When it comes to baking Easter cookies, add these simple treats to the top of your list. There's nothing like soft centers and perfectly baked edges of these melt-in-your-mouth cookies that you get in every single bite.
If you're a fan of cookies, be sure to check out the rest of my Cookie Recipes. If you love baking on Easter try my Easter Cake Pops and my popular Carrot Cake Recipe next!
Baking up a batch of warm Easter cookies is one of the fun family traditions of Easter. Just be sure that you don't make these Easter cookies too far in advance. or You might eat them all very quickly and have to whip up another round!
These cookies bake super thick and soft every single time! Speaking of soft cookies, I think you'd love my Soft chewy chocolate chip cookies as well.
TASTE AND TEXTURE:
- Soft and thick centers
- Golden chewy edges
- Topped with sweet frosting
COOKIE INGREDIENTS:
- All-purpose flour - Flour helps add texture to these easy cookies.
- Baking powder - A bit of baking powder pairs well with cookie dough ingredients and you get perfect cookies every single time. Don't skip it.
- Salt - If you use salted butter, omit the extra salt.
- Unsalted butter - Make sure that the butter is at room temperature before you start making the dough.
- Granulated Sugar - For sweetness.
- Egg - Egg is the binding agent for all the other ingredients and gives cookies a slight lift.
- Vanilla extract - Vanilla makes everything taste better!
- Almond extract - Adding this is optional, but it's so good!
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE HOMEMADE ROYAL ICING:
- Confectioner's sugar - Don't skimp on the sugar here!
- Meringue powder - This adds the stiffness needed to help icing set, but doesn't make it rock hard like regular icings.
- Oil-free extract - This helps make the frosting spreadable on the cookies!
- Warm water - Helps to from icing without lumps.
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SUGAR COOKIES
Combine dry ingredients. Add baking powder, flour, and salt together and use a whisk to combine.
Beat wet ingredients. Using a stand mixer will work best to beat together sugar and butter. Combine them at high speed until creamy. Next, add in the vanilla, egg, and almond extract and mix on high for another minute or so.
Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix the two together on low. This will create a dough that is soft. If it's sticky after this, you can add a tablespoon of flour to help it so that it will roll easier.
Roll out the dough. Once you have the dough, place it on parchment paper. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin until it's about ⅓ inch thick.
Chill the dough. You're going to need to chill the dough for 1-2 hours in the fridge. Be sure that you have the dough totally covered before placing it in the fridge as well with plastic wrap.
Preheat your oven. Take the chilled dough out of the fridge. Put parchment paper on the baking sheet or sheets and use your Easter cookie cutters to make 4-inch egg-shaped cookies.
Bake the cookies. Put the cookies on the cookie sheet and give them space. Put the baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes. Let the cooked cookies cool for 5 minutes right on the cookie sheet, and then move them to a cookie rack to cool.
TO MAKE THE ROYAL ICING:
Add the flavoring in water. Mix some water with the flavoring. Stir well.
Mix in sugar. Using a mixer, combine meringue powder and sugar until smooth.
Mix in the flavoring. Be sure that you have mixer as low as it will go, and add the flavoring mix and water to the bowl of dry ingredients.
Thicken the frosting. You're going to want to add the water mixture slowly until it's thick. Once you notice that it has thickened up, turn the mixer to medium speed and mix until the frosting is fluffy. This will take up to 4 minutes or so.
What is the best way to tell if sugar cookies are done baking?
The easiest way to check out if cookies are done baking is to look at the edges. Once the edges start to turn golden-brown, this is a good indicator that the cookies are done and ready to be pulled from the oven.
How to store baked cookies
Having leftover cookies just means that you get to enjoy them again the next day! Be sure that you let cookies cool down all the way and then store them in an airtight container. You don't need to keep them chilled, but you can if you'd like.
Can you freeze cookies?
Absolutely. Freezing cookies is the perfect way to meal prep a simple dessert. You can freeze these simple Easter cookies with or without icing, so it's totally up to you on what you want to do.
If you do freeze cookies without icing, this just means that you get to add homemade icing to the top fresh when you unthaw them.
Tips for Making these cookies
- Don't overmix the frosting. Just stir until combined and follow the simple directions. It will look lumpy while you're making it - it's supposed to!
- If you want to change color of the frosting, add gel food coloring or food dyes to it. You can even add on fun sprinkles and other Easter edibles, too.
