Show Stopper Christmas Cookies

I'm getting into the Christmas Spirit already, and yes I know Thanksgiving hasn't passed yet (I'm getting into the turkey-eating spirit, too, don't worry). Holidays, man, I love them.

As a product scout for the Savvy Sassy Moms team, I'm a part of their Holiday Blog Hop. This second week of holiday goodness is hosted by myself and Joanna at Makingmine, Laura at Happily Ever Parker, Liz at Ellie and Addie, and Sara at Running From The Law . Follow along with the hashtag #SavvySassyHoliday on social media, because this second week's topic is one of my FAVORITES: Sweet Treats. All hail the sugar! Read about my two ideas for a holiday sweet treat, which are great for parties and gifts, and then link up with us at the bottom of this post to include your ideas.



Since it's Thanksgiving week, I'll show you my contribution to the dinner last year. Since I have decided I am NOT going to invest the time and energy to these for Thanksgiving and also Christmas this year, no thanks. Let's pretend I just made these right now for this post and for Thursday, instead of this being my picture from 2014;)  Gobble gobble! Royal icing cookies are show stoppers, no?


I wrote a detailed blog post about this cookie process last year, you can find that post here. But the bottom line is that these cookies take about four days to create. It is a process, but it's worth it to me! They are bright, colorful, delicious but they are a real pain in the butt if you don't enjoy decorating royal icing cookies. Lucky for me, I really truly love it! I have yet to make my cookies for this Christmas because once they are iced they do not freeze well, so timing is everything. But I'm pumping myself up in my head for the cookie event again this year and maybe you'll tackle it, too.

Aren't they fun?







Shopping list:

For the icing (recipe by Annie's Eats) :
An entire bag of powdered sugar (actually 4 cups but basically an entire bag)
2 T of Meringue Powder (I got mine from Michaels, is the Wilton brand)
5 T of water
Gel food colorings (love the Wilton brand here)
Metal cake decorating tips and plastic connectors
plastic pastry bags
air tight containers for storage
the patience of a saint ;)

*then read Annie or myself talk about how to actually ice your cookies.

For vanilla cookies (Annie's Eats recipe is the way to go)
1 cup of butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 beaten egg
1.5 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2.5 cups flour

*then read Annie for how to roll out and bake these bad boys. I like to double this recipe for Christmas when I'll make a boat load of sugar cookies. I find that doubling this yields about 4 dozen cookies for me.

For chocolate cookies (again, Annie all the way!):
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
pinch of salt
6 T of unsalted butter at room temp
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

*then read Annie for how to make these. Again, I double this recipe and get at least 2 dozen chocolate cookies that way.

Remember, making and decorating the six dozen royal iced cookies last year took me 14.5 hours total over four days. Read all about that here.  But if you think it is something you can do over the course of a week, they make awesome gifts for friends and are a fun addition to any holiday party. I like putting them out on a platter but my favorite way to deal with these cookies is to box them up in a pretty Christmas box from Michaels, and drop them off with our neighbor friends. Maybe this year I will get wild and attempt to put some in mason jars as gifts to be ultra trendy.

I'd love to see your creations if you tackle this!







Or if spending four days on an elaborate cookie seems like too much, how about this kid-friendly dessert platter instead? {Option B, still full of sugar but about 1/10th the time invested}


Super easy, and something that won't make you cringe when the kids tear apart your handiwork in 2.2 seconds. I melted some almond bark (white chocolate? Is there a difference?) on the stove with a double boiler system, and then also did one pot of milk chocolate melted. I used the baking chunks for both of these chocolates and managed to avoid burning them somehow.

Then I dipper strawberries in the white chocolate, set them on wax paper, and before they dried I added the red and green sprinkles. I also dipped marshmallows in the white chocolate and added other Christmas sprinkles, and then went for the graham crackers in milk chocolate with...you guessed it....more sprinkles. It wasn't too difficult at all, I just had to make sure I had enough room to spread out all of the sugary goodness on the counter tops while they were drying off and absorbing the sprinkles adequately. I simply plated them on my very fancy $3 plastic Christmas platter from Target and voila! Totally kid friendly dessert option for a Christmas party. (As if we need to cater to the kids here, I know, BUT this way you can have a super fancy dessert for the adults and the kids can eat these instead. I will wait for another blogger to figure out what super fancy dessert the adults could have....cookies that take days to make, anyone?)

Onto the link up.

1. Put the URL and the title of your blog post about holiday sweet treats in this InLinkz widget below.
2. Visit 3-5 other blogs in the Holiday Blog Hop and leave comments on their posts.
3. Share this Holiday Blog Hop on social media using the hashtag #SavvySassyHoliday.
4. Come back next week to see a new topic of 'dazzling DIY' with teacher gifts, home decor, and more (you know I'll get in on this one, too, even though I'm not hosting).

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up