Looking for a fun and festive addition to your family’s Christmas cookie recipe collection? Branch out with a batch of these berry merry holly treats. Your resident elves will have a blast sprinkling the tops with sparkly green sugar and adding the candy Mickeys.
Mickey’s Holly Leaf Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- Batch of sugar cookie dough*
- Scissors
- Green food coloring
- Disposable food preparation gloves (for kneading food coloring into the dough)
- Flour
- Wax paper
- Rolling pin
- Kitchen knife
- Spatula
- Baking sheet
- Wire cooling rack
- Confectioners’ sugar
- Water
- Small Bowl
- Pastry brush
- Green colored sugar
- Small tube decorating icing
- Small chocolate candies with red shells, 2 sizes (such as M&M’s and M&M’s Minis)
Helpful Tip
Homemade sugar cookie recipes tend to work best for these cookies. If you don’t already have a favorite, try a Classic Sugar Cookie Dough recipe that’s especially tasty and reliable. If you choose one of the ready-made refrigerated doughs sold at grocery stores, keep in mind that they tend to spread. You may want to knead in additional flour to stiffen it and then bake a single cookie to see how the dough holds up. If it still loses shape, try kneading in a bit more flour and then chilling the cookies before you bake them.
Directions
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Print the template and cut out the leaf shape.
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Knead green food coloring into the dough.
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Working on a flour-dusted sheet of wax paper, roll out the plain dough 1/4 inch thick. Use the template and a kitchen knife to cut holly leaf shapes from the dough. Then use the knife to score a center vein in each leaf.
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Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet and bake them according to the recipe directions. Allow the baked cookies to cool briefly on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Make a glaze by mixing 1/4 cup confectioners sugar and 2 to 3 teaspoons water in a small bowl. Brush a little glaze on the center of each cookie leaf and sprinkle on a pinch of green colored sugar.
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Add a holly berry Mickey to the base of each leaf by using decorating icing to stick on a red-shelled chocolate candy topped by a pair of smaller red-shelled chocolate candies.
