salted vanilla bean royal icing

Royal icing that actually tastes delicious. Yes, it can be done. All it needs is a bit of seasoning.

why you’ll love salted vanilla bean royal icing

• This is the recipe I use for all of my cookie decorating.
• This royal icing does not use raw egg whites. It uses meringue powder, which is a shelf stable powdered egg white with a few other ingredients. It usually has a light vanilla flavor. There are many brands, but my favorites are Genie’s Dream and Modern Mountain. I’ve heard good things about Chefmaster. Use whatever is accessible to you.
• This royal icing tastes delicious, which is rare for royal icing. Royal icing gets a bad rap for being tooth-achingly sweet and rock hard. Thanks to the addition of corn syrup in this recipe, this icing dries with a softer bite.

ingredients in salted vanilla bean royal icing

• meringue powder– We are using this instead of egg whites. Egg whites, unless pasteurized, can hold harmful bacteria like salmonella. Meringue powder is shelf stable, powdered egg whites and has a light vanilla flavor. Do not substitute for plain powdered egg whites, however, because meringue powder has a few other ingredients and is specifically designed for royal icing and meringues.
• powdered sugar– Icing sugar, powdered sugar, 10x, these are all the same fine powdered sugars.
• vanilla bean paste– I love Heilala (shop bundles and sales for great deals) and Nielsen-Massey
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt– This salt is amazing, and I will die on the hill that everyone should be using it. However, if you don’t have it handy, just halve the amount of salt the recipe calls for and use table salt or another fine salt.
• water
• white gel food coloring, optional- I use Americolor white gel food coloring. The purpose of it is to turn the icing from slightly translucent to more opaque. It will also hold colors better when coloring the icing.

supplies needed to make salted vanilla bean royal icing

• stand mixer- you can use a hand mixer, but a stand mixer is preferred here
• paddle attachment
• wire whisk
• spatula- to scrape down the bowl

how to make salted vanilla bean royal icing

This recipe makes a big batch of royal icing, enough to decorate about 3 dozen cookies. If you have extra icing, you can store it in an airtight container on the counter for a couple weeks, in the fridge for a month, or in the freeze for a few months. If you need less icing and don’t want to make a big batch, the recipe can be easily halved. If you need more, it can be easily doubled, which is what I used to do every week when decorating cookies for clients.

Starting with an optional step that is good practice, but I never do it because I’m lazy. Wipe your bowl, spatula, and paddle attachment down with white vinegar or lemon juice. This is to erase any fat molecules that could be clinging to those surfaces. Fat will interfere with the royal icing and cause it to break down, not dry, and just act weird in general. However, royal icing is tolerant ever so slightly to a *little bit of fat. Meaning, if you just made cookies in the mixer, and everything is still greasy, that’s no good. Wash it again. But, if the bowl is perfectly clean to the naked eye, it’s going to be fine even if there is tiny invisible fat residue, so I never wipe the bowl down. But I’m going to tell you to do it, and do with that what you will.

To the mixing bowl, add the salt, meringue powder, and water. Use a wire whisk to combine, making sure there are no lumps of meringue powder in the bowl. The mixture will be frothy on top with liquid on the bottom, kind of like beer.

Add the powdered sugar to the bowl all at once. Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low to combine into a thick, syrupy icing. Add the vanilla, any other flavorings you are adding, corn syrup, and a squeeze of white gel food coloring. Mix again, raising the speed to medium (four on the Kitchen Aid) for three minutes. The icing will be thick, glossy, and fluffy.

Cover the icing with cling film immediately, touching the surface. You could also cover it with a moist towel draped over the bowl if you’re going to be using it immediately. If you’re making it ahead, store it in an airtight container.

The consistency of the icing will be a toothpaste/piping/detail consistency. Color it and thin it out as needed for decorating.

success tips for making salted vanilla bean royal icing

• Don’t over mix the icing. Over-mixing causes the icing to not dry properly, and it will have a spongy texture that crumbles off the cookie.
• Use a dehumidifier if your room has a humidity level of 50% or higher. If you notice your royal icing is drying with a matte or sparkly finish, it could be because of the humidity in your room.
• If you have a dehydrator, popping the cookies in there for a few minutes will help the icing dry with more of a shine.
• If your icing is warm toned, and you want to tone it, add a squeeze of Americolor lilac and mix to combine. You may have seen the tip floating around online about adding purple gel coloring to icing or buttercream to tone it. Sometimes that ends badly with icing turning a lavender color since it’s tricky to add just the right amount of purple, which can be an intense color depending on which coloring you use. I found that Americolor lilac is a very delicate purple and perfect for toning icing and buttercream without turning it purple at all.
• Please note that corn syrup is NOT high fructose corn syrup and doesn’t even have the same chemical makeup. Corn syrup is pure glucose. If you don’t want to use it, you could use a teaspoon of vegetable glycerin in the icing to aid in softness. (I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve heard great things.)
• Don’t use the whisk attachment in the mixer. It can aerate the icing too much and accidentally cause it to be over-mixed. Instead, use the paddle attachment.

ways to flavor salted vanilla bean royal icing

There are so many ways to flavor royal icing. Here are some of my favorites:

*Do not use flavor oils. The fat content will negatively affect the icing.

• Strawberry royal icing– This tastes like melted strawberry ice cream and only uses powdered freeze dried fruit. Experiment with other freeze dried fruits like blueberries, raspberries, and cherries.
• Chocolate royal icing– This tastes like a fudgesicle popsicle. It dries with a very soft bite due to the fat in cocoa powder.
• Peppermint– Perfect for Christmas, I love the Watkins peppermint extract.
• Caramel– Watkins caramel extract is delicious in royal icing, and one of my favorites.
• Maple– Watkins maple extract is a great maple flavor and perfect in royal icing, especially for fall.
• Lemon– Substitute some or all of the water for freshly squeezed lemon juice when making royal icing, depending on your taste. Lemon is such a faint color that it won’t affect the color of your final icing. If you don’t mind a color change, experiment with other citrus juices such as blood orange, orange, or lime.
• Mexican vanilla– I love the flavor of this Mexican vanilla. It adds a light marshmallow-y flavor without tasting artificial. I do not substitute my regular vanilla bean paste for this, rather I use this as an additive flavor. This is a great way to make your vanilla icing stand out. A bit of je ne sais quoi.

Print