Piping with Colored Cream Dough
You can add special details to cookies before baking with this Cream Dough recipe.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons light cream or half-and-half
1 cup all-purpose flour
Paste food coloring
1. Beat softened butter in a small bowl on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar and beat until combined. Beat in light cream. Add all-purpose flour and beat until smooth. Divide dough into 2 to 3 portions. Color each portion with paste food coloring.
2. Place each color in a decorating bag fitted with a writing, rose, or star tip. The dough must be stiff for the designs to hold their shape, so don’t be tempted to add liquid. Pipe one color on all the unbaked cookies on the cookie sheet, then do the same with the second color, then with a third, if desired. Bake as cookie recipe directs. Once baked, the piped-on designs are durable and the cookies store and freeze well.
Fancy Flours: Where Bakers Bloom 
I am interested in trying this receipe. The photograph that accompanied the tip to use this dough in the Holiday 2007 Catalogue showed a cookie that appeared to have a shiny green background with white spots and a baby’s onsie apparently piped on top. How did you make the green and the onsie so smooth? Is the cream dough this shiny or did you have to add an egg wash? It looks more like these were rolled and cut out and set on top of a cookie or like a poured icing was used to make the green fit the exact shape of the cookie.
I have the same question. I want to make the flower on the same pages, with the dots. How are the dots made? Do I frst the background with this recipe and then dots on top, then bake? Confused…
Thinking of doing white ghost with black dot eyes, too
It looks like we have caused some confusion with the pictures. Unfortunately, the picture positioned above the recipe in our Holiday Catalog is not an example of the colored cream dough. That onesie cookie shown was made using royal icing. The colored cream dough technique leaves a larger piping strand. The texture of the dough is just that, dough. You should try it just to get a feel for the overall look. I hope this information helps.
I still love the idea of the cream dough and am going to try it. I have to make some flag cookies for the Browie troop’s meeting where they’ll be working on the Wave the Flag badge. It seems easier to pipe the colored dough on than have to work with icing afterwards. They’ll transport and spend the day at school with a 2nd grader better at any rate. However, I would still love it if you could give information on how to make the cookies that were shown on that page. The background mint green color is so pretty and shiny. The dots seem to melt into that green, not sit on top. Is that a glaze? The onesie was made with royal icing, but was it made on parchment and then transferred to the cookie or made on the cookie? Was the yellow part outlined and flooded in, then the orange accents added once that was dry? It’s so pretty.
How do you get that smooth sheen? What consistency does the royal icing need to be to achieve it? Do you bake it after decorating, or before?
Royal icing is magnificent for decorating cookies. The onesie cookie on page 38 is actually pretty simple to make. The base royal icing is mint green, and should be thin enough to easily cover the cookie, but not so thin that it runs off the sides. To make the white dots, simple take white icing and drop small drops onto the green icing while the green icing is still wet. The dots will simply “melt” into the green icing. Let the cookie dry completely. Pipe a small onesie shape on top and let drip completely. Edge the onesie with contrasting royal icing, and you have your cookie! I hope this information helps. By the way, these cookies are iced AFTER baking, not before.
I used this to make the American flag cookies and they turned out great! Thank you.