Chocolate Sugar Cookie Trees

These chocolate sugar cookies will not spread when baking.

2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 tsp vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp salt

Cream the butter and sugar. Mix for about one minute or until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for a few seconds more. Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough and will spread more during baking.
Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.
Add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.
Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, cocoa powder and salt).
Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Mix by hand until fully mixed
Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.
Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.
Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the center of the cookie no longer looks wet. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.
Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate.

Makes approx. 35 medium sized cookies

Source: modified slightly from the recipe at Sweetopia