Christmas is right around the corner and Santa and his reindeer have a very big night ahead of them! Forget your average, store-bought Christmas cookies and re-invigorate them this year with something different! Get the kids involved in making one of these six fun and festive cookie recipes or make an assortment of them all for Santa and his reindeer! Regardless of what delicious variety you choose, every single one of these cookies goes great with a big, tall glass of Kreider Farms milk!
The Classic Sugar Cookie
Let’s start out with a classic: the sugar cookie. Start with our go-to cookie recipe below for soft, melt in your mouth sugar cookies! Then, have some fun with decorating and watch your cookies come to life! Just a little icing and sprinkles can go a long way from taking these boring cookies to something spectacular. We made ours into some cute little reindeer and some fun melty snowmen! Have fun, be creative and let your imagination fly!
Ingredients (makes 24 cookies)
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup sugar
1 large Noah’s Pride egg, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
Kreider Farms milk, for serving
Instructions
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until completely smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add dry ingredients slowly, mixing constantly until combined.
- On a sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out dough to ¼” thickness. Dust lightly with flour, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Remove chilled dough and cut into circles or shapes as desired.
- Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool completely before decorating.
For Reindeer:
- Take royal icing and loosely frost the cookies, allowing it to drip over the sides.
- Add a dot of royal icing and a red hot for the nose!
For Snowmen:
- Take royal icing and loosely frost the cookies, allowing it to drip over the sides.
- While icing is still wet, add ½ marshmallow and mini M&M buttons. Use some black dyed royal icing for the arms.
- Use a black gel icing to add eyes and a mouth to the marshmallow snowman and add an orange sprinkle for the nose.
Candy Cane Kisses
A Christmas take on the favorite peanut butter blossoms, these Candy Cane Kisses are perfectly festive. With a peppermint kiss in the center, these will freshen up Santa’s breath on the biggest night of the year!
Ingredients (makes 48 cookies)
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 ¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 large Noah’s Pride egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 bags Hershey Candy Cane Kisses, unwrapped
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Kreider Farms milk, for serving
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, peppermint and egg until creamy.
- In a separate bowl, add baking powder, flour and salt and mix until combined.
- Combine dry and wet ingredients until incorporated and shape dough into 1” balls. Roll in granulated sugar and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes or until cookies are set. Remove and let cool for 2 minutes before adding kisses.
White Chocolate Pistachio Wreaths
These crunchy, tasty cookies are a bit of a healthier option for Santa and his reindeer, but we promise they are so delicious you won’t be able to stop at just one! Cut into cute little wreath shapes and topped with crunchy pistachio and chewy cranberry bits these wrap up in a perfect little stack for Santa to take on the go!
Ingredients (makes 36)
2 sticks salted butter, softened
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 large Noah’s Pride egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ cups white chocolate
½ cup pistachios, roughly chopped
½ cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
½ cup coconut flakes
Instructions
- Cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Gradually add mixture to butter mixture mixing constantly.
- Roll dough out to ¼” thickness on parchment paper. Use cookie cutters or a sharp knife to cut out your wreath shapes.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 475°F on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
- Melt chocolate in the microwave, stirring at 20 second intervals until smooth.
- Dip wreaths into melted chocolate and sprinkle with pistachios, cranberries and coconut.
Gingerbread Trees
Everyone makes gingerbread houses, but what about Gingerbread Trees? This cute twist on the classic is colorful, fun and taste great dipped into a cool, tall glass of Kreider Farms milk!
Ingredients (makes 32 cookies)
¾ cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large Noah’s Pride egg
¾ cup molasses
1 tbsp pumpkin spice
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
4 cups flour
1 bag M&Ms
Kreider Farms milk, for serving
Instructions
- Cream together butter and sugar until well combined. Add in egg and molasses and mix until incorporated, then mix in pumpkin spice, ground ginger, pepper, salt and baking soda.
- Slowly add flour and mix consistently until well combined and a dough begins to form. Roll out dough to 1” thickness on parchment paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Take chilled dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out tree shapes. Press M&Ms into the trees as desired.
- Bake at 325°F on a parchment lined sheet for 10 minutes or until edges look stiff.
Christmas Pinwheels
These colorful cookies are giving us all the holiday vibes and they are super easy to make! Use our Sugar Cookie recipe above for the dough or you can even use store bought dough if you’re in a pinch!
Ingredients (makes 12)
Sugar Cookie dough
red food coloring
red and green nonpareil sprinkles
Kreider Farms milk, for serving
Instructions
- Separate dough into 2 halves, kneading red food coloring to one portion until desired color is achieved.
- Place red cookie dough onto parchment paper and roll out to ¼” thickness, repeat with remaining neutral cookie dough. Lay one sheet of dough onto the other, with parchment paper facing outwards.
- Begin to roll the dough into a log, peeling back parchment paper as you go. Wrap long tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour to set.
- Roll chilled dough in sprinkles to coat entire outside of the log and cut log into ½” slices.
- Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes or until set.
Peppermint Macarons
Get a little fancy on our last one with the artful Peppermint Macaron! Not only do they look beautiful with their red and white swirl but they taste just as delicious as they look! While these delicate, cookies take a bit more love and time than the other recipes, we promise they are well worth the wait!
Ingredients (makes 22 macarons)
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar
1 cup almond flour
1 tsp salt
3 large Noah’s Pride egg whites, room temperature
¼ granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
Kreider Farms milk, to serve
For Filling:
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp peppermint extract
½ tbsp milk
Instructions
- Sift powdered sugar, salt and almond flour, set aside.
- In a glass bowl, add egg whites and granulated sugar. Heat over a simmering pan of water, whisking until frothy and sugar has dissolved (make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water.)
- Transfer eggs to a stand mixer and whisk until white and fluffy and stiff peaks begin to form. Slowly fold in flour mixture until combined. Be careful not to overmix as you want batter to be smooth but not too runny.
- In a piping bag, add some vertical lines of red food coloring at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock and 9 o’clock then add the batter immediately.
- Using a macaroon template, pipe out macaron shell rounds onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Pop any air bubbles with toothpicks and let sit for 20-40 minutes before baking.
- Bake at 325°F for 4 minutes then rotate and bake for 4 more minutes. Keep a close eye and continue baking and rotating at 4-minute intervals for 18 minutes total. Let cool completely before assembling.
- For filling, cream butter until fluffy and add powdered sugar, mixing until well incorporated. Add peppermint extract and milk and mix.
- Assemble macarons by piping filling between two cookies.
We hope you try one of these recipes yourself! We’d love to see your creations so make sure to tag us @kreiderfarms on Facebook and Instagram. For even more Christmas recipes, check out our Noah’s Pride blog here for some Christmas Morning egg recipes to start off the big day right!
