Striped Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ¼ teaspoons salt ¾ cup unsalted butter- slightly softened 1 cup sugar 1 egg 2 teaspoons vanilla ½ teaspoons almond extract Red and green gel food coloring Sugar cookie dough: First whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Then in a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until light and smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high until fully combine. Now turn the mixer on low and add about flour mixture and beat to combine. At this point if the dough still seems too soft, you can add a tablespoon of flour until it is a consistency for rolling. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Reserve one part in white colors. Then add food coloring (red and green) in remaining batters. To make striped cookies: Line a container with plastic wrap. The container should be tall as the cookie cutter you’ll use and have enough volume for all layers of the dough. I used 4 x 5 x 3″ container. Now, prepare 3 large sheets of parchment paper. Roll each portion of dough out onto a piece of parchment to about 1/8″ thickness. Measure out the bottom surface of your container and cut the rectangles of the dough. Stack the rectangles of the dough (red, white, green) in the container, gently press with your hands to stick the layers, cover and refrigerate until firmed enough for slicing (at least 3-4 hours or overnight). Chilling is mandatory! When the dough has firmed completely, preheat the oven to 350 F and line cookies sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from a container and using a large sharp knife slice thin and even slices about 1/6 or 1/8 thick and arrange them onto large sheet of parchment paper lightly dusted with flour. If the dough is falling apart along the stripes, then gently press them with your finger to come back together. Do not slice all the dough at once because it will become sticky at room temperature. Slice just as much as you need for one batch of cookies, and store remaining in the fridge until ready to cut and bake. Now, use a cookie cutter and cut in shapes, then transfer the cut cookie dough to the prepared baking sheet. Use a large cookie cutter to make the cookies and with the small. cutter cut out the dough around the large shape, to make as little waste as possible. Also, you could pick the leftovers, arrange them to each other, stick with your finger and cut a few more cookies. Bake for 7-10 minutes (depending on size of your cookies) or until just barely golden on the bottom. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer on a rack to cool completely.