Easter Egg Puzzle Cookies Recipes

EASTER EGG PUZZLE COOKIES

Steps:

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture, and beat until combined. Add vanilla. Wrap dough in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out egg shapes with a 2 1/2-inch oval cutter. Transfer cookies to parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 1 inch apart. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Bake until edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Upon removing from oven, cut into pieces with a sharp knife (if they're cool, it will be difficult to create clean edges). Let cool. Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/8-inch tip and filled with royal icing, decorate as desired. Sprinkle with sanding sugar while icing is wet. If adding dots or stripes, let base layer dry first.

ROYAL ICING FOR EASTER EGG PUZZLE COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine sugar, meringue powder, and water in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on medium speed until smooth, about 4 minutes. (If icing is too thick, add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time.)
• Divide icing into batches, and mix in a different shade of food coloring to each to tint.

PUZZLE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl knead flour into sugar cookie dough.
• Divide dough into 6 (or more) portions.
• On an ungreased cookie sheet, roll each portion into a 5-inch square.
• Press a well-floured 3- to 4-inch Halloween cookie cutter into the square (use smaller cutters, if desired).
• Carefully remove cookie cutter without removing dough.
• Using a table knife, cut outside portion of square into large puzzle pieces.
• In a small mixing bowl beat egg yolks and water.
• Divide mixture among 3 or 4 small bowls.
• In each bowl, add 2 to 3 drops of liquid food coloring or desired amount of paste food coloring in desired color; mix well.
• Brush dough puzzle pieces with different colors of egg yolk mixture.
• Apply to cookie dough with small clean paintbrush.
• If mixture thickens while standing, stir in water, one drop at a time.
• Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just start to brown and centers are set.
• While still warm, carefully recut pieces with the knife.
• Trim edges as needed.
• Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool completely.

PUZZLE COOKIE

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and pepper. Beat to combine. Add eggs, and beat to combine, then beat in molasses. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture, and beat to combine. Divide dough in half, and shape into flattened disks, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpats. Generously flour a large piece of parchment, and roll one piece of dough out on the parchment into a 1/8-inch-thick rectangle, about 14 by 10 inches. Transfer to the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. Repeat rolling and chilling process with the remaining piece of dough.
• Remove one piece of dough from freezer. Using a large owl cookie cutter or our template, cut out a cookie and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Using a 3/4-inch cookie cutter cut out eyes from scraps. Using the small end of a 1/2-inch round pastry tip, cut out center of each eye, creating rings. Place on cookie. Return cookie to freezer to chill, about 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough. The scraps can be rerolled once.
• Bake until edges are golden, about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife, cut cookies into desired puzzle shapes. Leaving intact, transfer baking sheets to wire racks until cool.
• Divide royal icing among four bowls, and tint one batch black, one yellow, and one blue; leave one white. Decorate cooled cookies with royal icing using the #1, #3, and #4 round Ateco tips. Separate the puzzle pieces once the cookies are decorated, but before the icing hardens.

EASTER EGG COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream powdered sugar and butter for cookies in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon zest.
• Combine sifted flour with baking powder and salt. Sift again, then add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, stirring after each addition until just combined. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.
• Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Lightly dust your hands with flour and roll 2 tablespoons dough between your palms into a 3-inch long cylinder with tapering ends. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are a pale straw color, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer cookies to wire racks. Allow to cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes.
• While the cookies are cooling, prepare icings. Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and warm water for lemon icing in one bowl, and combine powdered sugar, warm water, chocolate, and vanilla for chocolate icing in a second bowl. Stir both icings until smooth and thin enough to pour.
• Put waxed paper under the racks of cookies. Pour about 1 tablespoon lemon icing over a cookie, beginning in the center and continuing around the sides until cookie is evenly coated. Repeat to frost 1/2 of the cookies with lemon icing and the other 1/2 with chocolate icing. Scoop up an icing that drips on the waxed paper and stir into the remaining icing. Use extra icing as needed to coat cookies. Let icing dry until no longer sticky, about 30 minutes.
• Use tubes or pressurized cans of decorating icing to make your own fanciful design of flowers, geometric shapes, or Easter motifs.