Christmas Tree Cookies

Bake and decorate a forest full of festively colored cookie trees. Perfect as a treat anytime during the holiday season.

Prep1 hr 30 min
Total Time50 hr 30 min
Skill LevelBeginner

Amount36 cookies

Ingredients & Tools
Instructions

Instructions

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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.