[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.

Then, pour in sparkling or still wine or white spirits (gin, tequila, vodka) and serve with a spoon. As the sorbet melts into the wine or spirit, it creates a special cocktail.
 
 
MAKE IT A PARTY ACTIVITY

For a fun dessert, make pairing dessert cocktails a dinner party activity, with each guest mixing and matching to find his/her favorites.

There are no wrong pairings; it’s what your palate likes. Here are some matching ideas for starters:
 
 
WITH CITRUS, MOST FRUIT & LIGHT FLAVOR SORBETS

[1] Lemon sorbet with citron vodka and Limoncello (photo © Auremar | Fotolia).

WITH BERRY, CHOCOLATE & STRONGER SORBET FLAVORS

 
 
MORE ON SORBET COCKTAILS

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

While we just said that our favorite pie topping is streusel (crumb topping), here’s something special for July 4th.

You can buy or bake an open face pie (no top crust) or a tart, and decorate it as the American Flag.

All you need to decorate are:

 
Older children can do the decorating, and everyone can enjoy a piece of “grand old pie.”

If you’ve purchased the pie, the dessert can be ready in 10 minutes!

For those who don’t know the lyrics/tune to George M. Cohan’s classic, “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” practice on You Tube.

If you use an aerosol whipped cream like Reddi-Wip, the air will deflate much sooner than if you whip your own stabilized whipped cream.

Even if you don’t stabilize the whipped cream, your own beater-whipped cream will stay fluffy longer. You don’t need to create whipped cream stars, which the Reddi-Wip nozzle enables. Instead, just emulate the real white bars of the flag, and use one long line of whipped cream in-between the rows of strawberries.