Christmas Cookies
My mother taught me how to make these cookies and her mother taught her. It was so fun to decorate the cookies with the colored sugar. It didn’t matter if we made the Christmas tree look like an actual Christmas tree or if we made the candy canes red and white. It was fun because we were in the kitchen together laughing and maybe eating some cookies and licking our fingers along the way. We would always pack some in tins and give them to my grandparents and uncle on Christmas day. Of course we saved some for Santa, too.
It is just a simple sugar cookie that you can flavor with vanilla or almond. You make a simple icing with powdered sugar and milk, then sprinkle with sugar colored with food coloring.
Christmas Cookies
Sugar cookies iced with a powdered sugar frosting and colored sugar.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond flavoring
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups flour
Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3-6 Tbsp milk
Sugar Sprinkles
- 1 cup sugar
- food coloring
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla or almond flavoring and mix.
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Add baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until combined.
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Sprinkle flour on counter top and roll out until dough is 1/4 inch. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on prepared sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool completely.
Icing
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Mix ingredients in a medium bowl until it is smooth and spreadable. Start with 3 tablespoons of milk. You do not want it to be too thin or it will spill off the edges of the cookies. If it is too thick, add more milk a tablespoon at a time.
Sugar Sprinkles
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Divide sugar by 1/4 cups in four bowls. Add 4 drops of food coloring to each bowl. Mix with the back of a spoon until all the sugar is colored and there are no more lumps of food coloring.
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Spread icing on the cookies and sprinkle sugar in desired design. Have fun and enjoy!
Hey Laura😊,
So FYI making this recipe as is the dough was so crumbly and more dry, so I added milk until the dough was the right consistency for sugar cookies. They are in the oven, I’m excited to try them!
Great fix. Depending on how much you pack the flour and altitude it may affect the consistency. Mine is usually fine but adding milk is a great way to fix that.