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christmas lights cookies on a baking sheet
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Christmas Lights Cookies

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword christmas, cookies
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Servings 16 Cookies

Ingredients

For cookies

  • 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt

For icing

  • 3 large egg whites
  • 3 ¾ cups confectioners' sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

For decoration

  • Black pipping icing
  • Mini M&M's
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

For Cookies

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two large, rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
  • Cream butter and granulated sugar until lightly and fluffy, 3-4 minutes using an electric mixer. Scrape down the sides at the half-way point.
  • Add the egg and vanilla and mix again for an additional minute. The batter will become lighter in color.
  • In separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
  • Scoop the cookie dough into rounded balls about 3 tablespoon in size. Place cookies on the baking sheets a couple inches apart (about 8 cookies per baking sheet).
  • Bake for 12-13 minutes until slightly crackly on top.Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a cooling rack.

For Icing

  • Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites for 1 minute till foamy.
  • Add powdered sugar, cream of tartar and salt to egg whites and continue to whisk. Mix until the egg whites are extremely light and fluffy, almost like whipped a fluffy whipped cream.
  • Add water by the tablespoonful until it has the consistency of hot fudge. Typically this takes between 3-5 tablespoon of water to get the right consistency.
  • Icing dries out somewhat quickly, so keep covered until ready to use

For Decoration

  • Using the black icing, pipe swayed lines to mark the string of lights. Place mini m&m's on to the string. Icing will harder as you do this so paint a few string at a time versus the entire batch.

Notes

Cookie Recipe adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Icing Recipe adapted from New York Times