Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Snowmen for a shekel

It's a rare occurrence when you get to see your cookies be so sought after, but these snowman cookies were the hot thing. Our church had a live nativity where I volunteered to bring at least 12 dozen cookies (you'll see a few more cookie posts from me on this...). I thought these snowmen were so cute and looked easy enough to make. I didn't have coconut extra - but I did have almond - so I used that. I did a few changes along the way... the mini chocolate chips did NOT want to push in for eyes... they melted a little and looked like a horror movie... the M&M's did not want to stick... so some melted chocolate for eyes and attaching the buttons worked great - I added some orange candy melts for the carrot noses too. The kisses for hats? No way.. I didn’t think they’d stay on so I skipped them.
At our live nativity, our family was working in the bakery - so we were "selling" hot chocolate and cookies for a shekel... the snowmen were in high demand. It was so fun to watch people come up for a second set of cookies (for another shekel aka a wooden coin) and hunt for the snowmen. It was so fun to see our kids get in the action of serving hot chocolate and handing out cookies – they had so much fun helping out (so did we). What a fun night and a great bake.

Snowman Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Miniature semisweet chocolate chips, and green and red M&M's minis

frosting:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon coconut extract
2 to 4 teaspoons 2% milk
Red and/or green food coloring
Miniature milk chocolate kisses, unwrapped

In a large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts. In another bowl, whisk flour and baking powder; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.
Preheat oven to 325°. Shape dough into forty-eight 1-in. balls, forty-eight 3/4-in. balls and forty-eight 1/2-in. balls. On ungreased baking sheets, place one ball of each size, side by side, for each snowman.
Bake 18-20 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven; cool on pans 2 minutes. Press on chocolate chips for eyes and M&M's for buttons. Carefully remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For frosting, in a small bowl, beat confectioners' sugar, extract and enough milk to reach a piping consistency. If two colors of frosting are desired, transfer half of the frosting to another bowl and tint each with a different food coloring.
Cut a small hole in a corner of a food-safe plastic bag; fill with frosting. Pipe scarves on snowmen. Use frosting to attach chocolate kisses for hats.

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