It is the holiday season: chestnuts roasting on an open fire, carols at the spinet, and dreaming of a white christmas with sugar plums dancing in your head. What better way to sip cocoa, cozy up of the couch for along winter's nap, and watch It's a Wonderful Life on TV than to make your very own sugar cookie Christmas trees. They are fun, easy, beautiful, and make a wonderful holiday gift throughout the season. They are the perfect holiday treat that the entire family can make together.
Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees
Sugar Cookie:
3 Cups Flour
1 Cup Unsalted Butter softened
1 Cup Confectioner's Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 Large Egg
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
Directions:
Preheat oven at 325. Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and incorporate fully, then add lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder, and slowly add to wet ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated. Separate the cookie dough in half and form into small rounds. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and place on a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1/4 inch think - no thinner. Use small, medium, and large star cookie cutters to cut out an even amount of cookies. Place them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Let them cool completely before frosting.
Royal Icing:
4 Cups Confectioner's Sugar - Sifted
1 Tbsp Merengue Powder
4-6 Tbsp Warm Water
Green Food Coloring (or any food coloring colors of your choice)
Sprinkles of your choice. I like sugar pearls, beads, and green and red sprinkles
Directions:
In a bowl of a mixer, sift confectioner's sugar and merengue powder together. Add 4 Tbsp of warm water and mix until smooth and frosting comes off a spoon in a thick, smooth ribbon. Add 1 Tbsp at a time to get desired texture. Separate out the frosting to create the colors you desire.
Assembly:
Frost and decorate the edges of one large cookie and place on a flat surface. Frost and decorate the edges of a second large cookie and place on the one below but turn it so it fills in the the gaps and continue in this fashion, slowly tapering to the smaller cookies, until you have created a tree to your desired height.
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