When I think of “putting milk and cookies out for Sants” cookies, I think of decorated sugar cookies. Why would Santa settle for anything less than a cookie with his own face on it? But anyways…

If you want to know the truth, I’m not a big icing or frosting fan, but I am a big cookie fan. If I didn’t enjoy baking so much and if I didn’t know that there were other people willing to eat these cookies, I wouldn’t have made them. It’s not that these cookies are bad, they aren’t, they’re delicious, they just aren’t my personal favorite. I really just made these because I wanted to decorate them! The rest of my family will enjoy them though, so in the end, everyone’s happy.

Ingredients

Dough

• 2 1/4 c flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 c unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 1 lg. egg
• 2 tsp vanilla

Icing

• 4 c confectioners’ sugar, sifted*
• 3 tbsp meringue powder
• 6 to 8 tbsp water

*Note: This means that you should scoop and level 4 cups of confectioner’s sugar and then sift it.

Note: This dough requires 2 hours of chilling!

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Using a stand mixer, or handheld, cream butter on medium-high speed until smooth.
3. Add in granulated sugar and mix until creamed. Mix in egg and vanilla and scrape down the bowl as needed.
4. Combine dry ingredients with wet and add more flour, if necessary, to make it easier for rolling.
5. Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll them out on a sheet of parchment paper. Stack the slabs on top of each other, with parchment between them, and allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
6. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper if necessary.
7. Remove one of the slabs of dough from the refrigerator and begin cutting shapes out. Repeat with the second slab. Combine all the excess from both slabs and continues to roll out and cut cookies until the dough is gone.
8. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes until very lightly brown around the edges, rotating shelves halfway through. Allow the cookies to cool, on the pan, for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies have cooled completely, begin preparing the icing.

1. Using a stand mixer, or handheld, combine all ingredients and, using the whisk attachment, whisk on high for 5 full minutes.
   • When finished, the icing should drizzle off the whisk and smooth out quickly.
   • If too thick, add more water 2 tsp at a time.
   • if too thin, add more sifted confectioner’s sugar 1 or 2 tbsp at a time.
2. Optional: Separate the icing into separate containers and add gel food coloring to create more colors.
3. When decorating, use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.
4. To increase the setting time, put the cookies in the refrigerator.
5. If you are using the icing in small batches or over a long time span, cover the main bowl of icing with a moist paper towel to prevent it from hardening.

You don’t have to be an artist to make these cookies, just decorate them the best you can!

Recipes were modified from Sally’s Cookie Addiction.

Happy Baking!