Ingredients

3 egg whites, room temperature, or equivalent meringue powder

　　2 1/2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

　　1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

　　

Step 1

Beat the egg whites and 1/3 cup of the sugar with a wire whisk or the whisk attachment on your mixer. Add another 1/3 cup sugar and the cream of tartar and beat 10 minutes longer. Add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture is smooth and thick. The icing can be tinted as desired with food coloring.

　　

Note

Step 2

To make gingerbread (page 204) house sections, spray the back of a jelly roll pan and a rolling pin with cooking spray. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness and place on the back of the jelly roll pan. Cut out the desired shapes for the walls and roof, then remove the trimmings (you can save and reroll these scraps for cookies or additional house embellishments) and bake for 5 to 6 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on the pan before carefully removing to a cooling rack. Cool completely before assembling the gingerbread house. Use Royal Icing to glue the gingerbread house together and to decorate the cookies.

　　Reprinted with permission from Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen: Recipes from My Family to Yours by Trisha Yearwood with Gwen Yearwood and Beth Yearwood Bernard. Copyright © 2008 by Trisha Yearwood. Published by Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Trisha Yearwood is a three-time Grammy-award winning country music star and the author of the bestselling cookbook Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen. She is married to megastar Garth Brooks.