Painted Sugar Cookies (Portuguese Tiles)
A brown butter sugar cookie baked into squares and decorated like ceramic tiles
Servings 8
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 1/3 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg whites
- 3 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 - 1 tsp blue gel food coloring
Instructions
- In a stock pot or sauté pan, cook 2 sticks of butter until golden brown and bubbly. Turn off heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a heat-proof bowl and set aside.
- In another large bowl, mix flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking powder.
- Once brown butter has come to room temperature and regained a softened butter texture, beat with a hand mixer with granulated sugar and 2 tbsp powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add your eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract, until a smooth batter forms. Then, add your dry ingredients and mix until a stiff dough forms.
- Split dough in half and bring each into a cohesive disc. Wrap each with plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove dough discs from fridge and let come to room temperature, for about 15-30 minutes.
- Line two 8x8" baking pans with parchment paper. Take each dough and press into the bottom of each pan until you fill the entire bottom evenly.
- Chill each pan of dough for 10-15 minutes before baking. Then, bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Once done, immediately remove each cookie square from the pans using the parchment paper as a handle. Trim off the edges (about 1/4") and cut each large square into 4 equal 4x4" squares using a ruler and knife or pizza cutter.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat 3 2/3 cup powdered sugar with 3 egg whites, salt, and lemon zest until smooth, being careful not to splatter your sugar.
- Beat on high speed until a stiff meringue forms, about 5 minutes. Remove 1/4 of your icing and transfer it to a piping bag to use as your border icing. Then, add your lemon juice to the rest of your icing.
- Separate your remaining icing into two bowls, one with 3/4 of the total and one with 1/4 of the total. Add blue food coloring to the smaller amount until you achieve a saturated phthalo hue. Cover and reserve for decorating.
- Transfer your white flood icing to an another piping bag and label with "flood" or "thin".
- Once your cookies are cool, flip squares over onto the flat side. Start with one square and pipe a border of your stiff icing around the outer edge. Then, flood the inside of the cookie completely with your white flood icing, using a toothpick to fill in gaps. Let dry completely, for at least 1-2 hours or up to a day.
- Once your white icing has hardened completely, decorate your tiles with your blue icing. Mix with more lemon juice or water to thin into a desired paint consistency and use a clean paintbrush to apply designs of your choice. Let dry and serve.
Notes
- I recommend sketching a tile design on a piece of paper to plan out your pattern before decorating.
- Snip the end of your piping bag thicker for your thick icing and smaller for your flood icing to gain more control.
- Use a new, small watercolor brush to paint your icing onto your tiles. I mix my royal blue icing with lemon juice to thin it out as I paint for a lighter blue color.