Happy New Year! 🌟
Peace Dove Cookies

Happy New Year and thank you for following! Enjoy making another delightful holiday cookie recipe from Nutley, New Jersey’s Martha Stewart in Martha Stewart Living:

Ingredients

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

ÂĽ teaspoon salt

Royal Icing

1 (16-ounce) package of powdered sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

6 to 8 tablespoons warm water

Leaf green coloring gel

2 (6-inch) lollipop sticks or wooden skewers

Directions

  1. Prepare the cookies: Beat butter and sugar with a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy for 3 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until incorporated for 30 seconds.  Gradually add flour and salt, beating until combined for 1 minute.  Remove dough from bowl; shape into flat disk.  Cover with plastic wrap. Chill at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
  2. Preheat oven to 350° F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface.  Roll to 1/8-inch thickness.  (Note: This makes crispy cookies, but ÂĽ inch has more texture according to preferences.)  Using a 4 ½ inch dove-shaped cookie cutter, cut out dough.  Reroll scraps twice to cut 36 cookies total.  Arrange two inches apart on prepared baking sheets.  Flip half the cookies to face in the opposite direction.  Bake in two batches until slightly golden on edges but pale in centers, 8 to 10 minutes.  Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes/  Transfer to a wire rack.  Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
  3. Prepare the Royal Icing.  Beat powdered sugar, meringue powder, and 6 tablespoons of the warm water with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, 1 minute.  Increase to medium, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Beat in remaining 2 tablespoons warm water, ÂĽ teaspoon at a time, as needed until desired consistency is reached.  Transfer 2 tablespoons Royal Icing to a small bowl; stir in 1 drop food coloring until well combined.  Cover and set aside.  Spoon remaining undyed icing into a ziplock plastic freezer bag with a small corner snipped off (or into a piping bag with a small round tip).
  4. Pipe a border of undyed icing around each cookie.  Flood with additional icing.  Using a wooden pick, spread icing to piped border inside edges to ice cookies fully.  Let stand until icing is set, 1 hour.  Pipe wings onto cookies with some of the undyed icing.  Spoon reserved green icing into a ziplock plastic freezer bag with a small corner snipped off (or onto piping bag fitted with a small round tip).  Pipe 1 olive branch beneath each dove’s beak.  Let stand until icing is set, 30 minutes.
  5. Place 2 (6-inch) lollipop sticks or wooden skewers on a sheet of parchment paper.  Pipe a ½ inch-long strip of undyed icing along the top of each stick.  Place one cookie on top of icing on each stick.  Place one cookie on the top of each stick.  Press lightly to adhere.  Let stand until dry, 2 hours…. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Notes: Two egg whites, beaten, can substitute for the meringue powder.  A small tube of green decorating icing might be a helpful substitute the piping.  The recipe places the olive branch piping near the dove’s mouth. Didn’t use the lollipop sticks on this first try, but that idea looks like fun.

Enjoy another wonderful Martha Stewart holiday treat: Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprint Cookies.

Holiday decor: The ornament is from Murdough’s Christmas shop, Stone Harbor. The plaque and Christmas countdown calendar are from Prim & Proper Primitives, Smithville, and the mug is from the Village Sweet Shoppe, also in Smithville.

“Peace Dove Cookies” @2021 Kathleen Helen Levey. All rights reserved.Â