I love frosting my sugar cookies with BC (never detailed, just a swirly coat. I'm no cookie artist!) because it softens up my sugar cookies to that perfect chewiness. (Oh, I use the NFSC recipe from here if that matters)

Will RI do the same to my cookies? I'm making Valentines cookies for work and wanted the smooth glossy look of RI, but only if it will soften my cookies. Otherwise, I'll stick to BC.

Thanks everyone!

No it doesn't soften the cookies. In fact, RI gets hard.

Royal Icing gets very hard...it won't make the cookies soft. Some people use Glace or glaze which does not get as hard as royal...I have never used it myself.

I knew RI got hard, I just wasn't sure if the cookies got any of the RI moisture in them to chewy them up.

Thanks for the quick responses!

I just made and decorated cookies this week...the cookies were a little too crunchy when they were plain, but now that they have the RI on them, they're softer and are perfect!

RI decorated cookies will be soft if left in an air-tight container. They will become more crunchy if left out. If put back into an airtight container, more soft, etc....... I actually like to leave mine out and have them on the crunchy side!
The RI itself dries hard, not the cookie. Antonia74's RI recipe, which is what a lot of folks on here use, will dry shiny and hard enough to stack, but not hard enough to hurt your teeth. Some RI's too become very hard.
I have used Antonia's dozens of time (some of those times in my pics)

Awesome, thank you! I love me a sugar cookie on the softer side!

I just made a bunch of valentine cookies and I added Karo syrup at the end of the mixing on my Royal icing. It helps keep the cookie soft. I actually grab one of the left overs when I was done and WOW they were yummy! Cookie was soft also. HTH's

Chippi