Homemade Christmas Ornament Cookies

Merry Christmas! I am a thirteen year old girl who has a passion for baking and cooking. I only started baking about a year ago, and I instantly fell in love with it. I hope you enjoy these wonderful cookies! These beautiful, and tasty ornament cookies are sure to be the talk of your Christmas Party. These cookies are easy to make, and with some practice, you can become a master cookie baker and decorator.

Let's get started!

Rolling out pie dough or pastry dough can become very tedious. Some doughs contain butter in them, and need to be at a cold temperature so you can receive a nice flakey texture in your final baked good. Ironically, I chose a butter cookie recipe but, my recipe did not call for chilling the dough so, I simply rolled out my dough after needing it for about one minute. Make sure to roll out your dough to about a centimeter in width. This will ensure that your cookies are all even and will evenly bake.

Next, cut your cookies using a circle cookie cutter, or any type of cutter you prefer. Dip your cutter into some flour between each cut so your cutter doesn't stick to the dough.

This step is optional but, if you want your cookie to be an ornament, use a circle piping tip (mine was about one and a half centimeters in diameter) to cut out a hole in the top of your cookie. Later, you will be able to insert a ribbon into the hole, and hang your cookie as an ornament.

Next, peel off your excess dough before transferring your cookies onto a baking tray.

Then, using a small spatula, carefully remove the cookies from your work surface.

Transfer your cookies onto a lined baking tray. I used a silicon mat but, baking paper would work just fine. Space the cookies about two to three centimeters apart from each other depending upon your cookie recipe. Then bake according to recipe instructions.

After baking the cookies, you want to make sure that you let your cookies cool completely before icing them. If you ice right after you take your cookies out of the oven, the frosting will melt off your cookies.

Yay! You made it to the fun part! Now it's time to decorate. Begin by preparing a batch of regular royal icing.

- Flood the bottom half of your cookies with white royal icing then let set for at least ten minutes. This will become the face of the snowman.

- Once the white half of the cookie sets, flood the top half of the cookie red, being mindful of the ornament hole. Don't worry if where the red and white meet isn't the neatest, we will go back over those lines when we begin the details.

- Let your base colors set completely for about thirty minutes before adding the details. While your icing is setting, divide your leftover icing into three different bowls. Add about a cup or so of confectionary sugar to each bowl to thicken up the icing. Then die one bowl of icing black, one orange, and leave one white or preferred colors. After you have thickened your icing, put the icing into piping bags with preferred piping tips. The thicker icing acts more like a butter cream so you can pipe more fun detailed decorations with it.

- Pipe out your details. I am making a snowman so, I began by piping two eyes and a mouth with black icing, a nose with orange icing, and then I used the white icing to ice the white detailing on the snowman's hat. This recipe is very customizable, and you can personalize it to look like a tree, candy cane, or even an actual ornament! Then let your cookies set completely.

If you decide to go the extra mile, and make your cookie an ornament, cut a twelve to fourteen inch piece of ribbon (Make sure to use a wider ribbon, wider ribbon will support the presser over a wider surface area, and your cookie will be less likely to brake off of your ornament "hook").