Beginner
Christmas Tree Cookies
Bake and decorate a forest full of festively colored cookie trees. Perfect as a treat anytime during the holiday season.
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Prep1 hr 30 min
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Total Time50 hr 30 min
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Skill LevelBeginnerAmount36 cookies
Ingredients
Roll Out Dough Ingredients
1 cups Granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Royal Icing Recipe (2-1/2 batches needed)
Royal Icing
Decorating Ingredients
Kelly Green Icing Color
Red Red Icing Color
Black Icing Color
Royal Blue Icing Color
Lemon Yellow Icing Color
Violet Icing Color
Sky Blue Icing Color
Tools
Electric mixer
2 Large Bowls
Cookie sheet
Rolling Pin
Cooling Grid
Parchment paper
18 Pc. Metal Cookie Cutter Set
Instructions
Click to mark complete
- Bake Cookies. Preheat oven to 350?.
- Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric or hand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing in between each cup.
- Divide the batter in two balls and set on a floured surface. Roll out each ball with a rolling pin to make each section about 12 inches in diameter and ? inch thick.
- Dip tree cookie cutter in flour before carefully cutting out each shape.
- Bake the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet for 8-11 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned.
- Cool cookies completely on a cooling rack.
- Prepare 2 ½ recipes of Royal Icing. Beat powdered sugar, water, and meringue powder together until peaks form. This usually takes about 7-10 minutes on a low speed using an electric stand mixer, or 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer.
- Reserve ¼ cup.
Tint icing.Tint 1 cup portions of icing in each color using color combinations:
Fern – Kelly, Red, Black
Khaki – Royal, Black, Lemon
Slate – Royal, Black
Sapphire – Royal, Violet, Black
Dark Fern – Kelly, Red, Black
Willow Green – Sky, Black
Reserve ¼ cup white.
- Divide and thin icings.Thin ½ colored icings to 20 drop count, reserve other ½ cup full strength icings. Place thinned icing in disposable bags with 3/8 in. cut off tip. Flow in cookies. For Fern colored cookie, flow in every other section, allowing 15 to 30 minutes to dry before piping rest of the sections. Let cookies dry several hours or overnight.
Decorate cookies.
Fern cookie – With tip 1 and white icing, pipe snow.
Khaki cookie– with tip 1 and sapphire icing, pipe vertical line and horizontal lines.
Slate cookie – with tip 2 and fern colored icing, pipe tree branches
Sapphire cookie – with tip 1 and khaki colored icing, pipe dots
Dark fern cookie – thin willow green icing a touch, so it’s thinner, but still pipeable and place in bag with tip 1. Pipe accents on cookie.
Willow cookie – with tip 1, slate, and dark fern colors, pipe dotted garland on cookies.
Let all cookies dry an additional 12-24 hours.
Notes
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Total time includes drying time
How To
55 Easy Christmas Cookie Recipes
Deck the halls this holiday season with a few of our very best and easy Christmas cookies. From easy sugar cookies to elegant meringue cookies, we’ve compiled all our favorite recipes to diversify your Christmas cookie jar. As you may know, Santa is a fan of all Christmas cookie types and so are his reindeer! If you’re still after some more sweet holiday goodness, add a few more cute Christmas desserts to your dessert table with our delicious Christmas cakes, cupcakes and treats! Looking for a showstopping Christmas cookie that will really wow your guests? Try out our favorite Christmas cookie decorating ideas and our unique Christmas cookie ideas. The possibilities are endless!
