Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies

Lights are twinkling, Christmas music is jingling, and the hot buttered rum is errrr…….rumming.  Yes, the hot buttered rum is rumming.  Excitement and anticipation abounds at our house because it is Christmas Eve!

Amber, my youngest, is the most excited of us all.  Early this morning she sat at the table making a letter/picture for Santa.  (From the picture above you may note that we also need to do some spelling practice over this Christmas break.)

I made some cookies yesterday just so Amber could leave some with her note.  I have it on good authority that Santa often prefers a shortbread type of cookie…..like what you might have with some SleepyTime tea.  These cookies from Better Homes and Gardens looked like a good choice.  

Well HO-HO-HO to BHG!  Thanks for telling me that it will take about 2 hours to roll 396 little balls to complete the entire recipe!  After rolling 166, I gave up and settled for just fifteen cookies instead of three dozen.

Regardless of the effort, they are a perfect little buttery cookie and they are very cute, don’t you think?

Christmas Tree Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

·        1 cup butter softened

·        ½ cup sugar

·        1 Tablespoon milk

·        1 teaspoon vanilla

·        2 ¼ cups flour

·        Powdered sugar icing to drizzle

·        Decorative candies

In a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in milk and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Remove 1/2 cup of the dough. Tint the remaining dough with green food coloring.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. For each cookie, use the green dough to shape ten 1/2-inch balls. On an ungreased cookie sheet, arrange balls in a row of four, topped by a row of three, then two, then one on top. As you arrange the balls, gently press them into each other. Use the plain dough to make a 3/4-inch ball and place it at the bottom of the tree for a trunk. Repeat with the remaining dough, leaving 2 inches between cookies on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are light brown.  Cool on cookie sheet for 2  minutes. Carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.  Drizzle icing back and forth over cookies to look like strings for lights.  Add decorative candies to icing.  Let stand until icing sets.

Give yourself a big gold star if you rolled ALL the little balls and made the 3 dozen cookies.  You are my hero.