Little Pilots - Lemon Cookies

Oh boy!! I am totally in a cookie mood!! But you know what?? I looove it!! Just look at this little pilots they are so cute! And the planes so colorful and cheerful! I just want to fasten my seat belt, sit back and relax and fly away!
The cookies are covered with royal icing which I love to work with, it gives you so many possibilities to play with and decorate! You can conjure any shape and color you wish. Just perfect for cookie decorating! Don't be scared, take a piping bag and swirl on your favorite cookie :-)

Ingredients:
Ingredients:

makes approx. 25 medium cookies:

• 200g butter
• 200g brown sugar 
• 1 egg
• 400g flour
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• edible food colorings - optional
• Royal Icing from HERE.

Cookies: Preheat the oven at 180C. 

In a bowl of an electric mixer beet the butter and sugar together until creamy and fluffy. Ad the egg and mix until all combines. Add the lemon zest and mix again. Now add the flour and mix until all ingredients come together. Take your dough out of the bowl and cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 30min.

Take your dough out of the fridge, sprinkle some flour on the work surface and roll out the cookie dough to about 5mm thick. 

I didn't have a cookie cutter in a shape of a pilot so I had to cut it out of carton and then used it as a transfer on my dough. But don't worry you can use any cookie cutter you wish!  Once you have cut all your shapes place your cookies on baking trays lines with baking paper. 

Bake the cookies for about 12-15min, depending on their size or until they get a nice golden color. 

Leave them to cool down completely before decorating with royal icing or storing.

For decorating my cookies I have colored my royal icing with edible gel colors. For piping I have used royal icing flooding consistency and soft peak consistency for the edges. 
Once the cookies are iced leave them for at least 8h for the royal icing to set.