Holidays always make me think of cookies. No matter what holiday it is, there is a cookie cutter and recipe to go with it.
My favorite cookies to decorate for any holiday are sugar cookies. While looking through my copy of the Treasury of Home Baking I came across a recipe for some “Yule Tide Namesakes”. It turned out yuletide namesakes were crumbly butter cookies that the author had turned into place cards for the holiday table.
I didn’t need place cards so I just made buttery yuletide trees. I’d never made butter cookies, but as far as I could tell these are simply sugar cookies with more butter in them. Sugar cookies with more butter? Sign me up.
Screw Santa. These cookies are for me.
Ingredients
makes 24 trees
Dough
¾ cup (195g) butter, softened
¼ cup (60g) packed brown sugar
¼ cup (60g) granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 ¾ cup (230g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Glaze
4 cups (454g) powdered (icing) sugar
4-6 tablespoons milk
Green food coloring
Method
In a medium bowl combine all the dough ingredients until well combined. Form dough into a rough rectangle shape and cover with cling film. Place in the refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll the dough out between two pieces of parchment paper to 1/4 inch (6.5mm) thick. You could do the floured surface route, but who likes to clean up all that flour?
Remove the top layer of parchment and then use the cookie cutter of your choice to cut out your shapes. I found that putting the rolled out dough in the fridge for a few minutes made it easier to remove the excess dough from the cut out pieces. This dough is really crumbly so it’s difficult to remove it all in one piece. I used a butter knife to remove the dough in the tight spots.
Move the parchment paper with the dough shapes to a cookie sheet and put into the oven. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.
Remove cookies from cookie sheet and place on wire rack to cool. Place wax paper under your cooling racks so you can go right to the frosting step once you’re ready without having to move the cookies around.
While cookies are cooling begin to prepare the icing in a medium bowl. Combine the powdered (icing) sugar and milk together until it’s a medium thick liquid. It needs to be thick enough to stay on the cookies, but thin enough that the excess will drip off easily. Take 1/3 of a cup (or as much white icing as you’d like for decorating) and set aside. Add green food coloring to the remaining frosting. Unless you buy special icing coloring you’ll most likely end up with a pastel green. If you want deep green frosting you can buy icing coloring at a specialty cake decorating stores.
Use a spoon to drizzle the green frosting over the cookies to create a smooth layer. Add one to two tablespoons of powdered sugar to the white frosting to get a firmer frosting for piping. Allow the green frosting to set before using the white frosting in a piping bag or ziptop bag with corner cut off to add details. Use candy or other frostings to add more decoration as desired.
Allow the frosting to harden completely before storing cookies in an airtight container.
Image © Jenessa Hooper for BitchBuzz