Speckled Robins Egg Easter Cookies

Speckled Robins Egg Easter Cookies with quick poured frosting are easy to make, taste delicious, and look adorable!

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The perfect addition to your Easter egg hunt (or any other spring celebration!) these cookies take minutes to both bake and decorate!

Easy addition to your spring table

These adorable cookies are a quick alternative to making petit fours, but are just as cute! Fitting for all of spring’s celebrations like Easter, Earth Day, Mother’s Day and more!

Inspired by the beautiful natural speckled look of quail eggs or robin eggs. These soft cut sugar cookies are decorated simply with a quick cooked icing that finishes with a slightly translucent sheen. Perfect for transforming into speckled eggs with a fleck of chocolate-tinted vanilla extract.

Sugar cookies icing recipe

The icing for these sugar cookies is an easy recipe for an icing that hardens, borrowed from Erin McDowell for Food 52’s Easter egg petit fours recipe. Petit four icing is technically a poured fondant but other than a similar smooth finish this cooked icing shares little else with fondant. On the contrary it’s actually easy to make at home, has a nice semi-transparent, slightly matte finish and tastes good too!

It has all the look of fondant and royal icing without the raw eggs or any technical skill. Simply pour icing and you’re done! 

Ingredients

• All purpose flour
• Granulated sugar
• Eggs
• Butter – unsalted or substitute salted butter and reduce the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Confectioner’s sugar – for the cooked icing.
• Vanilla extract – in the cookies, the icing AND as the base in the brown speckle finish. Alternately you can use Bacardi 151, everclear or other strong spirit in place of vanilla extract in the speckle.
• Baking powder – just a little to give the cookies a soft texture.
• Light corn syrup – gives the icing a nice sheen without being too hard.
• Salt
• Dark cocoa powder – to give the speckle it’s dark color.
• Food coloring – natural or conventional, liquid or gel, in desired colors.

Step by step instructions

1. Make cookie dough.
2. Preheat oven and roll dough using an oval cookie cutter ( or a circle cutter pushed in slightly to turn into an oval).
3. Bake until set but not browned, about 6 minutes for small 3” cookies. Allow to cool on sheet for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool. You may notice that the bottom of the cookies are golden, which is perfect.
4. Make the icing and immediately pour over cookies working from the center of the cookies to the edges. Ensure cookies are spaced at least 1 inch apart on cooling rack set over a parchment lined baking sheet for clean edges.
5. Prepare speckle with vanilla extract and cocoa powder then flick over icing using a clean paintbrush or pastry brush.
6. After several minutes when icing sets and becomes dry to the touch transfer from cooling rack to flat sheet to prevent cookies from hardening and sticking to the rack.
7. Continue to harden, uncovered, several hours or overnight.
8. Enjoy!

How to decorate

• To decorate with different shades divide warm icing into several small bowls then add food coloring.
• To create an easy ombre effect start with one drop of color and continue adding more after pouring a few cookies until you reach the darkest shade.
• For a marble look add food coloring and slightly stir without completely incorporating and allow the color to mix in while pouring instead.
• For an opaquer appearance allow icing to thicken slightly before pouring. Or use a thin layer of buttercream frosting between the cake and icing.

Yield

This recipe yields enough for roughly 2 dozen 3″ oval sugar cookies and plenty of poured fondant icing. Store excess icing, in an airtight container, refrigerated for up to two weeks then reheat to use again.

Make ahead

• Make sugar cookie dough in advance and stored refrigerated, up to 7 days. Or freeze up to 3 months. Defrost overnight, refrigerated, and use as directed. Store baked cookies in an airtight container up to 3 days. Or freeze up to 3 months, defrost and decorate as desired.
• Store cooked and cooled icing refrigerated, in airtight container, up to two weeks. Reheat over double broiler before using.
• Once decorated store cookies in airtight container at room temperature and consume within 5 days for best flavor and texture.

Speckled Robins Egg Easter Cookies

Speckled Robins Egg Easter Cookies with quick poured frosting are easy to make, taste delicious and look both adorably sophisticate.

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Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

resting time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

cookies, dessert, easter, icing, spring, sugar cookies

Servings: 12 servings

Calories: 535kcal

Author: Tristin Rieken

Ingredients

Sugar cookies

• 3 cups all purpose flour plus more for rolling
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Poured icing

• 5 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons corn syrup
• ½ cup water
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Liquid food coloring or gel in desired colors

Speckle

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder unsweetened for baking

Instructions

• In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl then slowly add to butter mixture. Mix on low to combine. Divide in half and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Push down into two smooth flat discs, much like pie dough, then form into a slight square or rectangle. Chill at least 30 minutes, up to 7 days.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Roll dough on a lightly floured flat work surface to ¼-inch thickness, using additional flour as necessary to prevent sticking.
• Use cookie cutters to create desired shapes, and carefully transfer with a cookie spatula onto a parchment lined baking sheet at least ½ inch apart.
• Bake one sheet at a time in the middle of the oven until puffy but not visibly browned, about 7 minutes.
• Allow the cookies to rest for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Repeat with the gathered scraps and remaining disk until all the dough has been used.
• While cookies are cooling make the icing. In a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, mix sugar, corn syrup, and water, together until smooth and warm, about 5 minutes or until it’s just under 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Stir in vanilla, color as desired and use immediately for best results.
• Ensure cookies are spaced at least 1 inch apart on cooling rack set over a parchment lined baking sheet. Then pour or ladle icing over cookies, working from the small center out.
• prepare the speckle by mixing cocoa powder with vanilla extract until the consistency is very thin. Use a clean paintbrush or pastry brush to flick mixture over icing to make the speckles.
• After several minutes when icing sets and becomes dry to the touch transfer from cooling rack to flat sheet to prevent cookies from hardening and sticking to the rack.
• Continue to harden, uncovered, several hours or overnight. Store in an airtight container, at room temperature, and consume within 5 days for the best flavor and texture.

Nutrition

Calories: 535kcal | Carbohydrates: 95g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 56mg | Sodium: 111mg | Potassium: 116mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 70g | Vitamin A: 495IU | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 2mg

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