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Page 22 2022 Home For The Holidays Lincoln Daily News November 23, 2022 To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other disk refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, about 10 minutes. (If the dough has been chilled for longer than 3 hours, it may need a few more minutes.) Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick, being sure that the dough isn’t sticking to the work surface (run a long metal spatula or knife under the dough occasionally just to be sure, and dust the surface with more flour, if needed). For softer cookies, roll out slightly thicker. Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and transfer to nonstick cookie sheets, placing the cookies 1 inch apart. Gently knead the scraps together and form into another disk. Wrap and chill for 5 minutes before rolling out again to cut out more cookies. Bake, switching the positions of the cookies from top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking, until the edges of the cookies are set and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire cake racks to cool completely. Decorate with Royal Icing. (The cookies can be prepared up to 1 week ahead, stored in airtight containers at room temperature.) Royal Icing *Recipe and instructions copied from Foodnetwork.com 1 Pound Confectioner’s (Powdered) Sugar 2 Tblspn Dried Egg White Powder 6 Tblspn Water Instructions: Mix all ingredients together. If icing is too thick and won’t pipe, add just a smidgen of water (don’t over do it a little bit will go a long way). If too thin, add powdered sugar, again sparingly. Make ahead: The icing can be prepared up to two days ahead, stored in an airtight container with a moist paper towel pressed directly on the icing surface, and refrigerated. This icing hardens into shiny white lines and is used for piping decorations on gingerbread people or other cookies. Traditional royal icing uses raw egg whites, but I prefer dried egg- white powder, available at most supermarkets, to avoid any concern about uncooked egg whites. When using a pastry bag, practice your decorating skills before you ice the cookies. Just do a few trial runs to get the feel of the icing and the bag, piping the icing onto aluminum foil or wax paper. If you work quickly, you can use a metal spatula to scrape the test icing back into the batch. Continued —