Dries hard and shiny and the colors stay bright.

1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

• https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/11587/sugar-cookie-icing/
• If light corn syrup is not available, you can substitute a sugar syrup made with 1-1/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cup water, boiled together until syrupy.
• The trick is to add the 2 tsp. of milk to a bowl and then slowly stir in the powdered sugar a little at a time. It will come out smooth like the recipe says, just needs a little patience.
• EXCELLENT recipe! Unusual for me to tweak to such an extent BUT I make mine as per another reviewer with 1 c powdered sugar, 4 t milk, 1 t extract, 1 T corn syrup. I found out that if you substitute 4 t heavy cream instead of milk, you get the PERFECT consistency for bordering/lettering - it's stiff enough to hold it's shape but not difficult in any way to work with & will squeeze through a # 2 icing tip with the greatest of ease! Use milk if you are making flood icing and keep adding milk by 1/2 teaspoonful increments until you achieve the consistency you want. This is the ONLY recipe I use to decorate my cookies - it is AWESOME!!!
• This is a nice icing recipe, I agree, but one thing is missing - a pinch or two of salt. I don't suggest the icing should be SALTY - not a all - but salt is a flavor enhancer and the ingredient that keeps things (especially sweet things) from being bland. If, for example, you've ever left the salt out of a batch of chocolate chip cookies, you'll know what I mean. A fair number of folks who've reviewed this recipe have described it as overly sweet and/or bland, and this is because it lacks a a little salt. Whether you use vanilla, almond or any other extract, it won't taste right without a little salt to balance the flavor and sweetness - trust me. I added a scant 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt to the recipe - perfect.
• This as one reviewer noted is the holy grail of icing recipes… it should be it's been around for a long time. Some reviews wrote that the icing didn't totally dry and some said that it wasn't shinny enough. The secret is in the mixing of the syrup and milk. Use whole milk and light syrup in a 50/50 ratio. It takes a bit of practice. If you add too much milk you will lose some of the shine and too much syrup will keep it from hardening. Once you get it right you'll never use another icing… FYI: Using lemon extract in place of the almond as suggested gives the icing a light taste that balances quite well against a typical sugar cookie.

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