Dessert
2 h
Hard
8
Recommended moulds
What do you need?
Ingredients
- 400 g plain flour; plus extra for dusting
- 0,75 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 240 g unsalted butter; softened
- 240 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg; beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp milk
- 500 g icing sugar; plus extra as needed
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- 2-3 tbsp warm water
- assorted food colourings; green, red, and powder blue
How to prepare it:
For the cookies: Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cream together butter and sugar in a separate mixing bowl until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk until thoroughly incorporated.
Gradually beat in the flour mixture until a dough comes together in the bowl; it should pull away easily from the sides of the bowl.
Turn out and divide into two. Shape into discs and wrap in parchment paper.
Chill for 2 hours. After chilling, preheat the oven to 190°C (170° fan) | 375F | gas 5. Grease and line two large baking trays with parchment paper.
Roll out the doughs on a lightly floured surface to about 1/2 cm | 1/4" thickness. Use assorted festive cookie cutters to cut out shapes like Christmas trees and gingerbread men. Arrange the cut out dough shapes between the two lined trays, spacing them apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until set and just starting to brown at the edges. Remove the trays from the oven and let the cookies cool on them for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling.
For the icings: Combine the icing sugar, meringue powder, and 2 tbsp warm water in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until the icing is thick and glossy, about 6-8 minutes.
Gradually thin out the icing to a runny, flooding consistency by beating in a little water at a time until the right consistency is achieved. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes until most of the air bubbles have dispersed.
After resting, spoon about 4 tbsp of the icing into a small bowl. Add a drop or two of red food colouring and mix well until uniformly red. Cover and chill until needed.
Spoon about 2 tbsp of the remaining white icing into a small bowl. Add a drop of blue food colouring and mix well until uniformly powder blue.
Cover and chill until needed.
Spoon about one-quarter of the remaining white icing into a third bowl. Cover and chill until needed.
Add some green food colouring to the remaining white icing, stirring until uniformly green. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a thin, round nozzle.
Working carefully, flood the tree cookies with the green icing by piping from the outside inwards to the centre of the cookies; stop just short of the border all the way around.
Once all the cookies have been flooded with the green icing, let them set and dry overnight at room temperature, set on a wire rack.
The next day, stir a little warm water into the red, blue, and white icings to loosen them to a running, flooding consistency.
Spoon each icing into separate small piping bags fitted with thin, round nozzles. Use the icings to decorate the cookies, using the image for reference.
Let the icings set for 1 hour before serving.
