Star-Stacked Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies
Kids will love helping to cut out the stars, tint the frosting and decorate the cookies - festive green fingertips and all!
duration
35 minutes
yield
24
difficulty
easy
Recipe Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vanilla frosting
- 6 to 8 drops green food coloring
- 1/2 pkg (9.9 oz pkg) M&M’S Holiday variety
Directions:
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Using electric mixer, beat butter with sugar for about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into butter mixture until just combined.
- Transfer to lightly floured work surface; knead gently until dough comes together and is smooth. Divide dough into 2 discs.
- Roll out each disc to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out 24 medium-size stars and 24 small-size stars. Arrange each size of cutouts on separate parchment paper–lined baking sheet.
- Bake medium-size stars for 7 to 8 minutes and small-size stars for 6 to 7 minutes or until bottoms are lightly golden brown. Let cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to racks; let cool completely.
- Stir frosting with food coloring until desired color is achieved; spread over each cookie. Stack 1 small and 1 medium cookie together, offsetting star points to resemble a Christmas tree.
- Decorate with M&M’S to resemble ornaments. Store in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Tip: :
- Don’t add too much food coloring to the frosting, as this will cause the frosting to thin out and won’t allow it to spread or set well.
- Keep dough cutouts refrigerated on trays while waiting to go in the oven to bake; this will ensure that the cookies don’t spread too much or lose their shape.
Nutrition Facts
Per 1 stacked cookie (1/24 of recipe)
- Calories 160
- Fat 8g
- Saturated Fat 4g
- Cholesterol 20mg
- Sodium 60mg
- Carbohydrate 22g
- Fiber 0g
- Sugars 16g
- Protein 1g