Realistic Rock Cookies
These realistic rock cookies are so fun and surprisingly straightforward and forgiving to create! Once your cookies are baked and dipped in royal icing, you dilute food gel dye in vodka and just sweep, dot and stripe the cookies willy nilly. The surface of the icing is eaten away by the vodka, roughening the surface. These would be a great gift for the rock hounds in your life, or people you secretly think should eat rocks. Win-win!
Servings
36cookies
Servings
36cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
Royal Icing
Instructions
For Cookies:
  1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the salt and baking soda and beat to combine. Add the flour and beat until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour, preferably overnight.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  3. Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.) Cut out your rock shapes with an exacto knife or paring knife. Don’t overthink it! Transfer cookies to baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
  4. Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost with royal icing as directed below. Store up to 2 weeks in an airtight container, freeze for up to 3 months.
For Royal Icing:
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Using the whisk attachment, beat until stiff and glossy.
  2. Add water, just a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches the 11-second stage (where a ribbon of icing across the mixture takes 11 seconds to completely flatten). It will be the consistency of shampoo.
  3. Put 1/2 the icing in a wide, flattish bowl. Dip the cookies one at a time, gently dragging the excess icing onto the edge of the bowl. The icing will dry out quickly, so keep covered when not in use and add water as needed. If it separates, just give it a good whip before using and it will come together again. Set onto cookie sheets to dry overnight.
  4. Once completely dry, decorate the cookies. You will need multiple small bowls to mix the colors and the vodka. Brush the cookie with food dye diluted with vodka. You can experiment with waiting for the first coat to dry then going back in to add more color, or just applying layer after layer. The vodka will slowly eat away and roughen the icing. To get a pitted appearance, hold the brush in one spot a bit longer until the vodka collapses the icing.
  5. Let dry completely.