THE BEST CHRISTMAS SHORTBREAD COOKIES

By Nellie Palmer

THE HOLIDAYS ARE A GREAT TIME TO TRY NEW COOKIE RECIPES! THIS SHORTBREAD COOKIE IS GOING TO BE A FAVORITE ONCE YOU TRY IT! THE COOKIES ARE LIGHT, BUTTERY AND MELT IN YOUR MOUTH.

• 1 cup softened butter • 1 tsp Madagascar vanilla • 3/4 cup powdered sugar • 1/2 cup cornstarch • 1/2 tsp salt • 2 cups flour • 3-4 tbsp colored sprinkles

 Cream together butter and vanilla until smooth.  Add in all dry ingredients (sugar, cornstarch, salt, flour) and mix until evenly combined. The dough will be dry and crumbly while holding it's shape.  Quickly mix in the sprinkles. Turn dough onto a large sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet. Evenly press dough flat, about 1/2 inch thick.  Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.  Remove from fridge and lift the dough out of the sheet using the parchment. Line the cookie sheet with fresh parchment.  Using cookie cutters, cut trees and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 325 for about 10 minutes, until light golden brown on the bottom. Let cool completely.

Here is a classic easy royal icing made with meringue powder. It’s easy to work with, sets quickly, and won’t break your teeth when it dries. It has the most delicious taste and texture and makes decorating sugar cookies fun and simple. Use this traditional royal icing recipe for both flooding and outlining your Christmas Tree Cookies.

• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted • 3 tbsp meringue powder (not plain egg white powder) • 9-10 tbsp water at room temperature • Gel food coloring

 Pour confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, and 9 tablespoons of water into a large bowl. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5-2 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water 1 tablespoon at a time.

I usually need 10 tablespoons but on particularly dry days, I use up to 12-14 tablespoons. Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air or you can add more confec-

tioners’ sugar. Divide and blend in gel food coloring for desired colors.  When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If icing consistency is too thin and runny, it will take longer to dry. If the icing is applied very thick on cookies, it will also take longer to dry. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up.  Some piping tips. Use

Wilton piping tip #4 for outlining and flooding the cookie with icing. This is a wonderful basic piping tip to have in your collection.

For any detail, use a thinner round tip like Wilton piping tip #1 (super thin) and

Wilton piping tip #2 (thin).

For larger round tips that are easier to work with, use Wilton piping tip #3,

Wilton piping tip #4, or

Wilton piping tip #5. The piping tip #s reflect their sizes–#1 being the thinnest and #5 being the largest of this particular bunch.  Just starting out with piping details? Use #1 (small), #3 (medium), and #5 (large).

You can create anything basic with these three.