink icing with sprinkles, but you can make it any color your heart desires. The King Arthur Flour site even shows pictures of cookies decorated with several colors, making it a quick fix for your Christmas sugar cookies.

I wanted a little citrus-y flavor in our icing, so I added some Fiori di Sicilia flavoring from King Arthur, but I would imagine that the sugary glaze would be good either by itself, or with a little vanilla/almond/random other flavor extract added. I found it super easy to just dip the cookie in, scrape the excess off, and let the glaze settle into itself on the cookie. The key is to follow the measurements below pretty close to exactly in order to ensure the consistency is thick enough not to run off the cookie, but thin enough to spread cleanly. It's kind of magical to watch, and totally rewarding after going through all the work of making cutouts.

Simple Cookie Glaze

Yield: 2/3 cup

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 ½ to 2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. milk
• Food coloring (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia extract or other extract (optional)

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, corn syrup, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the milk, and optional extract until smooth. Add food coloring, if desired.  

Spread one cookie with glaze, using a table knife or offset spatula. If it doesn't smooth out after 1 minute, dribble in additional milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time, until the glaze reaches the right

Some notes for KAF:

• Be sure you measure accurately here. Too little milk, and the glaze won't spread nicely. Too much milk, and it will be thin, spotty and develop splotches overnight. 
• Once the glaze has hardened, you can color on it with food-safe markers, or you can pipe another color over the top with Royal Icing. You can sprinkle sugar on top of the wet royal icing for a sparkly effect.

Source: King Arthur Flour