If you’re like us, you think Christmas is lit. We’re all about the Christmas lights, holiday parties, trees and all things green; lighting up and gifting presents, and especially this holiday cookie recipe! 

Holiday cookies make great gifts to give, because homemade is always the best, especially when it comes to sugar and cookies. They not only taste delicious but they’re cute too! 

Weighing your recipe ingredients 

You probably were planning on measuring the ingredients with your Betty Crocker or Chrissy Teigen measuring cups, yes? Before we dive into the recipe, let’s talk about a baking tool you need in your kitchen.

While your measuring cups will suffice, what you really need is a food scale. 

Food scales 

Food scales provide more precise and accurate measurements of the ingredients than when measuring them by volume. 

Truweigh Crimson Collapsible Bowl 

The Truweigh Crimson Collapsible Bowl is the perfect tool you need to measure your ingredients for your cookie recipe. It’s a digital mini scale that comes with a large collapsible silicone bowl with a latching cover to keep it safe in the kitchen. 

When fully expanded, the silicone bowl provides a comfortably large volume so you can easily weigh all of your necessary ingredients. Results are also easy to read from the extra-large LCD with white back-light. 

Christmas Cookie Recipe

If you don’t have a cookie recipe already in mind, we have the perfect one to share with your friends and family! (Trust us, it’s lit)

While most baking recipes you find come with weight measurements, this one doesn’t so we went ahead and calculated the necessary ingredients for you. 

Follow the recipe and measure what you can with your food scale so you can ensure your cookie recipe will come out perfectly! 

Christmas Lights Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour, plus extra for rolling (96 grams, plus extra)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (2 grams)
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (57 grams)
• 1/4 cup sugar (50 grams)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

For the small-batch royal icing:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (169.5 grams)
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 
• 1 large egg white

For decorating:

• 1 small tube of black icing for writing
• handful mini M&Ms

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together with an electric mixer the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Once light and fluffy, add the egg yolk and vanilla and almond extracts.
3. Once everything is well incorporated, add in half the flour mixture and beat gently until combined, then add the rest. Beat until well combined, but be careful not to over-mix.
4. Dust a clean countertop with flour, and dump the dough out onto it. Gather it into a ball and press it into a 1/2" thick round disk. Flour your rolling pin, then roll the dough out big enough to cut out about 8 shapes. Place the shapes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Gather the dough scraps and re-roll to cut out 4 more shapes and place them on the cookie sheet. You should get about 12 cookies.
5. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Once the oven is hot, bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies just start to turn slightly brown. Let them sit on the baking sheet a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. While the cookies are cooling, make the royal icing: in a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
8. Beat the egg white in a separate small bowl to loosen them, and then measure out 2 tablespoons of egg whites and add them to the bowl with the sugar.
9. Whisk together the icing, starting slowly, and don’t add anymore liquid just yet. Keep whisking slowly -- everything will combine.
10. When the icing comes together, spoon a small amount onto each cookie and spread it to the edges.
11. Let the royal icing harden completely on the cookies before adding your lights.
12. For the lights, pipe two thin black lines onto each cookie, and then press mini M&Ms sideways to look like a string of Christmas lights. 

Check out the full recipe over on Dessert for Two by Christine Lane All photos credited to her. 

That’s it! The wrong measurements can ruin your entire recipe. Remember to use a food scale when measuring ingredients so you can make sure they’re accurate. The Truweigh Crimson Scale is the perfect addition to your kitchen!