I can’t believe that 4th of July is less than a week away! I have this weird feeling like summer is just flying by this year, when in reality it only just started so that can’t possibly be true. Part of the reason for the feeling (I think) has to be because of my job in the marine industry – for us our busy season starts in March/April and wraps up in August/September, so we are on a 60-day countdown for when busy season ends. Crazy!

Anyways, this week every year is when my husband and I start the great debate of what to serve for the 4th. We are HUGE foodies, so we go all-out on our menu for holidays. Some of our staples would be his BBQ ribs and my blueberry pie. I always like to have a super patriotic flare to my table on the 4th, and a simple way to accomplish that without buying any decor is with cookies!

There is a super easy cut-out cookie recipe I LOVE because you can make the dough simply by pulsing it in your food processor. You literally toss the ingredients in and blend for 10 seconds, form in a ball, then refrigerate! Seriously minimal effort to make the dough, so you can spend all your energy having fun with the icing. Here is the recipe:

Confectioners’ Sugar Cookies (5-minute recipe in the food processor!)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Sifted Confectioners’ Sugar (AKA Powdered Sugar)
2/3 Cup Cold Unsalted Butter cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3 Large Egg Yolks
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Place the flour, sugar and butter in your food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse 4-5 times initially, then process for 10 seconds to make a mixture the consistency of corn meal.

Toss in your egg yolks and vanilla. Copy the same process of pulsing then processing for a few seconds.

Scoop out the dough and form into a 6-inch disk. Cover in saran wrap and chill for at least 1 hour before baking. Dough can be refrigerated for several days before baking if desired.

When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly butter your cookie sheets.

Using 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured surface until about 1 CM thick. Cut the cookies out with your desired cookie cutter and transfer to your cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just slightly golden. Let the cookies rest for two minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before attempting icing them.

Okay, so here is the part where you can really make your spread shine – with your icing! I use a very simple recipe to make my Royal Icing, which is made possible by this magical stuff called meringue powder. You can get the meringue powder at some boutique grocery stores, but so I don’t end up on a wild goose chase I just snag it on Amazon with my Prime Membership (hey free shipping!). Combined with my Wilton gel color kit you can mix up some incredible hues!

 

Wilton Meringue Powder – 8 oz.

 

Wilton Color Right Performance Food Coloring Set, Achieve Consistent Colors for Icing, Fondant and Cake Batter, 8-Base Colors

Here are the icing directions:

3 Tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 Cups Powdered Sugar (Sifted to remove bumps)
7-8 Tablespoons Water

Mix the ingredients together with a stand mixer until the consistency starts to firm up and peaks form in the icing. That’s it! It does dry out relatively quickly, so you want to be ready to start frosting right away. If you aren’t able to transfer immediately to a piping bag, cover your bowl with a towel to prevent it from drying out.

So, to create these cookies above I simply whipped up my royal icing and divided it into three bowls; one for white, one red, and one blue! I mixed my colors with the help of the Wilton color guide that comes with the food coloring, then transferred each to piping bags and got after it! To create the firecracker details I simply used a toothpick to pull the icing and form the design.

In all, they were fun to make, delicious to eat and made our 4th of July table look so festive! I hope you give it a try and patriot-out your spread too. Happy freedom day America!

X.O. – Abbey Co.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Amazon Affiliates program… I am not sponsored by any of these products, I just really like them! I do however get a little kick-back if you purchase anything through the links provided. Prices are no different than if you were just shopping on your own 🙂