As you may have guessed from my previous post, I get a kick out of making cookies that look like other food. Bacon and eggs, one of the classic American food pairings, is among my favorite cookie combos. It’s really fun to surprise dinner guests with a plate of breakfast for dessert! Another eggcellent idea is to package a couple of these cookies together in a cello bag tied with a ribbon for a cute brunch party favor.
Materials needed: Egg and bacon shaped cookie cutters (see note below), 1.5-inch circular cookie cutter, sugar cookie dough (I use this recipe) prepared, chilled and rolled out, royal icing (see my favorites here), food coloring, pale-colored edible marker (I used yellow), plastic or parchment paper piping bags (I use parchment paper),pastry tips #1.5 or #2, medium paintbrushes
Step 1: Make the cookies:
There are a few ways to make these cookies. You can use egg and bacon shaped cookie cutters or a large circle cutter for the eggs and a rectangle for the bacon strips. Alternatively, you can cut your own shapes using a sharp knife and chilled, rolled out cookie dough. After cutting your shapes, place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350°F until the edges are slightly brown, about 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely.
Step 2: Prepare the Icing:
Make a small bowl each of white, yellow and dark red royal icing. Some of this will be for piping and some for flooding. To mix a similar dark red bacon color to the one I used, add a touch of purple to the red. For the piping icing: add a few drops of egg whites to each bowl of colored icing, stirring until it reaches a consistency similar to that of toothpaste. Put approximately 1/3 of each color into individual piping bags fitted with pastry tips. For the flooding icing: gradually add small amounts of egg whites to each bowl, thinning out the icing to the approximate consistency of maple syrup. Cover bowls with plastic wrap until you are ready to use them, so that the icing does not form a crust.
Step 3: Decorate the Cookies:
Use the prepared icing-filled pastry bags to outline the eggs (with white) and the bacon (with dark red). If you used a circle cutter for the egg, line your own egg shape within the circle. Let the lines sit for about 5 minutes to dry. Using the white flooding icing and a paintbrush, fill in each egg cookie and let the icing harden completely, at least several hours, but preferably overnight. Fill in the bacon with the dark red flooding icing. While the icing is still wet, gently pipe a few wiggles of white on each slice. Let dry overnight.
(Note: if you want to finish this project in one day just let the white icing dry for an hour or so, pipe the yellow egg yolk outline onto the white cookie freehand, and fill it in with the brush very gently, and proceed)
When the egg cookies are dried completely, use the small circular cookie cutter and the edible marker to trace a yolk onto each egg. Be creative here, the yolk is not always in the same place on each egg! Next, use the yellow icing-filled pastry bag to pipe the outline of the yolk. Let dry for 5 minutes and then, with a brush, fill in with the yellow flooding icing. Allow cookies to dry completely. Don’t forget to sprinkle on a little salt and pepper for a cute finishing touch!
