Before I started baking this year's holiday cookies, I looked back at all of my past holiday cookie recipes and was surprised to see that there was nothing centered around Santa Claus. Thus, I decided that some sort of Santa cookie was a must this year. I didn't want something too complicated, so I stuck with a circular cookie cutter and my go-to sugar cookie recipe. When I think of Santa, I see his signature hat, rosy cheeks and a red nose (because it'd be freezing riding around in a sleigh all night), a big beard, and an all-around jolly face. So today I have a how-to guide for making Santa sugar cookies.
Santa Sugar Cookies
sugar cookie recipe
sugar cookie icing recipe
red food coloring
black food coloring
Make the cookie dough as directed in the recipe in the link above. Cut out circles from the dough with round cookie cutters (4.8 cm/1 7/8 in diameter) and baked as indicated in the recipe. Let cool before decorating.
Follow the recipe for the sugar cookie icing. Take the white icing and draw on a long horizontal squiggle 1/3 of the way down from the top of the cookie for the brim of Santa's hat. Then, to the right of that, a little bit lower, make a circular squiggle as the hat's pom pom. Use more white icing to make a beard, covering about half of the cookie.
Scoop some of the icing into another bowl and add red food coloring to the portion (keep the rest of the icing covered with plastic wrap when not using it). Take the red icing and fill in the top portion of the cookie above the squiggles to complete Santa's hat. Draw an oval with the red icing in the center of the top edge of the beard for the nose.
Take a little bit of the white icing and mix it with black food coloring. Use a toothpick to dot on eyes in the unfrosted region between the beard and the hat brim. Then draw on a mouth on the beard below the nose. Finally, mix a bit of red icing with white icing to make pink icing and make a circle next to each eye for cheeks.
P.S. If you were interested...
Holiday Cookies Round 1:
Holiday Cookies Round 2:
They all look so delicious!
ReplyDeleteOMG!!! He is too cute! And so are the rest of the other goodies. You are so talented :)
ReplyDeleteLove! YOu always impress me. I wish I was on your cookie list! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteOooo I can't wait to see the rest of your recipes! The gingerbread gentlemen look amazing!
ReplyDeleteThese are just so so so cute!
ReplyDeleteOMG, these are so cute!!!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth & little random happiness: Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSweetSugarBelle: Happy holidays to you too!
Betty: The Gingerbread Gentlemen post will be coming very soon :).
confessionsofabrighteyedbaker & justputzing: Thank you!
IMPRESSED!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great design! (just found you via pinterest). I have a holiday party every year and I'm so going to give these a try. Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteDavid
These are sooo adorable. I've never worked with this kind of icing though, so I have a question. Do you just spread it with a knife? Or do you use a decorator bag with tip? Thanks for such a cute idea, I can't wait to try these.
ReplyDeleteI usually just use a spoon to spread it around and a toothpick for the details. Just make sure that the icing isn't too wet, or it will drip off the cookie. If that happens, just add a bit more powdered sugar. And let the icing dry in between different steps so the different colors don't run into each other. But definitely try it out; this is my favorite icing because it's relatively easy to work with and it tastes delicious (way better than royal icing).
DeleteAwe, these are so sweet! I'll be pinning this so I can remember your cute design. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm SO going to make these Santa cokies with my sister! Just wondering; HOw big do you make them (cm)? Diameter? Thanks for all the ideas!
ReplyDeleteSO cute, wondering the same thing about size though!
DeleteThe diameter is 4.8 cm (1 7/8 inch).
DeleteHi Susan,
ReplyDeletefor me, the dough came out crumbly so I couldn't really knead it or roll it out. any suggestions. Thank!
I'm also having the same problem with the gingerbread cookies, the dough turns out grainy :(
ReplyDeleteThere shouldn't be a problem with either the sugar cookie or the gingerbread cookie recipe. Since I have no idea about your situation, my only guess is that your butter isn't soft enough (read this), thus you get a crumbly dough as it isn't well incorporated into the dough. Either that or you didn't follow the measurements exactly, which people tend to do (and is not okay at all; always follow the recipe exactly as written).
DeleteFor the gingerbread cookies, what do you mean by grainy?
very, very cute :)
ReplyDelete