Santa Bell Cookies Recipes

SANTA'S STUFFED BELLY COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extracts. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Divide dough into quarters. Shape each into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours., On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 4-in. round cutter. Using a floured 3-1/2-in. round cutter, cut centers out of three-fifths of the cookies to make window cookies. Reroll and use dough trimmings. Place solid and window cookies 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until edges are firm, 8-10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., For royal icing, combine confectioners' sugar, water and meringue powder; beat on low speed just until blended. Beat on high until stiff peaks form, 4-5 minutes. Tint with red, white, black and gray food coloring. Keep unused icing covered at all times with a damp cloth. If necessary, beat again on high speed to restore texture., Frost half of solid cookies with red icing; using a pastry bag, pipe them with belts, buckles and trim. Pipe white icing around edges of window cookies and remaining solid cookies so they will adhere. On each solid cookie, layer three window cookies; fill opening with M&M's. Top with a red-frosted cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Let stand at room temperature several hours until frosting is dry and firm. Store in an airtight container.

SANTA SKILLET COOKIE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and generously butter an 8-inch cast iron skillet.
• Prepare the sugar cookie dough according to the package directions. Evenly press half of the cookie dough into the prepared skillet all the way to the edge. (Reserve the remaining dough for another use.) Bake until the top just turns golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cookie comes out clean, 11 to 13 minutes. Cool in the skillet for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cookie with a large offset spatula and place it on a cutting board.
• Cut the cookie: Heat up a small, sharp knife by submerging it in boiling water for 3 minutes. Wipe the knife dry and gently cut the cookie into 8 wedges making sure the pieces stay together in a circle. Take it slow when cutting or the cookie could crumble. Let the cookie cool completely on the cutting board.
• Meanwhile, make the royal icing: Whisk together the confectioners' sugar and meringue powder in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons water and beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until soft glossy peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes (you may need to add up to 1 teaspoon more water).
• Transfer a quarter of the icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small no. 13 star pastry tip.
• Color the remaining icing red using the food coloring. Transfer 1/4 cup of the red icing to a small bowl and add water, 1/4 teaspoon at a time, to thin it out (when you drizzle the icing with a spoon, the lines should disappear within 5 seconds). This will be your filling icing. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a small no. 3 round pastry tip. Transfer the remaining thick red icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small no. 4 round pastry tip.
• Decorate the cookie: Using the thick red icing with the no. 4 tip, pipe a 2-inch circle in the center of the cookie.
• With the same icing, pipe eight 1-inch circles overlapping the 8 cut lines, positioning them about 1 inch in from the edge of the cookie. Each cookie wedge should have 2 half circles on it.
• Fill in all the circles with the filling icing with the no. 3 tip. Sprinkle each circle with red sanding sugar to coat. If excess sanding sugar gets on the cookie, fan it away or brush it off with a small pastry brush. (Your Santas are taking shape: the wedges in the large center circle are hats; the smaller circles are mittens.)
• Place a dragee on the tip of each cookie wedge to form a small white circle in the middle of the red center circle. (These are the pom-poms on the Santa hats.)
• Pipe a white icing border around the center red circle. (This will be the bottom of the hats.)
• Working on one cookie wedge at a time and starting at the white border, pipe a white ?V? that fits snuggly between the 2 red half circles. Repeat with the remaining cookie wedges. You should have a white 8-point star surrounding the middle red circle. (You've just made 8 Santa beards.)
• Pipe a small dot of thick red icing with the no. 4 tip in the middle of each "V." (Now each Santa has a nose.)
• Finish by piping a white border around the edge of the cookie. (This is the bottom of each Santa's coat.)
• Let the icing dry before serving, about 30 minutes.

SANTA BELL COOKIES

Steps:

• In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, flour, egg and almond extract until soft dough forms. Shape dough into ball; flatten slightly. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 375°F. Unwrap dough; on floured surface, roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with floured 4 3/4-inch bell-shaped cookie cutter. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cutouts 2 inches apart. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• For each cookie, spread or pipe white icing onto bottom of bell for beard and mustache and onto top of bell for hat pom-pom; sprinkle with coconut. Pipe red icing under pom-pom for hat; sprinkle with red sugar. Use white icing to attach milk chocolate candies for eyes and cinnamon candies for nose. Use red icing for mouth and white icing for eyebrows. Let stand until set.

SILVER BELLS

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extracts. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Divide dough into quarters. Shape each into a disk; cover. Refrigerate until firm enough to roll, about 2 hours., Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. bell-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 12-15 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., In a microwave, melt chips and shortening; stir until smooth. If desired, tint with food coloring. Spread over cookies. Let stand until set; brush with shimmer dust.