Peppermint Black Cocoa Sugar Cookies

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. In a glass bowl, mix together flour, black cocoa powder baking soda and salt until combined. Set aside.
3. Using a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer until combined.
4. Pour eggs, vanilla extract and peppermint extract into the butter and sugar mixture.
5. Mix on med until fully combined.
6. Then pour the dry ingredients into egg, sugar and butter mixture.
7. Mix together on medium until fully combined. 
8. You’ll know your cookie mix is ready when the bowl is clean and most of the dough sticks to the paddle.
9. Lay a sheet of parchment paper onto a solid surface and lightly dust with flour. 
10. Roll dough out onto the parchment lined surface (about 1/2 inch thick)
11. Cut into shapes with cutters of choice.
12. Remove extra dough from cutout cookies and transfer the parchment paper with cutout cookies on it, to a baking sheet.
13. Bake for 4-6 minutes. 
14. Cookies should be soft with a nice crumb texture.
15. Cool on a cooling rack.
16. Repeat steps for remaining cookie dough.

Peppermint Royal Icing:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk meringue powder and half of 1/4 cup warm water together on medium for 2-3 minutes, until thickened and well combined.
2. Pour in the peppermint extract and confectioners sugar and switch to a paddle attachment.
3. Mix on medium until well incorporated.
4. The icing will be very thick. Add a few drops of the remaining warm water a few splashes at a time until the frosting is the consistency of toothpaste. This is for piping.
5. Spoon out 1/3 of the toothpaste-like piping icing to a tipless piping bag and tie or seal closed.
6. Add the rest of the warm water to the remaining royal icing and mix on medium until combined. The consistency of this icing should be runny. 
7. The thinned out icing is for flooding the cookies.
8. If you run a spatula through the icing it should take around 5-6 seconds for any lines to disappear. That’s when you know it’s ready.
9. If the flood icing is still too thick use a few drops of water at a time and mix in between to achieve the desired icing consistency.
10. Note that a little bit of water goes a long way!
11. Transfer flood icing to a piping bag immediately and seal closed so the icing doesn’t dry out.

Decorating the cookies:

1. Place cookies on a piece of parchment or a clean working surface.
2. Snip the very tip off the thick icing piping bag.
3. Slowly outline the the edges of each cookie with the paste like peppermint piping icing. 
4. Then snip the tip off the flood icing bag. 
5. Squeeze the thin flood icing onto each cookie, starting from the edges inward. Use a toothpick or scribe to spread the icing evenly around the surface of the cookie, meeting the lines of thick paste like icing until the cookie is fully covered.
6. Quickly poke away any air bubbles you find using a toothpick or scribe. 
7. Repeat steps so all cookies are fully covered in icing.
8. Gently set each flooded cookie aside to fully dry. (Drying takes approximately 60 – 90 minutes.)
9. Then details can be added with paste like icing.
10. Once cookies have dried, add the decorative details.
11. Starting at the top of each tree cookie, pipe the icing to the first tree point, then make a loop and continue piping with this same design, left to right, all the the way down to the bottom of the last tree point. Pipe a little of the outline icing at the top of the tree to attach the crushed peppermint.
12. Finish with a dusting of edible glitter.
13. Allow two hours to fully dry.
14. Enjoy!