Christmas Break: Day 4

We are all still here, still loving sunny days (even though they are a bit warm) and still counting down the days till Christmas.

Today I wanted to share a super simple recipe for yummy Christmas cookies.  My mom has made them every year since, like, forever, so to me they really mean Christmas.

First make sure you have flour and sugar.  I did NOT.  So you’ll need to run to the store for all purpose flour and sugar if you’re like me.  Plus, you’ll need to get confectioners sugar, too.

Then preheat the oven to 400.

In your super awesome mixer, cream some butter, then add confectioners sugar and stir till it’s fluffy.  Add in the eggs, almond and vanilla extracts and mix some more.  Finally, add the flour and salt mixture and mix it well.

It should look like this when you’re done.

And your kitchen will look like this:

Hahahaha!  Really, I was a complete mess today.  This is NOT my usual kitchen cooking scene.

Put the dough in a cookie press fitted with the star point.

On a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silpat, make little circles.  Mine are about 2 inches in diameter.  (I didn’t measure,  I just looked at the plate while typing and made a good guess…I’m scientific like that.)

Bake at 400 for 6-8 minutes.  I’ve found my oven cooks a little hot, so six minutes works well for me.  You don’t want to let the tops get brown.  In fact, they will be exactly the same color they were when you put them in the oven.  The bottoms, however, will get a little bit brown on the bottom.

When they’re all done, color some store bought icing green.  I use butter cream frosting and AmeriColor food coloring, but any white icing and green coloring will work.  We’ve used lots of brands of each over the years.

Make little leaf shapes on the wreath and add a red hot candy for the berry.

Yea!  You’re done!  And aren’t they so cute?  I just love them.  They look pretty on a plate.  Plus, with that hole in the middle, they are a much “lighter” cookie choice during dinner because everyone knows the calories just fall out of the cookie through the hole.

Really.

Here’s the recipe:

Butter Spritz Wreath cookies