you possibly thinned down antonias icing too much for flooding your cookies? Last night my dh was helping me do the cookies and he made brown icing for me. Then when it was time to go to bed I put them in cake pans and set them inside my pantry so nothing would happen to them. Well this morning all of my other cookies stored in other areas w/ the icing I made dried just fine. But the brown reindeer and gingerbread cookies were STILL WET this morning! I don't know if it was a combination of to thinned icing and the cold (pantry is freezing cold from being next to an outside wall) but the pan stored in my island of the same cookies is still wet, and that island shouldn't be as cold as the pantry.

I have moved the cookies to a warmer bedroom but I'm nervous they won't dry or look right now. Has this ever happened to anyone? What did you do? I don't have enough stuff in the house to make a third batch (the first batch was messed up) The icing that is on the cookies also looks really pitted. What a mess!

Sorry I can't help but I'll give you a bump.

thank you .. I know there are cookie geniuses on here ... someones gotta have experienced this before!

Well, it does sound like it was thinned out too much -- but that generally results in the RI flowing right off the cookie! You can put them in a food dehydrator for a day or two and see if that helps. Or put the cookies on a cookie sheet in the oven with only the light on overnight. That should help. One time I got a bad batch of Meringue powder (I believe) and my royal icing didn't dry for a week!!! Which sent me into a tizzy since I had to pack them up and ship them by the end of the week! Between the food dehydrator and the oven I did get them dry in time (thankfully!)

thanks bob. I don't think my icing ran off the cookie because I do outline them with the thicker icing first so that should stop any run off. I will try the oven with the oven light and see what that does for me! Thanks!

this happened to me last week...brown icing too...interesting...but i know i did thin it too much...it dried eventually...just took much longer than the others and in some spots got a strange marbeled look....i just left them out to dry naturally as i don't own a dehydrator...good luck

thank you laurs .. I wonder if it the brown coloring? But I don't really remember the black bats I made a few years ago taking so long to dry ..

the colour was probably just coincidental..i just made some gingerbread men and they're drying well..not fast enough for me...but i'm not very patient ....

yeah .. it probably was coincidental .. I made more gingerbread and reindeer cookies but they are not iced yet. On average how long do people let cookies cool before icing? I know on the icing recipe page it says they like to let their cookies cool 24 hours before icing and 48 hours before bagging. Does everyone follow that pretty much?

lordy no!.....i usually let them rest a couple of hours...overnight if i don't have time....but just til they cool off..

ok ... cause I don't usually let mine sit that long either. I try to bake and decorate in the same day.

Now I have another question though. I noticed that my green Christmas trees and my gold stars have blotches on the icing that look like grease has spread through the icing. It's definitely noticeable but I can't figure it out. I wonder if it is because the green and the gold took lots of coloring? Could that have something to do with the blotchyness? My best hope now is to scrape off the gold icing on the starts and re ice them tomorrow. I don't know why they look the way they do ... NOTHING about these bouquets are going right!

I wait til cookies are cold to touch, however long it takes. I bag after 24 hours drying time but have done it in 15 hours in a pinch

She states she likes to dry her cookies for at least 24 hours (I thought that meant after icing them) and up to 48 hours if bagging them.

the discolouration may be due to not completely mixing before flooding....maybe try mixing the thinned icing w/ a whisk?...try to avoid bubbles though....just a thought?...the only time i've ever had a discolourations is when i've been in a rush and haven't mixed the thinning water in completely..

ok thanks ... the cookies are looking pretty bad today .. not sure what I will do at this point ... possibly scrape off that icing and start over!

It does sound like it was too thin....

I'm so sorry! My cookie sympathies are with you!

thank you .. these bouquets are driving me insane!

just remember...it's only cookies....don't stress too hard...you're your own worst critic