These Santa sugar cookies are so incredibly adorable and easy to make thanks to some short cuts. Santa also told me he'd be into these under the tree, too. Just sayin'...
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time5 minutesmins
Dough in Fridge2 hourshrs
Total Time2 hourshrs20 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: santa cookies, sugar cookies
Servings: 48cookies
Ingredients
For the sugar cookies:
1cupbuttersoftened
1cupsugar
2eggs
½teaspoon vanilla extract
½teaspoon almond extract
3 ¼cups all purpose flour
½teaspoon baking soda
½teaspoon baking powder
½teaspoon salt
For decorating:
1packagedred candy melts
1tubewhite decorating frosting
48red M&ms or red hots
1package white chocolate melting wafers
1tubeblack cookie frosting
48mini marshmallows
Instructions
For the cookies:
In a large bowl, combine butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extracts; beat using an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; add dry ingredients to butter mixture while mixer is on low. Mix until just combined. Form two rectangles with the dough, wrap in plastic wrap, and let chill for about at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400″ Fahrenheit. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper (parchment paper truly works best with these cookies…don’t skimp on this step)
On a very lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until you have a sheet of dough that’s about ¼-inch thick with your rolling pin. Cut dough into 2" circles, and place on baking sheet.
Bake for 5-6 minutes or until barely golden brown. Let sit for about 5 minutes until they are slightly cooled, then transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely. Make sure they’re cooled 100% before icing (about 45 minutes to an hour…they cool pretty quickly).
To decorate:
Melt the white chocolate wafers in a small bowl or plate in 30 second increments until just melted. Melt the red candy wafers in a separate bowl or plate for 45 seconds at 50% power until completely melted. Dip one side of the cookie in the white chocolate and the other side of the cookie in the melted red candy.
Use white frosting to pipe the rim of Santa's hat. On the last icing dot, smoosh a mini marshmallow for the poof of Santa's hat. Add eyes using the black cookie icing. With a little bit of icing on the "M" side of a red M&M, add Santa's mouth on the beard.
Let cookies cool on a rack for about 10 minutes before eating.