Making Sugar Cookie Dough

1. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), use an electric mixer on medium speed to cream together the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy
2. Next add the egg yolk, beat it some more, then add the whole egg. Mix in the vanilla and almond.
3. Add flour and beat on low until well-combined. Do not overbeat. The dough will be sticky!
4. Divide the dough in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but I usually do mine the day before.

Rolling Out & Baking Cutout Cookies

1. When you're ready to bake, allow the dough to come to room temp for at least 10 minutes, then knead it until it returns to a smooth texture.
2. Preheat over to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
3. Roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.
4. Continue sprinkling flour when needed to prevent dough from sticking. Use your snowflake cookie cutters to cut the cookies into the desired snowflake shapes, then place them on a prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Don't skip the chilling time! Stick the cookies (on the sheets) back in the freezer for exactly 10 minutes to allow them to re-chill. This will keep your cookies perfectly shaped! When they're chilled, bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on size) for the perfect cookie! 
6. Allow the baked cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to completely cool.
7. If you like the flavor of a golden brown cookie with slightly crunchy edges, you can let these bake an extra minute or two. If you prefer perfectly cooked cookies, you can watch them and take them out as soon as they're baked before browning. I rarely get browned edges with these cutout cookies - they hold their shape, taste yummy, and are not crunchy! After experimenting with multiple recipes, this has to be my favorite!

How to Make Royal Icing

1. Add the meringue powder and 3 1/2 tablespoons of water in a mixing bowl.
2. Beat with a hand mixer until it's foamy (or the whisk attachment in a stand mixer).
3. Add in the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until combined. I should note here that I used Great Value powdered sugar from Walmart and I never sift it. However, I've bought other brands that did need sifting. If you're unsure - sift!!
4. Add the corn syrup. Add the almond extract, if desired. Adding a little corn syrup adds shine to the frosting - don't skip that step!
5. Increase speed to high and beat for around 5 minutes, until you get stiff glossy peaks.
6. Do not overbeat!
7. If you want colors other than white royal icing, add a drop or two of gel food coloring and mix until you get the desired color. Keep in mind that the icing color will darken as the icing dries and hardens so don't go overboard.
8. Use immediately or cover tightly with plastic wrap - make sure the plastic wrap touches the icing or the icing will harden!

How to Decorate Snowflake Cookies with Royal Icing

1. The easiest thing to do with these cookies is use tipless bags. You can snip off the tiniest of pieces from the bottom of the bag and it acts like a round piping tip. If you prefer, take a piping bag and add a coupler and small round tip. I usually choose a #1 tip for piping and a #3 or #4 for flooding.. 
2. Separate the icing into three bowls. Keep one white, add a drop of blue gel coloring to one, and add 3-4 drops of blue gel coloring to the other.
3. For each color, you'll need piping-consistency icing and flooding-consistency icing. 
4. Using piping icing (thick icing), outline the edges of the cookies with blue icing (or white icing, your choice). Allow this to dry for 3-4 minutes. 
5. Then use flood icing (thin icing) to fill in the inside of each snowflake cookie. Allow these to dry for 1-2 hours (depending on the humidity in the air, temperature in your home, etc.) I often use an oscillating fan to blow over my cookies (not directly on them) to speed up the drying.
6. Use piping of a different color (or the same color - totally up to you!) to pipe snowflake cookie designs. I have step-by-step photos in the post above and a couple of the designs I did so you can get an idea of how to make snowflake sugar cookies.
7. If you want to use sprinkles or sparkling sugar on the cookies, add them to the wet designs before they dry.
8. Allow these decorated snowflake cookies to completely dry (10-12 hours) before packaging or stacking them on top of each other.  
9. Enjoy or wrap up as gifts or take to a cookie exchange!