Daisy Cookies (Flower Cookies with Royal Icing)

📋Ingredients

For the cookies:

• All purpose flour - creates the perfect structure for these cut out cookies to maintain the same size after baking. Do not use self raising flour as it is not suitable for this recipe.
• Butter - I use salted butter. If you prefer unsalted butter, add an extra pinch of salt to the recipe.
• Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - white sugar works best for this recipe. Avoid coarse sugar as it will leave marks of sugar specks on your cookies after baking.
• Egg yolk - Binds all the ingredients together. Use large eggs. Do not use the egg white in the recipe. Separate the white and yolk while the egg is cold (it is easier to do it when the egg is cold) and bring the yolk to room temperature before using.
• Grated lemon rind - this is optional, but adds a lovely citrus flavor to the cookies. Use fresh lemon.
• Salt - do not skip this as it enhances the taste.

For the royal icing:

• Powdered sugar (sifted) - Powdered sugar tend to clump and must be sifted before using, particularly for this recipe as the tiny sugar lumps
• Egg white - make sure to use pasteurized eggs to prevent the risk of food poisoning from the raw egg.
• Lemon juice - use juice from fresh lemons. Make sure to strain it to remove any pulp or seeds. You will need the icing to be smooth for piping.
• Yellow food coloring - this is to color the icing for the flower centers. Both gel based or liquid food coloring will work for this recipe.

Decorating tools:

• Petal tip 104 & round tip 3 - to pipe the flower petals and the centers
• Disposable piping bags & Piping tip coupler

*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*

👩🏻‍🍳How to Make

Step 1: Mix the cookie dough. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line baking trays with parchment paper. Grate the lemon rind and set it aside.

Measure butter into a mixing bowl. Add the granulated sugar to it (image 1)and beat until creamy (image 2).

Note: Butter should be at room temperature but firm. If it is too soft, place it back in the fridge for a few minutes until it firms up.

Add the yolk and beat again until all the traces of the egg are no longer visible. Do not overbeat. Add the salt and lemon zest next. Beat again for about 10 to 15 seconds until well combined (image 3).

Note: Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are well combined.

Sift in the flour and mix on low speed. The dough will appear crumbly at this stage(image 4).

Note: Start with low speed to avoid the flour from flying all over as you turn on your mixer.

Turn it out onto your workspace and knead it lightly to bring it together into a ball (image 5). Cover and let it rest for approximately 10 minutes.

Note: This resting time allows the dough to come together and makes it easier to roll and cut.

Step 2: Roll, cut and bake the cookies. Portion the dough for easy rolling. Place it between 2 plastic sheets or parchment paper and roll it flat to about a quarter inch thick. Cut the dough into circles (image 6).

Note: If you do not want to roll and cut the cookies, you can always form them into small balls (about half a tablespoon size) and press them flat with your hands or the back of a drinking glass into round discs.

Place the cut out cookies onto the prepared tin. You need not space them out much as they will not rise during baking (since there are no leavening agents used in the recipe). Bake them in the preheated oven for approximately 10 minutes, until the edges start to turn golden brown.

Let the cookies cool down to room temperature before decorating. You can even make the cookies a day or two in advance before decorating them.

Step 3: Make the royal icing. Decorating the cookies is the fun part of making these pretty flower cookies. I used royal icing made using fresh egg white, but if you want, you can always make the royal icing using meringue powder too.

Note: When making royal icing, it is always important to make sure all utensils that are used for mixing are absolutely grease-free. Otherwise, the egg whites will not whisk well and you will end up with runny royal icing.

Add egg white into a grease-free mixing bowl and whisk it on medium speed until it turns frothy. Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar while whisking. And then add the lemon juice.

Continue to whisk until the icing reaches a stiff peak consistency.

Step 4: Decorate the cookies. Transfer a quarter of the royal icing into a small bowl and tint it yellow. Fill the white icing into a piping bag fitted with petal tip #104 and the yellow into a piping bag fitted with round tip #3.

Start with the white icing for the white petals. Hold the wider end of the petal tip pointing upwards and narrower end to point towards the center of the cookies (image 7). Move the tip from the edges towards the center as you pipe the petals (image 8).

Do these petal piping in 2 cycles as it is easier to space them out consistently that way (images 9 & 10).

Once the petals are done, use the yellow to pipe the centers. For added texture, start with a medium-sized dot in the center (image 11) and then add tiny dots of yellow around the initial yellow center (image 12). 

Let the royal icing daisies set completely before storing the cookies.

💭FAQs