Cookie Ornamental Icing

4 ingredients5 steps
Cook's Illustrated
Share:

Ingredients

|

Instructions

  1. 1

    Mix sugar, milk, and vanilla together with an electric mixer.

  2. 2

    Drizzle in the Karo syrup and mix until combined.

  3. 3

    Adjust consistency as needed—add more Karo syrup to thin, or more sugar to thicken.

  4. 4

    Color as desired with gel-based food coloring. Avoid liquid food coloring as it will thin the icing and require rebalancing with more sugar.

  5. 5

    To coat cookies, use a small ice cream scoop with a trigger handle to place dollops of icing in the center of each cookie, working 6 at a time.

💡 Cook's Notes

This icing begins to harden its exterior shell almost immediately as it dehydrates, leaving a nice softer icing-like layer underneath that people enjoy. Unlike egg white-based royal icings which harden completely, this stays pleasantly soft inside. This icing will not hold detailed piping textures (grooves, etc.) like a butter-based icing does—best for flooding/coating rather than fine piping work.

Get Weekly Recipes

Join our newsletter for hand-picked family recipes every week.

More Desserts Recipes