Edible Ornaments

These are my favorite Christmas cookies to make! I use a butter cookie recipe and omit the baking powder to make them a little less fragile. They last a long time so they're perfect for decorating the tree.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen 2-1/2" cookies.

• 1# 10 oz sugar
• 1# butter (softened)
• 2# 4 oz all purpose, unbleached flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 4 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, on low speed. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt and slowly add to butter and eggs. Mix on low speed until flour is fully incorporated.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and divide into four equal pieces. Cover each piece in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.

Roll each piece of dough to about 3/16" thick. Rolling the dough out on parchment or wax paper dusted with flour will make for easy handling. Place the sheets of dough on top of one another on a cookie sheet (with parchment or wax paper in between) and chill for another half hour.

Cut shapes using your favorite cutters (I use the Wilton 101 piece set). Before baking, poke a hole into each cookie (a Wilton #10 icing tip works great for this).

Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn half way through baking.

Once cookies have cooled, decorate using thinned royal icing (recipe follows) Let the icing dry overnight and finish the design by outlining in stiff royal icing. You can then paint the outline using Wilton pearl dust in bronze mixed with vanilla extract. Tie a ribbon through the cookie and decorate the tree!

Royal Icing:

• 2 # powdered sugar
• 10 TBS Wilton meringue powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Small amount of brown food coloring

Mix powdered sugar, meringue powder and water on medium speed for 7 minutes or until the icing turns white and fluffy. Add small amount of brown food coloring to tone down the bright white. Set aside about 1/4 of the icing in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator (this will be the stiff icing for the outline). Thin the other portion of the icing using water. Add 1 TBS at a time until the icing becomes slightly thinner than yogurt. To check the consistency, take a spoon full of the icing out and drop it back into the bowl. It should take 10 seconds for the icing to smooth itself out. Store unused icing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.