Welcome back to another Christmas recipe. This recipe is perfect as a dessert or even as a snack to munch on when sitting around the tv watching Christmas movies.
As always this recipe is lactose free providing you use the right ingredients. As always double check any ingredient you aren’t sure of to make it safe.
Cookie recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Christmas tree and star cookie cutters
Steps
Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy.
Add the egg, almond and vanilla extract. Also add in a small amount of the yellow food colouring. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
Slowly add the flour mix into the butter mixture until it forms a soft dough.
shape the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for an hour. (You can keep it the fridge overnight and even freeze the dough to be used later)
When the dough has been chilled preheat the oven to 170c (350f). Line a tray with baking paper.
On a lightly floured surface roll the dough flat.
Lightly dust your Christmas tree and star cookie cutters with flour.
Press onto the cookie dough and cut out some trees and stars.
Place onto a tray lined with baking paper.
Continue cutting shapes out. Bring the scraps of dough together and again roll the dough thin.
Continue this process until all dough has been used up.
Bake each tray of cookies for 8 minutes. Try to only bake one tray at a time.
Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack and leave to cool down completely.
The next step is to make the royal icing.
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 450g Pure icing sugar
- 2 Egg whites
- Green food colouring (gel works best)
Steps
Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl.
Add two egg whites to the sugar.
Min on a very low speed until the mixture just comes together.
Change the speed to high and mix for five minutes.
The icing mixture will be very thick.
The next step is to add in water until it reaches the desired thickness. For this recipe we will be using the icing for flooding. The mixture should be thin but able to stay in shape. I use the ten second rule to judge if the icing will be good for flooding.
The ten second rule is when you can run a knife through the icing to create a ripple. It should take between 6 to 10 seconds for the icing to return to being smooth. If it takes longer than ten seconds you need to add in a tiny amount of water (tsp at a time). If it is less than 5 – 6 seconds the icing is too runny, and you need to add in more icing sugar.
To make the icing ready for flooding you will need to add a teaspoon of water at a time. Mix. Check for the ten second rule. If it is too runny add another teaspoon. Repeat until the icing is ready.
Add in a few drops of green food colouring (gel works best) and mix. Quickly cover the surface so the icing doesn’t dry out.
Decorating
Ingredients
- 100s & 1000s Sprinkles
- Yellow icing (lactose free)
- Piping tips
- A small tip for flooding. The smaller the better, Wilton 2.
- A star piping tip
- A medium sized tip, Wilton 4.
- Standard couplers
- Elastic bands
- Toothpick or skewer
- Wilton Colour Mist Food Spray Gold (or edible gold paint)
- A green edible decorating pen
Steps
The first thing is to fit a piping bag with a coupler and a small piping tip. I use a coupler because I find that the icing often seeps through the space between the tip and the bag.
Place the bag in a glass to keep the bag upright and still. Fill the bag up with the icing. Expect some icing to come out of the bottom. A little bit is ok. Tie the end of the bag with an elastic band.
The next step is to grab the Christmas tree cookies and the edible green pen.
The icing needs to be done in alternate sections to create that definition you see. I am far from the cookie master so for me it helps to draw guidelines to help define those sections. I chose to draw a wiggly line across the cookie in the section that curves inwards. At the very bottom section I added two sloping lines that will serve as the base section.
We are going to ice the cookies two times. The first time will be the very top and third section.
Grab your piping bag and slowly pipe a border following the green line and outside the edges.
Fill up the centre of this section leaving a few small gaps.
Get your skewer and use a gentle swirling motion to spread the icing to all the gaps and breaking any air bubbles. You can use the skewer to even out the border as well.
Move onto the third section. The reason why you can’t just more straight to the section is that there won’t be any definition between the section. It will all blend seamlessly.
Pipe the outside of the third section, fill and use the skewer to even the icing out.
Gently move the cookie to the side and continue this process for all the Christmas tree cookies.
Leave the cookies to dry and harden for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature.
Repeat the above process with the second and fourth sections. Use the skewer to make sure there are no gaps between the sections.
Finish icing all the cookies and set them aside for an hour or two at room temperature.
Fit another piping bag with another coupler and a medium round tip. Fill the bag with yellow icing.
Pipe three yellow lines diagonally across the Christmas tree cookies. These will represent the tinsel on the tree.
Place the sprinkles in a bowl. Gently (don’t press on the green icing) place the cookie onto the sprinkles.
Gently cover the tree in sprinkles making sure they stick to the icing the entire way around.
Lift the cook up and gently shake off the excess. Place the cookie on a baking tray.
Continue this entire process until all the cookies have been decorated with icing and sprinkles.
Change the tip to a star piping tip.
Gently pipe a yellow star onto the top of the Christmas tree.
Moving onto the stars. For these cookies I wanted them to be more natural. The Christmas cookies are so lovely and decorated I wanted something more simple but still with a beautiful golden finish.
I used Wilton Colour Mist Food Spray Gold if you don’t have that or can’t buy it any edible gold paint will be fine.
Place the star cookies on a tray spaced apart.
Gently spray with the gold spray or paint. Follow the instructions printed on the label as they may change depending which product and brand you have.
Leave cookies to dry.
Place the tree and star cookies onto a serving plate. Serve and enjoy. Happy holidays.
