Name: Santa cookies recipe
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Makes: 8
Ingredients: 300g plain flour; 200g butter, chilled and cubed; 100g caster sugar; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 1-2 tbsp milk; 300g icing sugar; Red food colouring; 1-2 tbsp granulated white sugar, for dusting; Black writing icing pen, for the eyes

By Nichola Palmer

published 19 April 2022

These cute iced Santa heads make the perfect festive treat.

Our handsome Santa cookies are make perfect presents for adults or children. Homemade gifts always have so much thought, and these are just the right side of impressive, without being too tricky to make. The delicate vanilla biscuits are really easy to make. And the main skill with icing is having enough patience to complete each stage, so the little Santas all look perfect by the end. If you're gifting them, we recommend small cellophane bag over the biscuit, tied with a red ribbon. The cookies will keep for a few days anyway, but they last even longer if wrapped in cellophane.

Ingredients

300g plain flour
200g butter, chilled and cubed
100g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk
300g icing sugar
Red food colouring
1-2 tbsp granulated white sugar, for dusting
Black writing icing pen, for the eyes

You will also need:

Santa's face-shaped cookie cutter
Craft sticks or lollypop sticks
Piping bag with narrow round nozzle and larger, serrated nozzle attachments

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Method

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the butter. Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar and add the vanilla essence and 1 tbsp of the milk. Using a palette knife or your fingertips start bringing the mixture together into a dough. Work the mixture into a dough and only add more milk once you are sure it is required. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
Wrap in cling film and chill it for 30 minutes. Ten minutes before the end of the chilling time preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly oil 2 baking sheets and line with baking paper.
On a surface lightly dusted with flour, roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 4mm. Use the cookie cutter to stamp out 8 biscuits. One at a time place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets; inserting a craft or lolly stick carefully into the centre of the cookie from the bottom. Space the biscuits carefully on the baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until pale golden. Cool on the baking sheet then use a palette knife to carefully lift them to a wire cooling rack. Leave until cold.
Make up half the icing to a soft peaks consistency by adding water, a little at a time. Remove about 1/3 of this icing to another bowl, and add red food dye to create the desire colour. Using a piping bag and a narrow nozzle attachment, pipe a red outline around Santa's hat on each biscuit. Use the white icing you have made up in the same way, to pipe an outline of Santas beard onto the bottom of the biscuits. You should have about half the white icing still leftover in the bag. Set this aside and allow the icing on the biscuits to set for 10 minutes.
Make up the remaining icing sugar into runny icing by adding water until you reach the designed consistency. Divide this icing in half, and dye one half red to match the hat. Use this to flood the outline of the hat. Use the white to flood the beard. Allow to set for 10 minutes, then dust the white icing with granulated sugar to give a rough, beardy texture. Add two white eyes to each biscuit.
Use the remaining soft peaks icing sugar with the serrated nozzle attachment, to add a moustache and hat fluff to the biscuits. Finish the eyes by adding black dots with the writing icing. Add a red nose to the middle of each biscuit and allow all the icing to set completely.