[2] Powdered sugar, also known as confectioner’s sugar and 10X sugar (photo © The Nibble).

[3] Meringue powder is available from King Arthur Flour.

Want to bake cookies for July 4th?

1. MIX up and roll out your favorite sugar cookie dough (or other rolled cookie dough).

2. USE a star cookie cutter to cut shapes. If you have small and large star cutters, make large and small sizes.

Here’s a set of 6 nested star cookie cutters, that you can also use for Christmas cookies.

3. BAKE, cool and ice the cookie tops white royal icing (recipe below); then decorate with red and blue stripes. Voilà: the Stars and Stripes.

Check out the different types of cookies in our delicious Cookie Glossary.
 
 
RECIPE: ROYAL ICING

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the icing. Mix the first three ingredients together for 7 to 10 minutes, until the icing stiffens.

If the icing appears too stiff, add more water, one teaspoon at a time. You want the icing to be thin enough that you can pipe it easily.

Tint 1/4 of the icing red, and 1/4 blue (see instructions below).

2. DECORATE the cookies when they are cool. Use an offset spatula to ice the cookie tops white. Then place the tinted icing into separate piping bags fitted with a very small round tip.

3. CREATE the red and blue stripes. If you don’t have a steady hand, wavy lines are fine.

Keep the tip about 1/2 inch above the cookie as you ice. This helps to achieve a straighter line.

Variation: Instead of piping stripes, you can sprinkle red, white and blue star decorations on the white royal icing base while it’s still wet.

Here are large stars and small stars.

4. DRY the cookies completely, usually 1 to 2 hours.