
Butter Shortbread Cookie with Royal Icing–The perfect holiday cookie! Just three ingredients are needed for your cookie dough and just three additional ingredients for the royal icing. Simple and festive!

Get your cookie cutters ready! It’s time to make the perfect holiday cookie.
A really short ingredients list:
- Flour
- Butter
- Sugar
- for icing:
- meringue powder
- powdered sugar + water

What is Royal Icing?
Royal icing is a very simple icing to make. It’s great to use when decorating all types of desserts. The special thing about this icing is that once it’s cooled, it hardens. This makes it quite versatile when decorating or making any types of garnishes for your desserts.
What is meringue powder?
Meringue powder is a egg white substitute. You can find it in the decorating section of your local grocery store (or Walmart/Target) or you can find an Amazon link in the below recipe card. Check out this full description.
To Make Royal Icing:
Simply beat the meringue powder, powdered sugar and water until the frosting forms peaks. This will take anywhere from 7-12 minutes, depending on your electric mixer. You can then pipe it, frost it, make flowers with, tint it with food coloring, whatever you wish.
Have fun decorating!

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Butter Shortbread Cookies with Royal Icing

Butter Shortbread Cookie with Royal Icing--The perfect holiday cookie! Just three ingredients are needed for your cookie dough and royal icing is a great way to show off your decorating talents.
Ingredients
FOR COOKIES:
- 1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 3/4 cup flour
FOR FROSTING:
- 1 1/2 TBSP meringue powder
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 TBSP- 2 TBSP water
Instructions
FOR COOKIES:
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter until butter and sugar until fluffy. Gradually add in flour and beat for several minutes until fully combined. Your dough will be soft.
- On a well floured surface, knead dough for 5 minutes. Adding small amounts of flour if necessary.
- Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Your dough needs to be firm enough to work with.
- When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a flat rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Roll out dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut desired shapes with cookie cutter or with a sharp knife.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until light brown. If you cookies are thicker, they may require longer baking time. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then, cool completely before decorating.
FOR FROSTING:
- Beat ingredients until the frosting forms peaks. This should take approx 8-10 minutes. Frost or pipe on cookies. If desired, tint frosting with food coloring.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
24Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 87Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 0gSugar: 14gProtein: 1g
All information and tools presented and written within this site are intended for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and any nutritional information on abiggreenhouse.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate
Just beautiful Christmas Cookies that we would really enjoy! Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
Miz Helen