Edible Gift Boxes
- One recipe Sugar Cookies
- All-purpose flour, for rolling out the dough
- One recipe Royal Icing
- Cornstarch or vinegar, to thicken Royal Icing
- Cookies or candy, for filling boxes
- Ribbon, optional
- Special equipment: piping bags with medium and small tips
- Make the dough for sugar cookies: Dust a sheet of parchment paper with flour.
- Place the dough on top.
- Dust with more flour and top with another sheet of parchment.
- Roll it out to 1/8-inch thickness and chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
- Cut the pieces: Measure and cut six panels for each box: a 4" x 4" top and bottom, two 4" by 2" sides and two 3 3/4" by 2" sides.
- Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut them out.
- Bake and cool all pieces according to recipe instructions, reducing cooking time as needed.
- To create the perfect right angles after cooling, use a fine kitchen rasp to file the edges, making them nice and straight.
- Thicken some royal icing: Thicken about 2 cups of the royal icing with either cornstarch and a couple of drops of vinegar, or extra confectioners' sugar, to get the consistency of caulk.
- Fit a pastry bag with a medium round tip and fill it with the thickened icing.
- Make the boxes: Using royal icing, attach the four walls to the bottom and to each other.
- The longer walls will face each other.
- Leave the tops for the end.
- Let the boxes dry 24 hours before adding finishing touches.
- Store remaining royal icing with plastic wrap touching the surface.
- When dry, use a paring knife to trim off excess overflowing icing so the outside of the box has a clean finish.
- Decorate: Fit small round tips into piping bags.
- Divide the remaining royal icing into batches and color as desired.
- Fill bags with icing and pipe neat lines along the seams of the box first.
- Then go back and pipe little dots along the piped lines to create more interest.
- At this point, you can decorate the box and lid however you want.
- Do some pencil sketches on paper first to get an idea of what you might like.
- Then go for it.
- Let the icing dry thoroughly for at least 24 hours.
- Fill with treats of your choosing, tie with a ribbon and present.
sugar cookies, flour, icing, cornstarch
Taken from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/edible-gift-boxes.html (may not work)