Recipe - 1988 2nd Place Pat Egans Christmas Tree Cookies

2 One half cup Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Butter or margarine,
Softened
1 One half teaspoon Baking powder
One fourth teaspoon Salt
One half teaspoon Almond extract
1 Egg
One fourth cup Green sugar crystals, about
One fourth cup Confetti or nonpareil candy
Decorations, optional

Preparation time: 20 minutes Chilling time: 4 hours Baking time: 10
minutes

1. Put flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, salt, almond extract and egg
into large bowl of an electric mixer. Mix together, using low speed. Dough
will be crumbly. Then knead dough with hands until mixture holds together.

2. Remove 1/3 cup of the dough; wrap and refrigerate. Divide remaining
dough in thirds. Using hands, roll each into a 6inch log.

3. Put sugar crystals on a sheet of wax paper. Roll each log in the sugar
crystals to coat well; use the wax paper as a guide to press in crystals.
Shape each log into a triangle, pressing gently on wax paper to give three
sharp corners. Make sure to make 2 sides longer than the third side. Wrap
each log well and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until dough is firm
enough to slice. To this point, cookies can be made up to a week in
advance.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. To bake, slice logs crosswise into 1/4inch
slices. Put slices about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. For each
cookie, shape about One half teaspoon of the reserved 1/3 cup dough into a tree
trunk. Attach to bottom underside of each tree. Sprinkle each cookie
lightly with candy decorations, if desired. Bake until lightly browned,
about 10 minutes. Carefully remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Note: The logs can be divided and shaped into 3 sizes and cut or sliced up to form
a 3tiered tree. These secondplace winning cookies are easily shaped
into trees that are edged with glittery green sugar.
Of her simple cookies, Pat Egan of Dolton, Illinois writes, "They're not
a fancy or gourmet cookie, but a simple symbol of the Christmas season that
is so close to my heart." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food Guide
Holiday Cookie Contest December 8, 1988
Posted to MMRecipes Digest V3 #340

From: Linda Place placel@worldnet.att.net

Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 11:32:51 +0000