There’s nothing like baking and decorating Christmas cookies! I am so happy to share this recipe with you! I’ve been baking Christmas cookies with this recipe for years now, and it is so easy! I’m also going to give you my recipe for royal icing to decorate the cookies after you’ve baked them. It’s such a fun tradition during any holiday; especially, for Christmas.

The Dough: (SO easy and you DONT have to chill the dough!)

• 3 cups flour

• 1 cup white granulated sugar

• 1 cup salted butter

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I use the double strength)

• 2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350.

• In a bowl of your mixer cream the butter and the sugar until smooth (at least 3 minutes)

• Beat in the extracts and the egg

• In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, flour, and add it a little at a time to the wet ingredients! The dough will feel pretty firm, so if you need to you can take it out and wet your hands to continue kneading it.

• Roll out the dough on a floured surface. Make sure the dough is about 1/4 inch thick when you roll it out. You want your cookies to be thicker for decorating!

• Bake for 6-8 minutes. I usually set me timer for 7 minutes and check on them. You don’t want any brown edges because that means you’ll be getting crispy cookies and I like mine nice and soft!

• Let cool on a cooling rack!

The Royal Icing:

• 4 cups powdered sugar

• 3 tbs meringue powder

• 1/4 cup water plus more for thinning the icing later

• 1tsp almond extract

Directions:

• Whisk the meringue powder and water together until foam appears. Add in the sugar and the almond extract. Mix until the icing is light and airy (2 minutes) If it becomes too thick just add 1 tsp of water at a time.

• Separate your icing into separate bowls to color it as you wish. I just did red, green and white!

• Don’t add water to this mixture as you can use it to outline your cookies. Then take a small amount of it and put it in a separate bowl. Add a little water and thin it down for flooding your cookies!

You’ll probably need to Pinterest some techniques as I am in no way a pro at decorating, but I’m getting there! You’ll also need to get some good food coloring, piping tools, and bags. I grabbed mine from Hobby Lobby. The vanilla cookies in combination with the almond frosting is seriously so delicious and these cookies are so soft and yummy!

Have fun decorating and send me pictures of your cookies!

Love,

Britny