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+ servings
pile of red and pink marbled heart shaped sugar cookies on white parchment paper

Marbled Sugar Cookies

Tara Kringlen
These marbled sugar cookies are the perfect cut-out sugar cookie studded with fragrant vanilla beans and topped with an easy vanilla glaze. The glaze is quick to make and the marbled design can be customized to any colors you desire. These easy sugar cookies are sure to impress!
5 from 1 vote
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chilling Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 24 cookies
Calories 152 kcal

Ingredients
  

Cookies

  • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 vanilla bean cut through lengthwise and seeds scraped out, optional

Icing

  • 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
  • 3-6 tablespoon milk or half and half or heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Red food coloring or any color you desire

Instructions
 

Cookies

  • In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  • In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until it’s lightened in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
  • Add the egg, vanilla and vanilla bean and mix well. Scrape the bowl down as needed.
  • Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the flour is incorporated and the dough comes together.
  • Divide the dough into 2 halves and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the discs for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
  • Lightly sprinkle your surface with flour. Once chilled, use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out each dough disc into a ¼ inch thick circle. Use more flour as needed to keep the rolling pin from sticking.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into your desired shapes and re-roll the scraps into more ¼ inch thick discs to cut more cookies out until no scraps are remaining.
  • Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet 2-3 inches apart. Bake for 9-11 minutes until just starting to turn light golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

  • In a medium bowl that is at least as wide as your largest cookie, combine powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk and vanilla and stir until a thick icing forms. Add more milk by the tablespoon until you reach a thick consistency, about the consistency of glue. See the post for more consistency tips. Add more powdered sugar as needed if you’ve thinned out the icing too much.
  • Place about 2 tablespoons each of icing into 2 small bowls and 1 tablespoon of icing into another small bowl. Set aside the larger bowl of white icing. Color the 2 bowls containing 2 tablespoons of icing each, starting with one drop of food coloring and adding more if needed until reaching your desired colors. Leave the 1 tablespoon of icing white and set aside.
  • In the medium bowl with the white icing, drizzle a small amount of each colored icing into the white glaze and lightly swirl once with a toothpick (be careful to avoid swirling too much as you will lose the marble effect).
  • Dip the top side of each cookie into the glaze, pushing into the glaze lightly and twisting slightly and then lifting up and drizzling off any excess. Place on a wire rack to dry and continue with the rest of the cookies. If the color wears off, drizzle a bit more of each color back into the white icing and swirl once with a toothpick. If you have too much color, dollop some of the reserved tablespoon of white icing over the colors and swirl again with a toothpick.
  • Let the cookies dry on the cooling rack for at least an hour. If you want to store the cookies layered, then allow them to dry for 12-24 hours before layering and layer between wax paper or parchment paper. Store in an airtight container

Notes

See the post for more details!
Sugar cookies adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 152kcal
Keyword cut-out sugar cookies, marbled cookies, marbled icing, sugar cookies
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