A Hot Summer's Night Ice Cream Cone Cookies!
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 10 minutes plus resting time
Cooking time: 8-10 minutes
- 85g/3ozs butter, softened
- 140g/5ozs/3/4 cup white caster superfine sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 180g/6ozs/1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour plus extra for rolling
Royal icing
- 1 egg white
- 260g pure icing sugar, sifted
- 2-3 tablespoons water
- Colouring gels in pink, brown and aqua
- Flavour essences of your choice (you can match these to the colours)
- 2 tablespoons sprinkles
- Small handful mini M&Ms
- You will also need an ice cream cutter
Step 1 - Line two trays with parchment. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out into ice cream shapes and gently lift onto parchment lined trays. Bake for 8 minutes or until light golden. Cool completely on tray.
Step 3 - Make the royal icing by mixing the sifted icing sugar, egg white and water together. You want two textures for the Royal Icing, a stiff one to pipe the outline and a runnier one to fill in the outline. Divide into five bowls: a hot pink, a very pale pink, teal, chocolate brown and tan.
Always cover your Royal Icing with cling wrap as it dries out easily. Once you had a pipeable consistency, spoon a little into some piping bags (I make these out of a square of parchment) and snip off the ends. Draw an outline around the cookie as shown. This is the border that ensures that the royal icing stays within that border. Put the filled piping bags in an airtight container when not in use.
Step 4 - Once it has set hard, add a tiny bit of water to the icings to make them a bit more liquid. Spoon (I use some tiny spoons to make the job easier) the icing into the centre and either spread out with the back of a spoon or gently tap the cookies on the tray to settle and disperse the icing. Add sprinkles and M&Ms (for cherries) while the royal icing is still wet. Allow to set completely and draw on the ice cream cone waffle pattern with the icing pen.