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These colorful cookies are tailor-made for family baking sessions
Preparation time : 1 hour , 20 minutes Cooling time : 30 minutes Makes approximately 24 cookies
Baking during the holiday season is a tradition in many households across the globe . Family baking sessions provide a perfect holiday season bonding activity , and the payoff is both cherished family time and delicious , indulgent foods once the items are ready to eat . Holiday hosts know they ’ ll need to feed their guests over the course of their stay , and that includes snacks . This holiday season , hosts can involve their guests in family baking sessions and whip up a batch of these delicious and colorful “ Christmas Biscuits ” from Lines + Angles .
Christmas Biscuits
For the dough : Preheat oven to 350 F . Grease and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper .
Combine flour , confectioner ’ s sugar and almond meal in a large mixing bowl . Stir well to mix .
Add butter , egg yolk , water , and salt , and mix well with an electric mixer with spiral attachments until mixture starts to come together as a dough .
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead briefly until even . Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes .
After chilling , roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to approximately 0.25 ” thickness .
Use assorted star-shaped cookie cutters to cut out approximately 23 variably sized star shapes . Arrange between prepared sheets , spaced apart .
From remaining dough , cut out one teardrop and two semi-circles of dough , using appropriate cutters or working freehand with a paring knife . Arrange on one of the baking sheets .
Bake cookies for 12 to 15 minutes , until golden and dry to the touch . Remove to cooling racks to cool .
For the icing and decoration : Thoroughly stir together confectioner ’ s sugar and meringue powder in a large mixing bowl .
Gradually beat in warm water and vanilla extract mixture using an electric mixer until icing is smooth and of a flooding consistency ; you may not need all of the water .
Divide icing between three bowls . Color two bowls pink and red , respectively , by beating in enough pink and red coloring to achieve uniform colors . Leave the third bowl uncolored .
Spoon pink and red icing into separate piping bags fitted with small , round-tip nozzles .
For the dough : 11 ⁄ 2 cups all-purpose flour , sifted , plus extra for dusting 11 ⁄ 3 cups confectioner ’ s sugar , plus extra for dusting 3 ⁄ 4 cup almond meal 1 cup unsalted butter , cold and cubed 1 large egg yolk 1 tablespoon cold water 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon fine salt
For the icing and decoration : 4 cups confectioner ’ s sugar 3 tablespoons meringue powder 7 tablespoons warm water , combined with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract , assorted food color ( e . g ., red , pink and turquoise ), assorted colored sugar crystals ( e . g ., red , pink and white )
To ice the cookies , pipe around their perimeters with the icings to create borders . Fill in middle of cookies with more icing ; you can use a damp , warm offset palette knife to spread out icing to an even finish .
Carefully transfer iced cookies to cooling racks , decorating with the sugar crystals in festive patterns .
Using same technique as in steps 13 and 14 , ice teardrop cookie with red and white icing for Santa ’ s hat and beard , respectively . Ice the two semi-circle cookies with white icing .
Before icings have set , carefully attach semi-circle cookies to teardrop cookie to fashion Santa ’ s mustache . Color any remaining white icing with turquoise coloring and then dab onto teardrop cookie for Santa ’ s eyes . Pipe some pink icing below eyes for his nose .
Let cookies set and harden before serving .