Llamas (pronouced "YAH-mas" in Spanish) figure prominently in South American textiles and art, so why not in cookies too? Llama cookie cutters are easy to find online, or you can make your own by tracing a cardboard cutout as you cut out the cookies.
These gingerbread llamas are decorated for the holidays, and make great gifts.Ingredients:
- 1 recipe Gingerbread Cookie Dough
- 1 recipe Royal Icing
- Paste food colors (red, green, brown, black)
Preparation:
- Prepare gingerbread dough, and chill.
- Prepare royal icing, and flavor it with a teaspoon of vanilla if desired.
- Divide icing into 3 bowls. Leave one bowl of icing white. Use the brown food coloring (plus a little bit of red) to color the second bowl of icing a reddish brown.
- Divide the third bowl into 3 parts, and color one red, one green, and one black.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll out half of the gingerbread dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookies and place on parchment lined cookie sheets.
- Reroll scraps, until all the cookie dough is used.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
- Fit one icing bag with a plain small round decorating tip and fill with white icing. Fill another bag with brown icing.
- Decorate the cookies with a brown and white pattern, as desired.
- Let icing harden until surface is firm, about 2 hours.
- Place black icing in decorators bag, and pipe some ears, and eye, and a nose.
- Use the red and green icing to add a holiday decoration, if desired. Let icing dry thoroughly before transporting cookies.
