Test Kitchen Tip: If you don’t have time to bake cookies, you can just as easily use store-bought ones.
Make a Powdered Sugar Icing
In order to drizzle cookies, you need icing. Here’s how to make icing using our basic powdered sugar icing recipe. Ingredients:
1 cup sifted powdered sugar1/4 teaspoon vanilla1 tablespoon milk or orange juice
In a small bowl combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk or juice. Stir in additional milk or juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it reaches drizzling consistency. Makes 1/2 cup. Test Kitchen Tip: Many recipes for icing call for confectioners’ sugar. What is it? It’s granulated sugar that’s been crushed into a fine powder. And yes, it’s the same thing as powdered sugar. For chocolate powdered sugar icing: Prepare as above, except add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder to the powdered sugar. Do not use orange juice with this. For a colored icing: Stir in a couple drops of food color. A gel food color will not thin the icing as much, but if you add too much color, you can add a bit more powered sugar to thicken the icing back up.
Drizzling Cookies with a Spoon
To add the drizzle, simply dip a spoon (or the tines of a fork) into the bowl of icing and drizzle over baked and cooled cookies. To avoid a mess, drizzle the cookies on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper. When the icing has set, simply throw away the paper.
Drizzling Icing with a Resealable Plastic Bag
Transfer your icing to a small, heavy plastic bag. Snip off a small bit (you can always cut it larger if needed; start with a small snip for the most control) from one of the lower corners. Drizzle the icing through the opening in the bag.
