Christmas Lights Cookies

Brace yourselves. I am NOT a cute cookie decorator. However, I pushed through and made these Christmas Lights Cookies to impress my kid.

I saw a fuzzy photo of some cupcakes on Pinterest where they turned mini M&Ms sideways to look like Christmas lights on a string. I thought that was so cute and clever, but also: so easy, yet impressive. Big emphasis on the EASY.


If I haven’t mentioned to you before, my Camille is very into M&Ms (she pronounces it yem-a-nems), and I know it’s because of the bright colors. I bought a bag of mini M&Ms for this, and set to work making a small batch of cut-out sugar cookies and a small batch of royal icing.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• For the small-batch royal icing:
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 large egg white

For decorating:

• 1 small tube of black icing for writing
• handful mini M&Ms

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together with an electric mixer the butter and sugar. Once light and fluffy, add the egg yolk and vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Once well incorporated, sprinkle over half the flour mixture and beat gently until combined, then sprinkle over the rest. Beat until no streaks of flour remain, but be careful not to over-mix.

for full recipes please see : www.dessertfortwo.com