Silent Night Swirl Cookies

Makes 12 cookies

Ingredients

• ¾ cup butter
• 2 sachets Silent night
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• ½ teaspoon salt

For the frosting

• 2 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• Red food coloring to preference
• Crushed peppermint for topping

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Once simmering, add the loose leaf from 2 sachets of Silent Night. Mix well and take off the heat and steep for 5 minutes. Strain the butter into a medium bowl and let sit until the butter has cooled but is not completely hardened, about 20 minutes.
2. To the butter add the sugar, egg and egg yolk and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, corn starch, and salt. Fold together with a wooden spoon.
3. With a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop, portion out the cookies onto a lined cookie sheet and set about 2 inches apart.
4. Baking in the middle rack of the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes. The cookies may still look shiny; you don’t want them over baked. If the cookies brown on the bottom, they are overdone.
5. To make the frosting, beath the cream cheese and butter together in a standing mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat for another 2 minutes until creamy.
6. To make the ribbon, remove ¾ths of the frosting. With the remaining frosting, mix with red food coloring.
7. Place the white frosting into one side of the piping bag and place the red frosting onto the other.
8. Once the cookies have cooled, swirl on the frosting and sprinkle with peppermint bits.