This weekend I was in the kitchen busting out a few of our traditional family Christmas cookies! Yum, yet another reason to love the holidays…SUGAR!! I made these Melted Snowman Sugar Cookies as a special surprise for Noah and Penny after they came in from a cold afternoon of playing in the snow with their Daddy. They are the perfect snack to have with a nice cup of hot chocolate 🙂
Aren’t they just too cute for words?
Even my husband couldn’t get over their cuteness! I love a cookie that can make a grown man say ‘awww!’
Here is a quick rundown of how to make them. Unfortunately I only have pictures of the final product since I was trying to get them all done while Ellie napped and the other two were outside in the snow. My window was small so it was definitely go time for me!
To make these cookies you first need to make a batch of sugar cookies. You could just buy pre-made dough but I highly recommend making your own, there is nothing like it in the world!! This is my go to sugar cookie recipe, these cookies always come out perfect and get rave reviews from everyone. I’ve never had a bad batch yet (crossing my fingers and knocking on wood now!)
Sugar Cookies
Recipe Type: Dessert
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 dozen
Ingredients
1/3 cup cold butter
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
Instructions
Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer for about 30 seconds on high speed.
Add in sugar, baking powder and a dash of salt.
Beat until combined.
Add in egg and vanilla and continue mixing.
Add in the flour 1/2 cup at a time, you may need to hand stir the remaining 1/2 cup.
Lightly flour your rolling surface and place half your dough on top.
Flip your dough a few times to get it nicely coated with flour.
Flour your rolling pin and then roll out your dough 1/8 to 1/4 inch in thickness and cut your shapes.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 7-8 minutes or just until the cookies edge is firm and the bottom of the cookie is a very light golden brown.
Cool on a rack and ice.
**Edit**To see my Sugar Cookie Icing Recipe click HERE
I cut my dough with a large circle cookie/biscuit cutter. This gives you a nice sized area to decorate your melted snowmen. Then just haphazardly ice your cookies, the more imperfect the better cause it gives the lovely effect of melting snow, kinda drippy and oozing.
While you are icing your cookies, place a few large marshmallows on a plate and microwave them on high for about 25 seconds. They should puff up a some but they will shrink back down if you let them sit for a bit! Before you pick up your marshmallows to place on your cookies grease you fingers with some cooking spray first. This will reduce the sticky factor of those puffy marshmallows as well as help to not ruin their shape and therefore reduce any bad swear words you might want to utter!
Then since I was short on time, I just grabbed a bottle of colored Jimmies from my cupboard and picked out the brown and orange ones to decorate the snowmen’s faces and little melted bodies. If you had more time on your hands you could color your icing orange and black and decorate them with a small circular piping tip. Or…you could use a few of those handy dandy food-safe markers but you’d want to wait until the cookies are completely set and hard before drawing on them!!
This one is my favorite little guy!
Rows of melted snowman…cute, cute and cute!
Well, the kids came in and saw these guys and just fell in love!
Don’t you love watching kids during the holidays? Everything is just magical to them. We decorate a gingerbread house and do a few other family traditions every year and it always amazes me how new and exciting it is for the kids each and every year we do them!!
SO FUN!
Yup, these cookies were definitely approved by Noah!
Ya gotta love that!
Happy Wednesday!!
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The practice of putting out cookies for Santa began in the 1930s during the Great Depression, when parents were trying to instill a sense of thankfulness in their children. Leaving goodies, perhaps in a sweet cookie jar, continues to be a way of sharing the holiday bounty.
Christmas cookies or Christmas biscuits are traditionally sugar cookies or biscuits (though other flavours may be used based on family traditions and individual preferences) cut into various shapes related to Christmas.
Those who would like to take credit for the invention of the Christmas cookie will have to arm wrestle the Germans for it. They believe that Weihnachtsplätzchen, a term that refers specifically to cookies and broadly to holiday treats, encompasses the origin of Christmas baking.
Let's have a hearty hip-hip-hooray for the German Protestants, who settled in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and invented the early sugar cookie. Their crumbly cookie made with butter and shaped into round or keystone shapes were a sweet hit from their formation in the late 1700s.
You can never go wrong with these classic, delicious cookies. Santa himself lists these as his favorites, and he prefers them soft and gooey with lots of chocolate chips. If you decide to leave these out for him, make sure there's a glass of cold milk nearby!
They're the ones you might remember from the platters of your childhood, like snickerdoodles, molasses cookies, macaroons, sugar cookies and more. Every single one of these recipes is a tried and true favorite and is perfect for carrying on your cookie traditions year after year.
When left at room temperature, undecorated sugar cookies can last about a week. You can also decide to refrigerate them. In this case, the cookies will last about two weeks. Keep in mind though that they can start going stale after about a week.
Chilling the dough is a key step in making sugar cookies, especially when you're making cut-outs. Even if you're tight on time, make sure to get the dough in the fridge, or even the freezer, even if it's only for a little while. Skip this step, and the dough will be sticky, and much harder to work with.
30 minutes will do the trick if you're simply looking to avoid your cookies spreading all over the place. If you have the luxury of chilling the dough overnight to develop flavor, go for it.
Baked and decorated cookies can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks. Make sure that your icing has hardened completely before stacking the cookies, and adding a layer of parchment paper between cookie layers is always a good idea for some additional protection.
*Use my royal icing recipe. Icing will completely set in about 2 hours at room temperature. If you're layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to speed it up. It's important to have the correct cookie decorating supplies on hand, too.
According to one theory, the milk-cookies custom can be traced back to the 1930s, during the Great Depression. During that time of economic hardship, many parents tried to teach their children that it was important to give to others and to show gratitude for the gifts they received over the holiday.
Christmas Traditions: History of Cookie Decorating 🎄🍪
One of the earliest recorded forms of cookie decorating is the springerle, and the oldest known springerle mold is housed at the Swiss national museum in Zurich, Switzerland. The artistic element of cookie making also can be traced back to Medieval Germany.
Historians believe the tradition began during the Great Depression, as a way for parents to encourage generosity in their children. The tradition stuck, and Santa isn't in danger of needing a smaller suit any time soon. Brette Sember is the author of over 40 books.
Introduction: My name is Dr. Pierre Goyette, I am a enchanting, powerful, jolly, rich, graceful, colorful, zany person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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