Description
These festive Easter Cookies are soft, buttery sugar cookies decorated with colorful royal icing or cookie glaze. Perfect for holiday celebrations, they feature charming designs like bunnies, carrots, and Easter eggs adorned with sprinkles and marshmallow tails.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled, plus more as needed for rolling and work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional, but makes the flavor outstanding)
For Decorating
- royal icing or easy cookie glaze icing
- gel food coloring
- sanding sugar sprinkles
- mini marshmallows, halved (for bunny tails)
Instructions
- Prepare Dry Ingredients: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract (if using) and beat on high until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix again if needed.
- Combine Dough: Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be soft; if too sticky, add one more tablespoon of flour.
- Roll Dough: Divide dough into two equal parts. On lightly floured parchment or silicone mats, roll each portion to about 1/4-inch thickness, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.
- Chill Dough: Dust one dough portion lightly with flour, layer with parchment paper, then place the second dough portion on top. Cover with plastic wrap or foil and refrigerate for at least 1–2 hours or up to 2 days.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Baking Sheets: Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Cut Shapes: Remove chilled dough from refrigerator carefully. Use cookie cutters (egg, bunny, carrot shapes) to cut shapes. Re-roll scraps and continue cutting until all dough is used.
- Bake Cookies: Place cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on edges. Rotate sheets halfway if needed. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely before decorating.
- Prepare Icing and Decorate: Make royal icing or cookie glaze icing. Use piping bags and tips for sharp designs with royal icing, or squeeze bottles for glaze. For bunnies and carrots, outline and flood with white icing, add sanding sugar and halved marshmallow tails while icing is wet, then flood carrot tops with orange icing and add green sprinkles. For Easter eggs, divide icing into colors, outline and flood base colors, allow to set, then pipe decorations with contrasting colors. Allow icing to set fully.
- Set Icing: Royal icing sets within about 2 hours; cookie glaze icing sets in about 24 hours. Refrigerate decorated cookies on a baking sheet to speed up setting if desired.
- Serve or Store: Enjoy immediately or wait for icing to set. Store soft cookies covered tightly at room temperature up to 5 days or refrigerated up to 10 days for longer freshness.
Notes
- Use extra flour as needed when rolling dough to prevent sticking but avoid adding too much to keep cookies tender.
- Chilling dough is essential to maintain cookie shape and for easier cutting.
- Use piping bags with fine tips for detailed icing designs on eggs.
- Halved mini marshmallows make adorable fluffy bunny tails.
- Decorate directly on a baking sheet to easily refrigerate and speed up icing setting.
- Store baked cookies in an airtight container to maintain softness.
- If almond extract is unavailable, vanilla extract alone works well.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 10 g
- Sodium: 75 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 19 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 30 mg
