Our Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes

Christmas cookies might be the tastiest part of the holiday season. Decorating cookies and leaving a platter on the fireplace mantle for Santa Claus is a family affair. Here are two of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes at Coverstore and some fun tips on how to display them.

How to Make Christmas Sugar Cookies

These “Can’t Fail Christmas Cookies” are sure to bring holiday cheer to your home. Gather your children to bake and decorate or have a Christmas cookie decorating party.

Makes two dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening
• 2/3 cup sugar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• Exactly 1/3 cup of eggs. If short, add a little water to bring eggs to the required measurement.

Items You Will Need:

• Baking mat
• Rolling pin
• A bowl filled with flour
• Christmas themed cookie cutters
• Spatula

Directions:

1. Combine shortening, sugar, salt, flour, and eggs. Beat until the mixture is smooth and light.
2. Gradually stir in flour.
3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
4. After chilling the dough, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
5. Sprinkle flour on a baking mat. With a rolling pin, roll dough to ¼ to ⅜ - inch thickness.
6. Sprinkle flour in the bottom of a bowl for you to dip cookie cutters in.
7. Flour each cookie cutter before pressing it into the sheet of cookie dough. Slap the cookie cutter into your hand or onto the table to get the dough out.
8. When cutting, place the cookie cutter as close as you can to the last cut.
9. Use a spatula to place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
10. When you finish cutting, you will have scraps of cookie dough left over. Roll the scraps into a ball and reroll with a rolling pin. Continue this process until you are out of dough. Try to reroll the dough as little as possible. The dough will get tougher and thicker with each reroll.
11. Bake 12-15 minutes. Take the cookies out when they are still white but not doughy. Do not allow the cookies to brown.

How to Make Sugar Cookie Frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk
• 4 teaspoons light corn syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Food coloring

Items You Will Need:

• Bowls to hold frosting
• Paint brushes

Directions:

1. Mix powdered sugar and milk until the solution is smooth.
2. Stir in vanilla and corn syrup until the icing is smooth.
3. Add more corn syrup if the icing is too thick.
4. Poor icing into as many bowls as you want for colors.
5. Add 2-3 drops of food coloring to get your desired color intensity in each bowl. Mix colors like yellow and blue together to get green—an essential color to paint Christmas tree shaped cookies!
6. Paint your sugar cookies with paint brushes. Add sprinkles, M&Ms, and other treats as decoration.
7. If the icing gets too thick while decorating, mix in a touch more corn syrup.

How to Make Christmas M&M Cookies

What makes these M&M cookies Christmas cookies? Two words—mint M&Ms. This recipe makes two dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1-pound brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 pound of softened butter
• 6 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
• 24 ounces mint M&Ms (If you don’t like mint M&Ms you can substitute with regular M&Ms or chocolate chips)
• 2 cups walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs for 4-5 minutes.
3. Add brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, and butter. Mix thoroughly.
4. Mix in flour, salt, and baking soda.
5. Stir in mint M&Ms and walnuts.
6. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper.
7. Put tablespoon sized dollops of cookie dough on the wax lined cookie sheet.
8. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes until the edges are golden-brown.
9. Let the cookies sit for 10 minutes before removing.
10. Change the wax paper after each batch.

How to Decorate Cookies

Decorated sugar cookies can turn into gorgeous edible art. Admire your art with your family or wow Santa and try to score some extra gifts. Even if you aren’t artistically inclined, these projects will still taste good!

What You Will Need:

• Wax paper
• Tupperware or decorative plates

Edible Decorations (Optional)

Edible decorations are optional but strongly encouraged. Choose ingredients that will make your cookies as tasty as they are lovely. Here are a few suggestions:

• Mini M&Ms- Perfect to use as ornaments on Christmas tree shaped cookies. Use a red M&M to decorate Rudolph's nose!
• Mini chocolate chips- Decorate the bark on Christmas tree shaped cookies.
• Crushed candy canes Add a little bit of that classic winter mint.
• Edible glitter- Add a little magic sparkle!
• Sprinkles- Choose all different colors and shapes to let imaginations run wild! Buy sprinkles in the shape of snowflakes or candy canes to add to the holiday spirit.

How to Present Your Decorated Cookies

Make Cookies Your Centerpiece

Place cookies on a platter to create the perfect centerpiece for your holiday dessert table. Ask children to arrange the cookies into fun scenes on platters, such as reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh or snowmen in a winter wonderland.

How to Transform Cookies into Tasty Ornaments

Candy canes aren’t the only delicious treat you can hang on your tree. Adorned in icing, M&Ms, sprinkles, and other goodies, Christmas cookies make beautiful ornaments.

What You Need:

• Sandwich bags
• Twist ties
• Christmas tree hooks

Directions:

1. Place each cookie in a sandwich bag.
2. Use a twist tie to close each bag.
3. Attach a Christmas tree hook to each twist tie.
4. Hang your edible ornaments on the tree.

Don’t forget to leave some cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve! And maybe some carrots for Rudolph and the rest of his reindeer.

Check out more of our holiday recipes.

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