Minty Christmas Tree Cutout Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• On a large sheet of parchment paper, lightly flour both sides of 1 disk green dough, cover with more parchment, and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat with second disk. Remove top sheets of parchment.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll pieces of red dough into thin snakes. Arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern. (If dough gets too soft to work with, refrigerate 10 minutes before continuing.)
• Roll yellow and plain dough into pea-size balls and arrange on top of green dough in desired pattern.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Top dough with more parchment and gently roll over dough until decorative pieces are flush with green dough.
• Carefully remove top sheets of parchment. With a 4-to-5-inch-tall tree-shaped cutter, cut dough. Transfer dough on parchment to baking sheets and freeze until firm, 15 minutes.
• Remove cutouts from excess dough and transfer to newly lined baking sheets. Bake until set, 12 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill until firm, 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in thickness. Cut out with Christmas cookie cutters of your choice. Using a floured spatula, transfer cookies to greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, 8-10 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks., Decorate cookies with frosting and colored sugars.

Steps:

• Carefully unwrap the peanut butter cups, making sure no chocolate comes off on the wrapper (refrigerating them first will help prevent this). Unwrap the chocolate kisses.
• Cut out twelve 2-inch parchment squares. Turn a water glass upside down and place one of the parchment squares on the flat bottom. Place a peanut butter cup on the parchment, wide-side down. Pipe a dot of green icing on top of the peanut butter cup and place a chocolate kiss on top. Pipe green icing branches onto the chocolate "tree." Starting at the bottom of the peanut butter cup, pipe a thin, straight line up one of its grooves and up to the tip of the chocolate kiss. Repeat, piping a line up every groove of the peanut butter cup and over the chocolate kiss, connecting the lines at the tip. Press a star sprinkle onto the tip of the assembled tree and decorate with silver pearl sprinkles, pressing them gently to adhere. Carefully slide the parchment with the tree off the glass and let the icing set. Repeat to create 11 additional trees.
• Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, spread a layer of vanilla frosting over each sugar cookie in a circle, leaving the edges plain. Carefully place a candy Christmas tree in the center of each cookie.

Steps:

• For the dough: Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the vanilla and 2 eggs in a small bowl.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Once they are incorporated, increase the speed to medium and, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, beat until slightly creamy, about 3 minutes.
• Reduce the speed to low, slowly pour in the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, increasing the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning and scraping down the sides of the bowl and the beaters as needed. Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together on a clean surface. Divide into 2 pieces. Shape each piece into a flat square and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
• To cut and bake the forest: Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust your work surface with flour and roll out a piece of dough until about 1/4-inch thick. Keep the other piece refrigerated while you work. Punch out shapes in the dough with tree cookie cutters of various sizes and cut off the dough trunks; for every 3D tree you will need 2 tree cutouts of the same size so punch out the shapes in pairs. For our forest we used 4-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch cutters. Put the trees on the prepared baking sheets and chill while you roll and cut trees from the remaining dough. Combine the scraps of the 2 squares. Chill again, reroll and cut out more trees You should have 8 to 10 pairs of trees, depending on the size of your cutters. Freeze the cutout cookies for at least 30 minutes.
• Rearrange the cookies on the baking sheets so that the pairs are next to each other. For the first cookie of each pair, use a sharp paring knife to cut a 1/2-inch-wide slot from the bottom to a little more than halfway up the cookie. For the second cookie of each pair, cut a similar slot but from the top of the tree down to a little past the middle. You will fit the cookies together with these slots after they are baked. Return the cookies to the freezer for 30 minutes more.
• Whisk together the remaining egg with 2 tablespoons water in a small bowl. Brush a thin layer of egg wash on the cookies right before baking.
• Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets front to back and bottom to top about halfway through, until golden brown and dry on top, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheets set on a cooling rack, about 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, make the royal icing: Combine the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and vanilla in a large bowl. Add 5 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until the icing forms thick and glossy peaks, about 2 minutes, adding up to 1 tablespoon more water, if needed.
• Remove a third of the royal icing and place it in a pastry bag fitted with a small no. 4 round tip. Color the remaining icing with the green food coloring, one drop at a time, until it's a shade you like. If the frosting is still very stiff, add 1 to 2 teaspoons of water. Fill a second pastry bag fitted with another small no. 4 round tip with the green frosting.
• Use a sharp paring knife to shave the cookie edges so they are smooth and flat: Pay attention to the tree bottoms (so the trees will stand straight) and the inner edges of the slots. Assemble the trees by sliding the top-slot trees into the bottom-slot trees. Shave the cookies as needed for a smooth fit, then disassemble them and place the pieces on a flat surface. Don't worry if a tree breaks; glue the pieces together with green royal icing.
• To decorate the forest: Decorate each cookie with the green icing, leaving a blank strip up the center without icing; this is where the pieces will fit together. We used a zigzag line of green on each side. Sprinkle with white sprinkles while the icing is still wet. Let set
• until firm, 30 to 45 minutes. Turn the cookies over and decorate the backs in the same fashion. Let set until firm, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Assemble the trees. Pipe a thin line of white icing on the outer edges of the trees for snow. Let set before serving, 30 to 45 minutes. Arrange the trees on a serving platter to create a forest. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar for snow.

