• In the bowl of a stand mixer, equip the paddle attachment. If using a hand held mixer, equip beaters. Mix the butter on high speed for 30 seconds until creamy.
• Add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
• Add the egg, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt and mix on medium until just combined.
• Add in half of the flour and mix until incorporated, then add the other half. Stop mixing when the flour has incorporated and the dough comes together.
• Spread out a piece of plastic wrap onto the counter. Turn out the dough onto the plastic wrap. If the dough is slightly crumbly, gently knead it together. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350℉ (177℃). Prepare your baking trays with parchment paper.
• Divide the dough into two parts. Lightly flour a clean flat surface and place the dough on top. Gently knead the dough and press flat with your palm. Roll out the dough, turning it as you roll for even thickness. If it's sticky, sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray, 2 inches apart. 3-4 inch shapes should be baked for 9-10 minutes. Shapes smaller than 3 inches should bake for 7-8 minutes. Shapes larger than 4 inches should bake for 10-11 minutes.
• Once the oven goes off, take out the cookies and move to a cooling rack. Don't let them sit on the hot pan or they will keep baking.
• Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.

Decorating

• Dye food coloring according to the chart in the blog post.

Squirrels

• Outline the cookie with warm brown icing and fill in.
  
• Right after filling in the cookies, pipe a swirl of black and white icing for the tail design. Then, add a drop of white for the eye area. This is the wet on wet technique.
  
• Let the icing dry for about five minutes. Then, add a small drop of dark brown icing for the eye and let it dry. Take a a scribe tool or a toothpick to get a tiny drop of white icing and lightly add this to the black dot.
  

Acrons

• With warm brown icing, outline then fill in the acorn, but not the cap. Before the brown icing dries, pipe on three white dots using the wet on wet technique.
  
• Then, with the dark brown icing, outline and fill in the acorn tops.
  

Leaves

• Outline and flood the cookies with various colors of red, orange, and yellow. Let them dry for about five minutes. Using the dark brown icing to pipe a line starting from the bottom and drag to the top. Add some leaf veins.
  
• Let the icing dry for 12 hours or more. Decorated cookies can last in an airtight container for 1 week.