Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Santa Claus cookies

This recipe came from my friend Amanda 3 years ago at a cookie exchange and has been a family tradition ever since! We make this every year for Santa on Christmas Eve. The kids have a blast decorating the cookies and the adults have a blast eating them! It is the lemon peel that gives this cookie such a great twist to normal sugar cookies. Forgive my picture. This is a picture of the first batch I ever did, but hopefully, you get the picture of how to decorate them.

1 C. sugar
½ C. shortening
2 T. milk
1 t. grated lemon peel (fresh)
1 egg
2 C. flour
1 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Beat sugar, shortening, milk, lemon peel and egg. Stir in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Roll cookies into 1 ¼ inch balls. Flatted to 2 ½ inches with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are a very light brown. Do not overcook. Let cool. Pampered Chef's stoneware work REALLY good with these cookies.

Frost the cookies with any white frosting.
Decorate to look like Santa with:

Red sugar crystals on the top for a hat
Shredded coconut for Santa’s beard
Mini marshmallow for tassel of cap
Mini chocolate chips for eyes
Red cinnamon candy for nose

I have a cookie exchange in a week and need a great recipe? Anyone have a cookie/bar/candy recipe that is to die for? Please help!

3 comments:

Stina said...

These are so so so cute! I was just telling Kristi I feel like I'm not ready for Christmas. I haven't done anything Christmasy--as of yesterday. Although, I finally made gingerbread cookies! These will definitely be made before the 25th.

Oh, and I have been trying to think of a cookie recipe for you, but I think you have all my recipes already. Nothing spectacular jumps out for you. Sorry. Good luck and let me know what you end up making!

Carissa Poyfair said...

Kelli and I are making these for my treat plates, but we are using Pillsbury break and bake cookies and just using the decorating idea. I am wayyyy to busy to make real cookies, but I'll try them later! Thanks for the cute idea!

Kristi Adams said...

This is a really cute idea. My kids would love decorating them!