Satin Finish Chocolate Glaze for Cut-out Cookies

This is easy to make, spreads readily, looks stunning, and tastes yummy on Valentine heart-shaped cookies, Easter bunny cookies, or rolled cut-out cookies for any other occasion. The chocolate provides a smooth, satiny finish for the surface of the cookies. Then, a vanilla accent glaze--made by setting aside some of the sugar mixture before the chocolate is added--is used to add contrasting piping and other decorative details. To see a picture of some cookies decorated with the glaze, go to NIFTY STUFF and scroll down to the Cookie Decorating story.

Tip: Melt the chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl with the microwave oven on 50 percent power, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds. Or, melt it in a double boiler set over medium heat.

1 16-ounce box powdered sugar
1/3 cup water, plus more hot water if needed
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Sift sugar into a large bowl. Combine hot water and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Bring just to a full boil. (Or place water and syrup in a 2-cup measure and bring just to a boil in a microwave oven.) Stir to blend. Add hot liquid and vanilla to sugar, stirring or whisking until well blended and completely smooth.
Measure out and set aside about 1/3 cup of the glaze to add decorative accents and writing to the cookies; cover glaze tightly. Stir melted chocolate into remaining glaze until mixture is completely smooth. A bit at a time, thin the chocolate glaze to a spreadable consistency by stirring in a little hot water until smooth; be sure to mix the water in very thoroughly or the icing may become blotchy. Set the bowl of glaze in a larger bowl half full of very hot water to help keep glaze warm.

Using a small wide-bladed spatula, spreader or table knife, immediately spread chocolate glaze generously over cookies out to edges. (If glaze thickens as you work, warm it up replacing the water in the larger bowl with more hot water.) Clean off drips from edges with a fingertip or damp paper towel. Let the cookies stand until the icing sets, at least 1 hour and preferably longer.

If the reserved vanilla glaze is too stiff for piping or drizzling, thin it with a few drops warm water; if too thin, stir in more sifted powdered sugar. Place glaze in a piping bag fitted with a fine writing tip, or in a paper cone. Decorate cookie tops with lines, a ric-rac pattern, lacy edging, dots, squiggles, hearts, as desired (or, if your piping skills are good even lettering). The piping can be accented by sprinkling over colored sugar and shaking off the excess, or by adding red hots or other small candies here and there. Let cookies stand until accent glaze sets completely.

from http://www.kitchenlane.com/