Lemon Swirl Ornaments- cookies

By jodijet

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, room temp
• 4 oz cream cheese, room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 2 cups flour
• 4 cups powdered sugar sifted
• 3 Tbsp meringue powder
• red food coloring

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350. In bowl, beat first 3 ingredients 1 minute or until smooth. Add egg yolk, vanilla and 2 tsp lemon zest. Beat 1 min or until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, add flour, beat 1 min or just until dough forms. Divide dough in half, shape each half into 8" x 1 3/4" log. wrap logs in wax paper, chill for 1 hour.
Cut dough logs into 1/4" thick slices, arrange 2" apart on baking dish, bake 8 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Let cool in pans 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to cooling racks, let cool completely.

For glaze, beat powdered sugar, meringue, 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 6 Tbsp water 5 minutes or until smooth, adding additional water if glaze is too thick. Blend 1/2 glaze and enough red food coloring to create desired hue. Decorate cookies with red and white glaze. Let sit 4 hours or until set