More Easter Desserts you will love:
4 ingredients Cool Whip Cookies
If you liked this easy muffin recipe, give it a star review. Also, tell me in the comments below, how did this turn out for you! And don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog And lets be friends on Pinterest and Facebook too! 🙂
Easter Cookies
Equipment
- Hand/stand Mixer
- Cookie tray
Ingredients
Easter Cookies Ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg (at room temperature)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract (optional but adds so much flavor)
Royal Icing Ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups confectioner's sugar
- 2.5 tbsp meringue powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons any oil-free extract
- 4 to 6 tablespoons warm water
To decorate Sugar Cookies:
- Few drops of Gel food coloring of choice
- ½ cup Easter sprinkles
Instructions
How to make Easter Cookies:
- Combine the dry ingredients. Add the baking powder, flour, and salt together and use a whisk to combine.
- Beat wet ingredients. Using a stand mixer will work best to beat together sugar and butter. Combine them at high speed until creamy. Next, add in the vanilla, egg, and almond extract and mix on high for another minute or so.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix the two together on low. This will create a dough that is soft. If it's sticky after this, you can add a tablespoon of flour to help it so that it will roll easier.
- Roll out the dough. Once dough is formed, place it on parchment paper and place another parchment paper over it then roll the dough. Parchment paper will prevent the dough from sticking. If you still find dough to be sticky, you can spread some flour on the dough, while rolling it. Roll out the dough using a rolling pin until it's about ⅓ inch thick.
- Chill the dough. You're going to need to chill the dough for 1-2 hours in the fridge or until it firms. Be sure that you have dough totally covered before placing it in the fridge with plastic wrap.
- Preheat your oven. Take the chilled dough out of the fridge. Place parchment paper/silicon mats on baking sheet/sheets and use your Easter cookie cutters to make 4-inch egg-shaped cookies. Or go for shapes of choice. Re roll and cut out sugar cookies until all dough is used up.
- Bake the cookies. Put the cookies on cookie sheet and give them space. Put the baking sheet in the oven for 10-11 minutes. Let the cooked cookies cool for 5 minutes right on the cookie sheet, and then move them to a cookie rack to cool.
To make the homemade cookie icing:
- Add the flavoring. Mix flavoring with half of the water. Stir well.
- Mix the sugar and meringue powder. Using a mixer with paddle attachment, combine the meringue powder and the sugar until smooth.
- Mix in the flavoring. Be sure that you have the mixer as low as it will go and add the flavoring and water mix to the bowl of dry ingredients. It will no longer be smooth and that is fine.
- Thicken the frosting. You're going to want to add the remaining water mixture slowly until it's thick. Once you notice that it has thickened up, stop adding water. turn the mixer to medium speed and mix until the frosting is fluffy. This will take up to 4 minutes or so. Your goal is to have the frosting make soft peaks.
- Decorate as desired. You can also color/dye your icing into different colors. I used gel food colors here. Top with sprinkles of choice while the icing is still wet. Or you can dot sprinkles with a drop of icing and and top on iced cookies.
Notes
- Always store royal icing at room temp and not in the refrigerator.
- Use paddle attachment to make icing and not whisk. Since we do not want to whisk air into the royal icing.
- If you don't like to much almond flavor in the cookies, you may half it. Or add lemon, mint, orange or even maple flavorings to your cookies.
They look absolutely amazing. Will be an absolute joy to try them and enjoy with family.
These cookies are delicious and easy to make! We all had so much fun making these as a family yesterday! Perfect for Easter!
Perfect! I love this recipe! I haven’t made one in ages. Thanks for the idea!
These are gorgeous! Fun way to celebrate instead of dyeing eggs and quite a bit more delicious to eat too 😉
Wow these are so cute and colourful, I love all of the bright colours!! What a perfect Easter treat that everyone will love. Can't wait to try them.
These are so adorable! What a great idea for Easter. Perfect for kids to make and decorate too.
These cookies look so so good, Perfect to celebrate easter.
You are so good at decorating the cookies! I could never get these to look so pretty! Nonetheless, I think these will be a wonderful baking project for me and my nieces over Easter!
Cutest cookies on the planet! Truly, all the kids are gonna go bananas for these. Such a fun, easy, recipe. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Love the bright and beautiful decorations on these cookies. They're super fun and festive!