Ingredients
Scale
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 box (3.4 oz) pistachio instant pudding mix
For Decorating
- 1 bag cookie icing (homemade or store bought)
- 1 batch of my sugared cranberries
Instructions
- In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter.
- Add the sugar and beat on high for about 3 minutes until it’s light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl to thoroughly combine.
- Add the vanilla and the egg, and beat on high for about 2 minutes until fluffy and thoroughly combined.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour (I prefer to weigh my flour to get correct measurements), baking powder, salt, and pudding mix.
- Turn the mixer on low speed, and slowly add the flour mixture, beating until combined, but don’t over mix.
- Divide the dough into 2 halves and roll each ball out into 1/4″ thick sheets on a piece of parchment paper using flour if needed to keep it from sticking to the rolling pin.
- Stack the two dough sheets on top of each other on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Working with one dough sheet at a time, remove dough from the fridge and use your cookie cutter to cut leaves (or other shapes) from the dough. Re-roll the leftover dough and chill in the fridge while you work with sheet #2. Continue rolling and cutting until all dough has been cut.
- Place cut cookies on a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges just begin to brown. (You want them to stay green, so watch closely.)
- You will probably need to work in batches to bake them all, so keep the cut cookies chilled in the fridge until right before they go into the oven to get the best shapes.
- Remove to a wire rack to cool and then decorate as desired. See options in the post above, and be sure to leave a few hours for the icing to set before you stack them.
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
- Gluten-free: This should work really well with gf flour.
- Vegetarian: These are vegetarian.
- Vegan: The pistachio pudding mix is pretty essential to the flavor, but a bit of food coloring and some chopped pistachios might work as substitute.