Diamond Gem Cookies
These Diamond Gem Cookies are dipped in a blue watercolor glaze and accented with royal icing details that are sprinkled with sanding sugar or painted with edible gold luster dust. They are great for a Gemstone Birthday Party!
Servings 20 cookies (approx.)
Equipment
- 2 ¼-inch wooden dowel rods
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 sharp paring knife
- disposable piping bags
- Plastic tip coupler optional
- small round piping tip, such as #2 optional
- plastic disposable transfer pipette
- food dedicated paint palette
- thin food grade paintbrush
Ingredients
- 1 batch cookie dough from your favorite shortbread cookie or cut out sugar cookie recipe see note
For the Icing Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon clear vanilla extract or other clear extract like almond rum or coconut
- blue food coloring liquid
For Decorating:
- Easy Royal Icing see note
- white and blue sparkling sanding sugar
- edible gold luster dust
- Everclear, vodka or clear extract
Instructions
Bake the Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F or temperature indicated in your chosen cookie dough recipe. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Flour a cutting board or mat. Roll the dough out to ¼-inch thickness. It is helpful to use ¼-inch diameter wooden dowel rods on each side of the dough as guides for the rolling pin to ensure an even thickness.
- Cut the dough into diamond shapes of varying sizes with a sharp paring knife. It is basically a triangle with two corners (vertices) cut off.
- Place the cut dough shapes on parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, for 5-7 minutes, until baked through but not brown.
- Remove cookie sheet from the oven and allow cookies to cool for 1 to 2 minutes before removing them to a wire rack, then cool completely before glazing.
Glaze the Cookies:
- Place a wire rack over a parchment or waxed paper lined cookie sheet or work surface.
- Mix together the powdered sugar, milk, and extract. Using clear extract will keep the color of the icing white. Stir the icing together with a small spatula to avoid introducing bubbles. You can let the icing sit for a minute so bubbles rise and then pop them with the spatula. You can add more milk or powdered sugar to achieve a dippable consistency.2 cups powdered sugar, ¼ cup milk, ½ teaspoon clear vanilla extract or other clear extract like almond
- Drop blue food coloring liquid into the glaze and swirl with a toothpick. Be careful to just add a small amount of coloring. This is why I recommend using a liquid food coloring instead of a gel, as the gels tend to be very intense color.
- Dip the top surface of a cookie into the icing and place the cookies on the wire rack to allow excess glaze to drip off. This creates a marbled look. Use a toothpick to pop any bubbles on the surface of the glaze immediately after dipping.
- Repeat with all of the cookies. Allow the icing glaze to dry at room temperature until set, at least a few hours. If you want to allow them to dry overnight, place them in a single layer in an airtight container after the icing has partially set.
Add the Royal Icing Outline:
- Mix up outline consistency royal icing by adding about a half cup of the base icing to a small bowl. Add small amounts of warm water to the icing to thin it slightly so it is a pipeable consistency.
- Transfer the icing to a disposable piping bag fitted with a plastic tip coupler and a small round tip, such as a #2. Alternatively, cut off a very small opening in the tip of the piping bag.
- Locate the sanding sugars so you can use them immediately after piping the icing. Depending on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen, the icing can set quickly so you want to get the sugar on immediately.
- Start by piping an outline around the diamond shape.
- Pipe a line across the cookie to create the girdle of the diamond. The girdle separates the crown (top) of the diamond from the pavilion (bottom).
- Pipe a zigzag line across the crown to give the illusion of facets.
- Pipe two lines down across the pavilion that connect the girdle to the bottom point (culet), creating the illusion of facets on the pavilion.
- Immediately after piping, sprinkle white or blue sparkling sanding sugar onto the wet icing so it will stick. Shake off the excess sugar into a small bowl. This will allow you to reuse the sugar that does not stick to the cookie. Set the cookie aside on a baking rack to allow the icing to dry. Repeat the royal icing piping with the remaining cookies. Leave some cookies without sanding sugar to paint with edible gold after the icing has fully dried.
- Because you are working quickly and doing only 1 cookie at a time, you may need to cap off your piping tip between cookies or place the tip in a tall glass with a moist paper towel in the bottom. This should help prevent the icing from crusting over the tip. Make sure to check your tip for crusting each time before you begin piping the design. Sometimes I will just squeeze out a little icing onto a paper towel or waxed paper to make sure it's flowing properly before proceeding to the cookie.
- Allow the icing to dry, then shake or brush off any remaining excess sanding sugar.
Paint the Icing Gold:
- Add some edible gold dust powder to the well of a food safe paint palette.
- Use a disposable transfer pipette to place a few drops of Everclear in the well and mix with a food safe paintbrush. You will need a very fine paintbrush for this.
- Mix the suspension and allow the excess to run off the paintbrush. Carefully paint the gold on top of the lines of royal icing.
- Allow the gold to dry before storing the cookies. The alcohol evaporates quickly.
Notes
Shortbread Cookies recipe HERE
Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe HERE
Easy Royal Icing recipe HERE
Store the cookies in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature. If you need to stack them, use a piece of aluminum foil to separate the layers to prevent grease transfer from underneath the top cookie onto the design of the bottom cookie.
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