I'm just wondering if anyone that's made decorated sugar cookies has ever gotten any complaints about the royal icing being too sweet?? I made them a couple times and I've always been told that the icing is too sweet and ends up being taken off the cookie. So now I'm just wondering if anyone has an alternative that dries as hard as royal but isn't so sweet.



Thank you

maybe you could try a different flavoring in your icing like almond or something - I used almond the other day and got many compliments

Can thing really be too sweet

Thanks I'll keep that in mind. I'll let you know if I find something less sweet though

What about something like the Toba Garrett glaze? It's milk, corn syrup, and powder sugar. I know the milk and syrup amounts are 3/8ths of a cup. I'm not totally sure about the powder sugar but I think it might be a lb. I know it's been posted here on the site somewhere so you can try searching it. You can also add any kinda of flavorings to it.

I haven't used it yet, personally, but have heard great things about it. It's suppose to dry to the touch, but still be soft enough to bite through.

When making royal for cookies, it does help to add some flavor to it. I usually do what ever goes well with the cookies. My only complaint about royal is that it dries so hard.

My Mother-in-law just uses water and icing sugar with a little almond flavouring.... However, she doesn't really "decorate" the cookies, she just glazes over the impressions from the cutter. The glaze usually fills them in really well....

What about Alice's Cookie Icing that's posted in the recipes on here? It's basically royal icing with butter added to it. I haven't tried it yet myself but have heard wonderful things about it. I would think the butter would help cut the sweetness a little.

The "glaze" with the corn syrup tastes great... I haven't perfected the recipe, mine was difficult to work with but the suggestion of using a squeeze bottle to dispense it I am sure will work next time I try it but it looked great and tasted great when I used it.

I just made Toba's royal recipe and used small amount of vanilla. Also, when I make my cookies, I replace the butter with shortening. That's just my choice, I feel that the butter cookie AND the royal icing together are to sweet, So I prefer a blander cookie and than add the sweet flavor to the icing, still not over doing it. Plus it helps to hold the shape better for me. Play with your flavoring till you find something you like.

Thanks so much for your replies everyone. I'll keep everyones ideas in mind when I make my cookies. I'll let you know how it turns out, Wish me luck!!

You could also try some lemon juice or lemon oil in the royal icing to cut the sweetness. I've always loved it!

Maybe you're using too much icing? I use a very thin layer. There's no way I could remove the icing from the cookie. I know some bakeries and esp grocery stores use a thick layer of frosting. Also, I use very little vanilla. Almond or rum gives a less sweet flavor.

hth

I use a cookie glaze all the time and I love it.. It dries hard enough for the cookies to be stacked but not as hard as royal and I don't find it too sweet..
2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon corn syrup
almond extract to taste. or what ever flavour you like..
Stir with spoon .. adjust the consistancy by adding more sugar or water..

Liz

Thanks for the info Liz