Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees & A Holiday Give-Away!

Happy December 9th to everyone! Wherever you are - I hope you're staying warm...winter has finally come to Boston, MA, which means more time inside for me (I'm not the biggest on cold weather, though I live in the NE of the states).

The holidays are not too far away: Christmas day is only 16 days away; Hanukkah starts in 12 days; Kwanzaa in 17 days. I have yet to do any of my holiday shopping...though most of my friends & family are probably expecting some sort of culinary surprise from me.

Holiday Give-Away: My 100th post is quickly approaching. It seems to be tradition amongst my fellow foodies to celebrate with a give-away. I had the hardest time locating a store that actually sold decorating dragees (you know, those silver/gold/shiny cookie & cake decorating balls). I have finally located them & would love the chance to share some with you! So, on December 20th, I will be posting my 100th blog post & will be announcing who wins a free 2oz bag of dragees: silver or gold - your pick! To Enter: Simply become a follower of this blog! If you're already a follower, you've already entered :). Also, if you refer someone to the blog & they post a comment or email me telling me so, you get another entry!

This blog post is dedicated to showing you a cute, crafty idea (that I saw on the Martha Stewart website - with my own special variations) for your holiday sugar cookies. Below are pictures of the trees as well as an awesome sugar cookie recipe that I've recently found in a holiday baking magazine. Please enjoy!

Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees!

Follow the sugar cookie recipe below (or another sugar cookie recipe if there is one that your particularly enjoy) and then the step-by-step decoration & assembly instructions to give you an awesome holiday gift for family & friends!

For these trees you will need a variety of star shaped cookie cutters - I have a pack of 5 Star-of-David cookie cutters: this allows me to use them for Hanukkah cookies (as I'm Jewish) and also for projects like this one.

To Assemble:

(You will need to have prepared piping & flooding royal icing to your desired green tree color (recipe below); you will need fondue/shish kabob wooden skewers, piping bag & tip, dragees and/or other decorations, colored yellow sprinkles, saran wrap):

Once you have your dough prepared and chilled, cut out cookies of each of your varying sized stars - each tree will need one of each size. I think that five stars looks great for these trees, but the number is up to you. Place cookies on a non-stick, sprayed cookie sheet & bake in your oven for 7 minutes at 350 degrees.

Important step: As soon as your cookies come out of the oven, CAREFULLY poke a hole in the center of each one with a thin fondue/shish kabob skewer, making sure to create a large enough hole to eventually stick the skewer back through it. Allow cookies to cool, approximately 10-15 minutes.

Once your cookies are cool, use your piping royal icing (already inserted into your piping back with a fine pointed tip) to outline the edge of the cookie as well as the edge of the hole you created in the last step. Hold the bag at a 45 degree angle for the best results.

Next, use the flooding royal icing to fill in the body of the cookie. Before the flooding icing becomes too dry (this happens pretty quickly) use your dragees, sprinkles, and other cookie decorations to decorate each cookie as desired. If your icing has already dried, you can use your piping icing to create small dots on which to place dragees & other decorations. For the best control in making these dots, keep the icing bag perpendicular to your cookies (straight up and down). Allow cookies to sit approximately 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, you will need to create a "tree topper". I hand molded 5-pointed stars, smaller than my smallest cookie cutter star. Eventually you will be using yellow sugar sprinkles on these. You can either cover the cookies in the sprinkles now, or use the corn syrup method to put them on after the cookies are baked (350 degrees for 3-4 minutes, flipping 1/2 way). I used the corn syrup method in the pictures you're seeing.

As soon as your "tree topper" comes out of the oven, stick a 4-inch section of the skewer into it. This will act as your grounding rod for your tree. Once your "tree topper" is cool, use it (attached now to the skewer section) to thread the decorated cookies by size (biggest on bottom, smallest on top). You are now able to lift your tree by the bottom cookie & your creation should stay together.

To package, I used regular saran wrap, closing the top with a small piece of gift wrapping tape, and pinching the saran wrap together so that it enclosed the tree. I cut off the excess saran wrap, but left enough so that the pinched part remained closed.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

makes 2 dozen 3-inch cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup powdered sugar

minced zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1 egg

2 TBSP heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together & set aside.

Cream butter, both sugars, and zest in a bowl, blending until smooth. Add egg, cream, and vanilla & blend again until smooth.

Add 1/2 dry ingredients, blend, and then add the remaining dry ingredients & blend until you have a sugar cookie dough consistency. Shape dough into disk, cover in saran wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours before rolling.

Once chilled, roll out & cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes (depending on oven) until top of cookies are soft but solid to touch & edges are a slight golden brown color.

Royal Icing

1 lb powdered sugar, sifted

1/3 cup water

2 TBSP powdered egg whites

Food coloring (if desired)

For Piping Royal Icing: mix ingredients together.

For Flooding Royal Icing: Add additional water until icing flows from a spoon in a thick ribbon.