Chocolate Peanut Butter Christmas Trees

Well, this was definitely a "frosting failure." 

I had such high hopes - a homemade colored icing glaze of white, light green, and dark green, dotted, and then painted and swirled together for the most elegant cookie on earth - then dusted with golden green sparkles.

The frosting texture and piping bag failed. No swirling occurred.

The good news - they are DELICIOUS!

What could be bad about chocolate and peanut butter in a sugar cookie, right?

So, another example of ugly but delicious - for Christmas this year.            

BTW, the sprinkles on top are really not visible via the photos - but they are quite beautiful upon the cookies and all over the house, which will inevitably ensue after the decoration of the cookies!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Christmas Trees

15 oz. Chocolate Peanut Butter (1 jar of Jif)
1 cup ice-cold Irish butter (Kerrygold), cut into ½” chunks
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 large eggs, cold
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. kosher salt
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbs. whole milk
green food coloring

green and gold edible sparkles

NO CHILLING NECESSARY!

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cream together the chocolate, peanut butter, butter, and sugar until smooth.

Add the eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt. Cream further until smooth, scooping extra dough down the sides of the large bowl.

Add the flour, ½ cup at a time. Mix well.

Split the dough into thirds.

Roll out each third of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and use a Christmas tree cookie cutter to create chocolate peanut butter trees.

Transfer to parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes. 

Remove from oven and cool for at least 30 minutes before transferring to frost/ice.

Repeat with the remaining 2/3 dough.

 

Once the cookies are fully cooled. Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk for icing in a medium bowl. Remove 1/3 and place in a plastic bag. Add green food coloring for a lighter color to one remaining ½ of the icing and transfer to a plastic bag. Finally, add a deeper shade of green to the remaining icing and transfer to a plastic bag. Snip a tiny piping hole on the edge of the bag.

Beginning with white, add icing on each tree arm. Repeat with light green, and then dark green icing.

Using a toothpick, swirl together all three colors on the trees.

Dust with green and gold edible sparkles.

Leftover cookies without icing can be dusted with sparkles for beautiful peanut butter chocolate bites!