Santa Claus Cookies

By Christy Rost

Santa Claus Cookies bring holiday smiles to kids of all ages. For a quicker version, sprinkle these lemon-flavored sugar cookies with tinted sugar and bake.

Basic Cookie Mix:

5		cups flour
1 ¼		cups shortening
¾		cup unsalted butter, softened
2		teaspoons salt

In a large bowl, blend flour, shortening, butter, and salt with a pastry blender to form a crumbly cookie mix. Store cookie mix in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week.

Cookies:

2 ½		cups cookie mix
2/3		cup sugar
1 ½		teaspoons baking powder
1		teaspoon lemon zest
1 ½		teaspoons vanilla
1		egg

In a large bowl, stir together cookie mix, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, vanilla, and egg to form a soft dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Roll the cookie dough out on a floured pastry cloth to a thickness of ¼ inch. Cut with a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter and transfer to a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven 8 to 9 minutes, or until they are firm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then decorate with frosting.

Frosting:

4		tablespoons butter, softened
3		cups confectioners sugar
3		tablespoons milk
¼		teaspoon vanilla
		red food coloring
		red and blue M&M’s, for garnish

Beat butter and 1 cup of the confectioners sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add 2 tablespoons of milk, beat well; then beat in the remaining confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla to form a stiff frosting.

Transfer ¾ of the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Add enough food coloring to the remaining frosting to tint it red and blend well. Spoon red frosting into another pastry bag fitted with a star tip.

Turn the heart-shaped cookies around so the pointed end is at the top. Place a small swirl of frosting in the middle and top with a red M&M for Santa’s nose. Use white frosting to form Santa’s mustache and beard, then place 2 small swirls of frosting above the beard and top with blue M&M’s for Santa’s eyes. Add a swirl of white frosting over the upper part of each eye for Santa’s eyebrows. Pipe red frosting at the pointed end to form Santa’s hat, and add a small swirl of white for the furry ball at the tip of the hat.