This holiday season, get in the spirit with a cookie exchange or invite a friend or two over to bake your favorite Christmas cookies. Inviting friends over for a cookie exchange is a great way to gather loved ones and mingle over your favorite holiday treats. Your guests bring their own cookie recipes and baked goods to exchange.
We have a few cookie recipes below you can share with friends or family. The staff at Albrite Building wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies
INGREDIENTS
• 1 tube sugar cookie dough
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. heavy cream
• Green food coloring
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Christmas nonpareils
• Sprinkle stars
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350° and line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make balls 1, 2, and 3 teaspoons large. Place on baking sheet and bake 5 minutes. Remove smallest cookies and bake 3-4 minutes more. Remove from oven and let cool on a cooking rack.
In a large bowl, mix butter until fluffy. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add vanilla, heavy cream, food coloring, and salt and beat until combined. Add additional food coloring for desired color. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag with a medium star tip.
Onto the largest cookie, pipe a circle of frosting. Top with the medium cookie, pipe another circle of frosting, and top with the smallest cookie. Pipe a point on the smallest cookie. Decorate with sprinkles and top with a sprinkle star.
Milano Reindeer Cookies
INGREDIENTS
• 15 pretzels
• 1/4 cup marshmallow Fluff
• 15 Milano Cookies
• 1 tsp. powdered sugar
• 1 can vanilla frosting
• 30 brown mini M&Ms
• 15 red full size M&Ms
DIRECTIONS
Cut pretzels in half down the center. Dip edges of each pretzel half in Marshmallow Fluff, then press onto the top of each Milano cookie. Dab a little powdered sugar on top of the Fluff, so it doesn’t stick.
Flip the Milano cookies over, placing them on a parchment-lined baking sheet or tray.
Place frosting in a piping bag with a No. 3-sized round piping tip—or use a resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off—to draw three circles on each cookie: two for the eyes, and one at the bottom for the nose. Press a mini M&M into the center of each melted white chocolate circle, forming the reindeer’s eyes.
Top the final blob of icing on each cookie with a red M&M.
Gingerbread Cookies
INGREDIENTS
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg – room temperature
• 2/3 cup molasses
• 3 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• vanilla icing, for decorating
• red and green sprinkles, for decorating
DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add molasses and egg and beat until well combined.
Add flour, vanilla, spices, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low until the dough comes together.
Divide dough in half and press down on each piece to create two discs. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, about 2 to 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Place one disc of dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Roll out the dough to ⅛” inch thickness. If the dough softens quickly, freeze the full sheet of dough.
Cut out gingerbread shapes and transfer to baking sheets. Repeat with remaining disc of dough.
Bake until firm, 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookie cutters. Cool on baking sheets.
Decorate with white icing and sprinkles as desired.
Christmas Wreath Cookies
INGREDIENTS
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 2 large egg whites – room temperature
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 4-6 drops green food coloring
• 1 tbsp. silver sanding sugar
• 3-4 Pull ‘n’ Peel Twizzlers
• 1/4 cup red candy melts, melted
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 300°. Draw circles on a piece of parchment paper to use as guides for the wreaths. Place parchment on a cookie sheet, pen lines facing down.
In a medium bowl, combine cream of tartar, sugar, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl using a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, whip egg whites and almond extract until mixture starts to get foamy.
With the mixer on high speed, gradually add sugar mixture and continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Add green food coloring and whip until combined.
Add meringue to a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe onto cookie sheet using the guides you’ve drawn. Add sprinkle decorations.
Bake until almost firm to the touch, 13 to 15 minutes. Turn off oven and let sit with the door closed for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from oven when firm to the touch, just before the edges start to brown. Let cool completely.
To create the bow decoration, pull apart Twizzlers into individual strings. Trim about 3″ from each string, then shape into a bow. Use melted candy melts to help “glue” them together. Let candy melts set.
Use remaining melted candy melts to adhere the bows to the wreaths and let set.
We hope you enjoy the holidays and your Christmas cookies! Contact Albrite Building and let us know how you like the cookies.