Gingerbread Trees
These festive snow-tipped Christmas trees will bring color and spiced warmth to your batch of holiday cookies. We chose a fragrant gingerbread base, so the trunk would be true to form, but a vanilla sugar dough works just as beautifully. Feel free to play around with sizes if you have different tree cookie cutters—just remember to put like-sized trees on the same sheet, as the smaller ones will need less time in the oven.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. In another large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, and salt. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then molasses. Gradually add flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. Divide dough into 3 pieces; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out Christmas tree shapes and transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until crisp but not darkened, about 20 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks and let cool completely.
- To decorate cookies: Tint three-quarters royal icing with green gel-paste food coloring. Transfer icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip (Ateco #1 or #2). Flood cookies with icing, leaving tree trunk bare. Let set at room temperature, at least 12 hours and up to overnight.
- Place remaining white royal icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip and pipe lines of snow onto branches. Let set at room temperature, about 4 hours. (Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)