Eggless Sugar Cookies Recipe | Soft Cut-Out Cookies with Royal Icing No Eggs

Eggless Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing - No Spread, Perfect Shape

These cut-out sugar cookies stay soft inside with crisp edges. No eggs = no spreading in oven. Decorate with simple royal icing for festivals, birthdays, Christmas!

Prep Time: 20 mins + 15 mins chill | Bake Time: 12-15 mins | Total: 50 mins | Yield: 18-20 cookies

Ingredients - For Cookies

• 1/2 cup Maida / All-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Wheat flour - optional, replace with maida for softer cookies
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp Icing sugar / Powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup heaped Butter, softened at room temp
• 1-2 tbsp Milk, cold
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp Salt

Ingredients - For Royal Icing

• 1/2 cup Icing sugar
• 1 to 1.5 tsp Cornflour
• 2-3 tsp Milk
• 1/2 tsp Lemon juice
• Food colour - few drops, optional

Method - Cookies

1. Dry mix: Sieve maida, wheat flour, salt, baking powder together. Keep aside.
2. Cream: In bowl, whisk soft butter + icing sugar + vanilla till creamy. Add 1 tbsp milk.
3. Dough: Add dry mix. Mix to soft dough. Add 1-2 tsp extra milk only if needed. Don't over knead.
4. Chill: Wrap dough, refrigerate 15 mins. This prevents spreading.
5. Roll & cut: Roll 1/4 inch thick between butter paper. Cut shapes with cookie cutters.
6. Bake: Preheat oven 180°C for 10 mins. Bake cookies 12-15 mins till edges turn light golden. Centers will look pale - that's ok.
7. Cool: Cool 5 mins on tray, then wire rack. Store airtight till decorating.

Method - Royal Icing

1. Mix icing sugar + cornflour. Add milk + lemon juice 1 tsp at a time.
2. Whisk till thick but flowing consistency. Should ribbon off spoon.
3. Divide in bowls. Add food colours. Rest 5 mins for air bubbles to rise.
4. Fill in piping bag/Ziplock. Decorate cooled cookies. Icing hardens in 2-3 hours.

Tips: 

1. Chill dough = no spread cookies. 

2. Don't bake till brown, edges only should be golden. 

3. Cornflour in icing gives smooth finish without egg whites.

Method Step by Step:

1.Sieve flour, salt, baking powder together and mix it well, Set aside. In a mixing bowl add butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla essence and whisk it together to form a cream.

2.Then add the flour mixture and mix well to form a smooth dough. Add 2-3 tsp of extra milk if needed. But don't be tempted to add more milk, just add to bring together to a dough. Just roll the cookies with a chapati roller on a butter paper till just about 1/4-inch thickness. Then cut into different shapes with cookie cutters.

3.Take it carefully with a ladle and place it on the tray with butter paper. I refrigerated it for 15mins before baking and the cookies didn't spread much so you can keep it closer as shown in the pic. Meanwhile preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10mins then bake the cookies for 15-20mins or until the edges turn golden brown. The cookies will look pale only the edges might have turned golden brown, its the right time to stop. Allow them to cool them in tray itself for few mins, then cool them on wire rack. Once cooled store them in airtight container until you are ready to decorate them.

4.I made the cookies the previous day and decorated them the next day. Now for the icing take a large bowl and add icing sugar, cornflour. Then add milk and lemon juice, mix well to form smooth thick paste.

5.The consistency should be thick but flowing as shown below. Divide the icing into equal portions in different bowls, then add few drops of food colours in each bowl for get the required colour. Keep it for 5mins for the air bubbles to come on top but not more than that as the icing will harden. So, fill it up in the respective icing bags. You can use butter paper / Ziplock bags too for making the cone. But make sure to seal it properly.

6.Just cut the tip of the icing bag to get a fine line for decorating. Be creative and decorate your cookies. I just filled them and sprinkled edible colour / silver beads. Let them cool then you can store it in airtight container.

You can enjoy your colourful yummy cookies; am sure your kids will enjoy it!

Notes:

You can adjust the consistency of this icing.... If you need to thin the icing add a bit of milk and mix till you get the desired consistency.

If you need it thicker, add more icing sugar as required. Keep all your required things on your work area so that it's easier to grab things and also clean it later.

You can draw a base colour then let it dry and draw patters in alternate colours. I was pressed for time so did a simple icing.

And I tell you it takes around 2-3 hours for icing alone so prepare ahead.

You can even sprinkle granulated sugar and bake these cookies as simple sugar cookies.

You can even use full 1 cup Maida. I 1/3rd the original recipe and tried and got around 20 cookies.

If you find cookies uneven in thickness, bake the thicker cookies in a batch and the rest in the next batch.