Steps:

• Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl. Cream using an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Stir into the butter mixture and mix to combine. Shape dough into a ball, cover, and refrigerate at least 1 hour to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Cut out different-sized stars with cookie cutters; the height of the Christmas tree will depend on the number of cookies you stack, but you need at least 7 or 8 stars. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer cookies carefully onto wire racks and cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Combine confectioners' sugar, meringue powder, and water in a bowl and beat at low speed using an electric blender until peaks form, 7 to 10 minutes. Pour icing into a piping bag with a star-shaped tip.
• Place the largest star onto a plate and pipe a little bit of royal icing into the middle. Add the second-largest star on top, turning the star slightly so the points are offset from the previous star cookie. Repeat adding smaller-sized star cookies and attaching them with royal icing. Decorate the cookie Christmas tree with royal icing, silver balls, and other holiday decor. Roll out yellow fondant and cut out a small star to place on top of the cookie tree and secure with royal icing. Decorate remaining cookies to your liking.
• Dust the finished tree with confectioners' sugar.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll out a portion of cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheets. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minute, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Cool completely on pans about 5 minutes, transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before decorating.
• In a small bowl, mix sugar and water to form a thick, smooth icing. Stir in food coloring to reach desired shade. Drop icing onto cookies using a small teaspoon and smooth with the back of the spoon. Make additional bowls for additional colors.
• Additional multi-colored sprinkles can be added on top of icing before it dries for more decorative cookies, if desired.

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Roll out to a generous 1/8 inch thick. Using a tree-shape cookie cutter, cut out cookies, and space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Reroll scraps, and cut out. Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
• Bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks. Drizzle cookies with icing; sprinkle with nonpareils. Let set.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well., Divide dough in half. Tint half of the dough green; knead well to distribute color evenly. Leave remaining dough white. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle., On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Use tree-shaped cookie cutters with identical shapes, measuring 21/2 in., 3 in., 4 in. and 41/2 in. Cut out an even number of cookies with each size cookie cutter., Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately cut half of each size tree cookies in half from top to bottom. If tree cookie cutters have trunks, trim trunks off trees, creating a flat base. Remove to wire racks to cool., For frosting, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, water, meringue powder, vanilla and cream of tartar. Beat on high speed for 8-10 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Divide frosting in half. Tint half of the frosting green; leave remaining frosting white. Cover frosting with damp paper towels or plastic wrap between uses., To glaze trees: In a small bowl, thin 1 cup green frosting with 2-3 Tbsp. water until frosting reaches pourable consistency. Place matching pairs of whole and halved cookies on a wire rack over waxed paper. Pour icing over cookies; spread with a metal spatula to completely cover top and sides of cookies. Let dry completely. Assemble and decorate as desired. , To make a four-sided tree: Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or resealable plastic bag; insert round pastry tip #5. Fill with green or white frosting to match the tree you are decorating. Pipe a line of frosting along the cut edge of one of the halved cookies; press frosted edge along center of a matching whole cookie. Let dry until firm.Stand up partially assembled tree. Attach one matching cookie half to the opposite side of the tree by piping frosting along the center of the whole cookie. Let dry completely. Decorate as desired., To make an eight-sided tree: Assemble as described for four-sided tree, using white or green cookies. Using matching colored frosting, attach four more cookie halves; halves should be one half-size smaller than whole center cookie. Let dry completely. Decorate as desired., To make Christmas lights decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, round pastry tip #2 and green frosting, pipe cords. Attach sprinkles for lights. Let dry completely. , To make snow-tipped decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, large round pastry tip #8 and white frosting, pipe snow on tips of branches. Sprinkle with edible glitter. Let dry completely., To make garland decoration: Using a pastry or resealable plastic bag, medium star pastry tip #21 and either white or green frosting, pipe garlands around trees. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Let dry completely.

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder salt, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour. , On a lightly floured surface, roll dough, a portion at a time, to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired with frosting or confectioners' sugar., To Make Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days in advance. Wrap in plastic and place in a resealable bag. Store in the refrigerator., Freeze option: Freeze undecorated cookies in freezer containers. To use, thaw in covered containers and decorate as directed.