Iced Brown Sugar Cutout Cookies

A no spread recipe for soft brown sugar cutout cookies, iced with brown butter vanilla icing.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 12

Chill Time 1

Total Time 2 12

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings3 dozen

In your food processor, pulse the flour, brown sugar, powdered sugar and salt until combined.
With the processor running, drop in the pieces of butter, one at at time, pulsing a few times until the butter is evenly distributed, and the dough is moistened and crumbly.
Add the vanilla and the milk, then process until the dough starts to stick together.
Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use your hands to finish bringing the dough together, kneading in any stray bits of flour. The dough should be soft, smooth and supple.
Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with sheets of parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, place the disk of dough, and dust the top of the dough with flour, too. Roll out to an even thickness between 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick.
Use any size/shape cookie cutters to cut as many cookies as you can, placing the cut cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets. Gather up the scraps of dough, roll them out again, and continue cutting as many cookies as you can. Using a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter, you should get around 3 dozen cookies.
Place the baking sheets with the cut cookies in the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes. Chilling the cut cookies helps to ensure they don't spread and hold their shape perfectly while baking.

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
Bake one pan of cookies at a time, keeping the other pan refrigerated until needed. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 15-17 minutes for large cookies 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 inches), and 10-12 minutes for small cookies (1 - 1 1/2 inches). The tops should be a very pale golden with no dark browning, and you should see tiny flaky layers around the edges. If you very carefully turn a cookie over, the bottom should appear to be baked through, and should not look raw, doughy or damp.
Baker's Note: For most of my sugar cookie recipes made with just powdered sugar, the cookies only need to bake for 12 minutes. However, the added moisture in the brown sugar necessitates a longer bake time for this recipe.
Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the pan, then very gently transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely before icing. Sugar cookies are delicate when warm, so handle with care.

In a bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and meringue powder.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter for several minutes until nutty, golden brown solids form at the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove from the heat.
Add the browned butter, vanilla and water to the powdered sugar mixture, and whisk until smooth and drizzly. You may need to add slightly more water to achieve your desired consistency.
To ice the cookies, hold a cookie by its edges and dip the top of the cookie in the icing. Lightly shake off the excess icing, then set it right side up to dry. If the icing gets too thick to dip the cookies as you're working, you can add more water, a teaspoon at a time.
Let the icing set and dry for about an hour.

When decorating cookies iced with royal icing, there are a few best practices to follow for the most beautiful results.
When whisking the icing, try not to beat too much air into it, which will result in air bubbles on your iced cookies.
For embossed cookies (like the snowflake and gingerbread house in the photographs), just very lightly dip them so the icing only catches on the raised portion of the design, but doesn't get into the cracks and grooves. This way, the design will be beautifully highlighted by the icing.
After the icing has set for 20-30 seconds, use a toothpick to pop any tiny air bubbles that rise to the surface of the iced cookies, and to smooth out any uneven areas.
If decorating the cookies with sprinkles or sparkling sugar, add these within about 30-60 seconds, before the icing sets and dries. If you add sprinkles and sugar immediately, they will sink into the icing. But if you wait too long, and the icing has fully dried, they'll sit on top of the icing and won't stick.

Making the Dough without a Food Processor: If you don't have a food processor, you'll need a large bowl and a pastry cutter. In the bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Scatter with the cold butter pieces and use the pastry cutter to cut the butter in until very finely cut and evenly distributed. Drizzle with the vanilla and milk, then use your hands to work the liquid into the dry ingredients until it forms into a soft dough.
Storing the Baked Cookies: The baked cookies should be cooled completely then stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you won't be frosting and decorating them immediately, freeze the cookies in an airtight container for 3-6 months.
Freezing the Dough: To make the dough in advance, wrap the disks of dough in plastic wrap, label them, and refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for 3-6 months. Frozen dough should be thawed overnight in the refrigerator. Then take the dough out of the fridge about 1 hour before you're ready to roll out the dough. It should still be cool to the touch when you roll it out, but pliable enough to roll without too much difficulty.
Storing the Iced Cookies: Iced cookies should be dried completely for at least several hours, before storing in a single layer in an airtight container.
Icing: The icing will be slightly off-white from the browned butter. For a pure white color, you can omit the butter (and add a little more water to the icing), as well as use clear vanilla extract.

Keyword Christmas Cookies, High Altitude, Royal Icing, Sugar Cookies