Pat Egan's Christmas Tree Cookies

4 from 1 ratings

Pat Egan earned second place in 1988 for this recipe she made with her 4-year-old daughter. The cookies are easily shaped into Christmas trees and edged with glittery green sugar.Chilling time: 4 hours Yield: 6 dozen cookies

Servings

servings

Ingredients

21/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
11/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg
1/4 cup green sugar crystals, about
1/4 cup confetti or nonpareil candy decorations, optional

Directions

1. Put flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, almond extract and egg into large bowl of an electric mixer. Mix together, using low speed. Dough will be crumbly. Then knead dough with hands until mixture holds together.
2. Remove 1/3 cup of the dough; wrap and refrigerate. Divide remaining dough in thirds. Using hands, roll each into a 6-inch log.
3. Put sugar crystals on a sheet of wax paper. Roll each log in the sugar crystals to coat well; use the wax paper as a guide to press in crystals. Shape each log into a triangle, pressing gently on wax paper to give three sharp corners. Make sure to make 2 sides longer than the third side. Wrap each log well and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until dough is firm enough to slice. To this point, cookies can be made up to a week in advance.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. To bake, slice logs crosswise into 1/4-inch slices. Put slices about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. For each cookie, shape about 1/2 teaspoon of the reserved 1/3 cup dough into a tree trunk. Attach to bottom underside of each tree. Sprinkle each cookie lightly with candy decorations, if desired. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Carefully remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
Note: The logs can be divided and shaped into 3 sizes and sliced to form a 3-tiered tree.