- Hello! I’m Tannen! As you can tell, I’m a Christmas tree, and every year I feel like this is my time to shine! Every tree at the Christmas tree farm hopes they will get picked, get decorated, and have all the fun holiday traditions happen around their branches! An easy and fun way to make a show stopping cookie tree is to use star cookie cutters, you need a set with 10 stacking cutters. A little trick is to make 3 of the smallest and largest sizes, and just 2 of the rest, to get a nice shaped tree. Also, you will need a double batch of a sugar cookie recipe to roll them all out, I recommend a 1/4 ‘’ thickness for height and strength. Thin your royal icing (add water using a spray bottle until it is very easy to push a spoon through and drizzly) and pour your colors into a shallow pan for an easy marbling effect, you just dip your cookie in, coat it and let it dry. The tips can have sparkles and sprinkle added, the insides will be covered so you can keep them smooth! Have fun and see how tall you can stack your stars to make a giant tree!
Try to find a special tree in your neighborhood and see how many animals (birds, squirrels, insects) call it home or use it to survive through the winter! Trees love being helpful, beautiful and good- we are never on the naughty list! Ashland even has trees of the year (fingers crossed I get it one year!) See how many you can find on a wintertime walk! There is a list here.
royal icing
this is a great coating for a huge cookie, it firms up and is pretty hardy!
Ingredients
- 6 c confectioners sugar sifted!
- 3/4 c water
- 1/3 c meringue powder
Instructions
- with mixer on low, drizzle water over confectioners sugar
- mix on low for about 7 minutes, do not put mixer any higher than low or you get loads of air bubbles
- add coloring as needed, if you want thicker frosting, add more sifted confectioner sugar in 1/4 c increments
alton brown's sugar cookie
Ingredients
- 3 c flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 c butter softened
- 1 c sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tbs milk
- powdered sugar for rolling out dough, or flour
Instructions
- sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside
- with stand mixer, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy
- add egg and milk and combine
- add in flour, mixing on low. beat until mixture pulls from side of bowl
- make 2 disks of dough, place in plastic bag and put in fridge for at least 2 hours (longer is better, so egg protein has a chance to spread)
- pre heat oven to 375
- powder rolling surface or parchment paper with powdered sugar and roll out dough about 1/4'' thick. you can either pull dough away from cutter and leave shape on parchment paper or transfer the shape to another sheet of parchment paper using a spachula.
- place parchment paper on cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 mintues