Volleyball Cookies and Lessons in Icings

For 4-5 months of the year during the Spring/Summer and early Fall, I am a golf widow.  My husband took up the sport the morning of our wedding 17 years ago and was immediately addicted.

The rest of the year, my husband is a volleyball widower.  Nights and almost every weekend is dedicated to volleyball both high school and competitive club.  My girls and I are constantly on the go.

This past week our girls' school volleyball teams had a potluck.  We were given plenty of notice and the girls were assigned to bring cookies.  Well, in the craziness of our week I forgot about the potluck. The day before, they reminded me...I played it off like of course, it's the first thing on my mind as I dropped them off at school.

While driving to work, my wheels in my overloaded brain start turning.  Could I just pick a couple packs of cookies from the grocery store?  No, that is just not in my DNA, I couldn't possibly be that boring.  Could I pick up a gourmet case of fancy cookies from Costco and just drizzle some melted white chocolate on them to look homemade?...of course not.  No, I decide with just less than 24 hours until the event that I am going to make 48 volleyball cookies and individually package them in cute little clear bags tied with ribbons in their school colors.  Can you say "insane, overachiever"?

Now mind you, I am not much of a baker or a cookie/cake designer by any stretch of the imagination. So, I spent a good amount of the day during breaks on Google, Pinterest, Wilton and any other website I could get my hands on to figure out how I was going to pull this off....brain overload!!  I had no idea about the world of "icings".  I can honestly say I now know everything about "bordering", "flooding" and "settling".

Thank God I discovered King Arthur Flour.  This website positively saved my sanity and my mission.

Simple Cookie Glaze
Courtesy of King Arthur Flour

2-1/4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1-1/2 to 2 Tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon milk (2% or Whole)

Mix all of the ingredients together.  Stir until smooth; a fork works fine.

The glaze should be thick, but soft enough to "settle" when you spread it.  If the glaze is too thick, dribble in another teaspoon of milk, 1/2 teaspoon at a time.

King Arthur Flour Tip:  Be sure to measure accurately here.  Too little milk, and the glaze won't spread nicely.  Too much milk and it will be thin, spotty and develop splotches overnight.

Once the glaze has hardened, you can color on it with foodsafe markers or you can pipe another color over the top.  You can sprinkle sugar on top of the wet icing for a sparkly effect.

Yield:  2/3 cup of glaze (this amount glazed 24 cookies)

** I used Wilton's Cookie Icing in Black for the volleyball lines.

Spreading the glaze with an offset spatula for "settling".

Before and After Glazing

One volleyball player....

...two volleyball players helping out.

Resting for packaging.

Our basket of little beauties - mission accomplished!

One Year Ago: Mocha Mint Delight