Spring Sugar Cookies

PREHEAT oven to 350°F.

COOKIES:

LINE cookie sheets with Reynolds Parchment Paper set aside. No need to add extra grease or spray your cookie sheets.

KNEAD flour into sugar cookie dough until well blended.

ROLL out half of cookie dough at a time to 1/4-inch thickness between lightly floured sheets of Parchment Paper. Using circles, flower or butterfly cookie cutters, cut out cookies place on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

DECORATING SUGAR COOKIES:

BEAT powdered sugar, meringue powder, water and extract in a large bowl, with an electric mixer, on high speed until smooth and thick, about 1 minute.

DIVIDE icing into 6 small bowls. Stir food coloring in remaining frosting to make purple, blue, orange, yellow, pink and green icing. Cover icing tightly when not in use, icing dries quickly.

PIPE outlines of cookies with contrasting colors of icing using a decorating bag with tip. Or, place icing in plastic zipper bags. Snip off one corner with scissors and use to pipe icing.

FOR SUGARED OUTLINES, sprinkle heavily with sugar crystals while icing is wet. Lightly shake off excess crystals.

TIP

Sprinkle over Parchment Paper to catch excess for reuse.

TO ICE INSIDE OUTLINES, add a little water to thin icing, if necessary. Spoon a small amount of icing onto outlined cookies. Using a brush, small spatula or your finger, spread icing up to outline to fill in spaces.

FOR BUTTERFLY, while icing is still wet, pipe dots around edge of wings. Inside upper part of wings, pipe 3 dots in a line. Drag a toothpick down through the center of the dots to make the heart-shaped designs. Pipe 1 dot in the bottom part of the wing. Drag a toothpick up to make the upside down heart design. For the body of the butterfly, pipe a line of brown frosting in the center and immediately arrange 4 candy-coated chocolate candies on the icing.

FOR FLOWERS, pipe a small amount of icing in center. While wet, add a contrasting color candy-coated chocolate candy. Pipe 2 small lines of green icing at angles between petals to form leaves.

FOR SMILEY FACE, use brown frosting to pipe a smile. Pipe 2 dots of frosting for eyes. Add 2 candy-coated chocolate candies for the eyes.

REYNOLDS KITCHENS TIPS: - Cover icing at all times. Icing can dry out quickly. - Let icing dry before adding a different color of icing. If icing is still wet, colors will blend.

BAKE 7 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies or until the edges begin to brown. Let stand one minute on cookie sheets. Slide Parchment Paper with cookies onto a wire racks to cool completely.