Painted Ombre Christmas Tree Cookies

These palette knife painted cookies are the perfect, easy-to-do iced cookie for the holidays! I loved making these and they’re so easy, your kids can join in the fun too. Add some festive sprinkles for ornaments!

Makes: 16 cookies

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp salt

 

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
• green gel food coloring
• brown gel food coloring

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare two aluminum baking sheets.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/4″ thick. Use Christmas tree cookie cutters to make 16 cookies.
4. Arrange the cutouts on the prepared baking sheets. Freeze for 10 minutes before baking at 350F for 15 minutes. Let cool on at room temperature before moving to a cooling rack.
5. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip together the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until combined.
6. Divide the buttercream icing into 4 bowls. Add a few drops of green gel food coloring to one bowl of icing and mix well with a palette knife. Mix some of the green icing with the next two bowls to get 3 shades of green, leaving the fourth bowl white. In a small bowl, mix a teaspoon of white icing with a drop of brown gel food coloring and set aside.
7. Ice the cooled cookies with the palette knife from the bottoms of the trees to the tops in all four shades. Add brown icing to the tree trunk with a toothpick. Decorate with sprinkles for ornaments, and let dry for one hour to harden.