Cute and Easy Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Cookies

Preheat your oven to 325°F.
In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to cream your butter and sugar together until smooth and aerated (2-3 minutes).
Add your egg and peppermint extract and mix to combine.
Add your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt and mix again to form a thick dough. Make sure to use a spatula to scrape all the powder down the sides to integrate it into your cookie dough.
Place your dough between two pieces of parchment paper and use a rolling pin to flatten it until it is about ½ inch thick.
Use a cookie cutter to cut out your Christmas tree shapes and place them on a lined baking sheet, leaving two inches in between each cookie.
Take the leftover dough and use clean hands to form it into a ball. Use your rolling pin to roll it out again to cut more cookies. Repeat until all the cookie dough is used up.
Bake for ten minutes. Remove from the oven and keep your cookies on your hot baking sheet for at least ten more minutes. They will continue to bake on the hot sheet until they cool. Make sure they cool completely before you ice them.

With hand or stand mixer, whip egg whites and peppermint extract until white and foamy—about 2-3 minutes.
Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and continue to whip until you've added 2 cups.
Assess the consistency. It should be sticky and drip slowly off of a spoon. If it's too loose, slowly add more powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached. Then, add up to 10 drops of green food coloring until you achieve a green you like.
Transfer to a piping bag and store your piping bags in the refrigerator until the cookies are completely cool and ready for decorating
If necessary, cut the very bottom tip of your piping bag, and add icing in horizontal lines. Start at the top and zigzag across as you go down, the lines getting wider as you go.
Then, drop the sprinkles on sporadically to represent ornaments. Allow to dry and enjoy!