Ho Ho Ho!

No holiday gift package would be complete without Santa Cookies :) I got this idea from our old neighbor in North Carolina, Kristen. She surprised us last year with a plate of Santa Cookies. They are basically sugar cookies dressed up as Santa Clause. I thought the idea was so cute, I decided to make them myself for this year's holiday gifts. The ingredient quantities for this recipe are all approximate, as I didn't really measure out what I was using.


For the sugar cookies, I used a recipe from Peabody. I halved her recipe and had enough to make both these and the Rudolph cookies. For the buttercream frosting, I used a recipe from Joelen's Culinary Adventures. Santa's nose is supposed to be a red cinnamon candy, but I wasn't able to find them at my local grocery store so I used small red cake decors instead. You could also use red M&M's if you'd like.


I decided to submit these cookies for the "Eat Christmas Cookies" blog event, hosted by Susan of Food Blogga. Click on the logo below to visit her blog and see all the other wonderful cookies being submitted!

Santa Claus Sugar Cookies
from Kristen (original source unknown)

24 homemade sugar cookies (see recipe below) or store-bought refrigerated sugar cookie dough
2 ounces of red sugar crystals
frosting (see recipe below)
24 mini marshmallows (approx. 1/3 cup)
2 cups of shredded coconut
48 chocolate chips (approx. 1/8 cup)
24 red cinnamon candies or red M&M's

Bake the sugar cookies as directed.

Place the sugar crystals in a shallow bowl. Frost the top 1/3rd of the sugar cookie and roll it in the sugar crystals to make the first part of Santa's hat.

Pipe the frosting in a zig zag pattern along the bottom edge of Santa's hat to create the white fur trim for Santa's hat. If you do not have a piping bag, you can use a ziploc bag with the corner cut out; or you can simply use the edge of your knife to make a smooth frosted edge. Place a marshmallow on one side of the cookie to represent the ball at the tip of the hat.

Frost the bottom third of the sugar cookie in a crescent shape. The cookies look better if you frost a little more than one third of the bottom but less than one half of the cookie. Place the shredded coconut in a shallow bowl and either roll the bottom of the cookie in the shredded coconut, or sprinkle the coconut over the bottom half.

Put a small amount of frosting on the back of each chocolate chip and cinnamon candy and place them on the cookies to represent Santa's eyes and nose.

Yield: 24 Cookies.


Sugar Cookies
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

4-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 lb plus 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
7-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the powdered sugar and butter for at least 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and scrape down the bowl after each egg. Add vanilla and mix for 2 more minutes.

Mix in the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar while mixer is on slow speed. Mix till you have a smooth dough. Chill for at least 4 hours before rolling out.

Roll out dough and cut using whatever shapes you would like. (I used a glass with a diameter of ~2-1/2")

Yield: Approximately 8 Dozen Cookies?


Frosting
from Joelen's Culinary Adventures

1 teaspoon real vanilla
1 stick of real butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon cream or whole milk

Cream butter, milk and vanilla together. Slowly add powdered sugar to butter until desired consistency.