Melted Snowman Cookies

When it comes to Christmas cookies, I am a traditionalist. It is never Christmas without my mom’s sugar cookies. I wanted to make a creative “updated” Christmas cookie without changing my roots, so when I found these melted snowman cookies, I knew I had a winner. You can by all means buy packaged sugar cookie dough, but honestly, this recipe is SO simple, you’re better off just making them from scratch! The best part of my mom’s recipe is that unlike many cookies, these do not fall prey to the hard, crumbly cookie death. Instead, they stay incredibly soft and delicious for days after you bake them.

I have to admit that while the cookie dough is best homemade, I cheated and bought store bought icing. I happen to believe that it is almost just as cheap and so much easier to buy icing. If you want to truly make it all from scratch, here is a great icing recipe I found.

Give yourself a few days for these cookies, the cookies must be cooled completely and the marshmallows must be dry enough to frost them. I made the cookie dough Thursday morning, baked the cookies on Thursday afternoon, added the marshmallows that night and iced the cookies Friday. Once they are complete, they will stay perfectly moist for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Melted Snowmen Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

·      1 batch sugar cookie dough (recipe to follow)

·      1 jar of vanilla icing

·      1 package of large marshmallows

·      Nonstick spray

·      1 tube black decorating icing

·      1 tube orange decorating icing

·      1 tube blue/red/green decorating icing

·      Sprinkles for buttons, optional

Sugar Cookie Dough:

·      ¾ cup a 50/50 mixture of butter and vegetable flavored Crisco (it’s easiest if you use the Crisco sticks), at room temperature

·      1 cup sugar

·      2 eggs, room temperature

·      1 tsp vanilla

·      2 ½ cup flour, plus more for rolling

·      1 tsp baking powder

·      1/8 tsp salt

Cream butter/Crisco mixture with sugar for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated. Mix in vanilla. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Working in thirds, mix the dry ingredients until just combined.

Dump the dough onto wax paper and form a disc. Cover with saran wrap and chill for a minimum of one hour. (I chill mine for at least 3 hours! Overnight wouldn’t hurt either so you can make it ahead of time)

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut the dough in half, returning the second half to the fridge. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll to ¼” thickness. Use a circle cookie cutter (or in my case, a cup) to cut out 3-4 inch circles. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes or until JUST golden brown. Remove cookies to a rack to cool.

 Once the cookies are cool, you can start assembling the snowmen cookies. Ice the cookies with the vanilla icing, making sure to cover the cookies. Then, working in batches, start heating the marshmallows to place on the cookies. I had sixteen cookies so I microwaved four at a time.  First, spray a plate with nonstick spray, add the four marshmallows and microwave for 12-15 seconds. **The key here is to just heat the marshmallows through. Do NOT let the marshmallows expand, they will not fit on the cookie. Spray your fingers with nonstick spray then take the marshmallows out and immediately place them on the cookie close to one end of the circle. Gently press down to make sure the marshmallow stays. I liked to change up how “smushed” I made the heads of the snowmen. Repeat this until all the cookies have a marshmallow.

Once the cookies are ready to be iced, assemble all the tubes and have fun! Let your creativity fly here; I tried the arms in different positions, scarves, and different smiles. 

Store the cookies in a single layer air tight container.