Santa Hat Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, mix cookie mix, flour, melted butter and egg with spoon until soft dough forms. Shape into 36 (1 1/4-inch) balls. Place in 36 ungreased mini muffin cups. Press indentation in center of each with end of wooden spoon.
• Bake 8 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately repeat indentation into center of each cookie with end of clean wooden spoon to create 1-inch opening, cleaning off end with paper towel when needed. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
• Using small paring knife, for each strawberry, carefully cut around stem into pale flesh underneath, and remove. Place strawberry stem-end down on paper towel-lined cookie sheet to dry. Repeat with remaining strawberries.
• Spoon frosting into large resealable food-storage plastic bag; partially seal bag. Cut off tiny corner of bag. Insert cut corner of bag into indentation in each cookie cup. Squeeze bag to fill opening, about 1 generous tablespoon per cookie cup. Place stem end of strawberry on each frosting-filled cookie cup, and press down slightly so frosting becomes a brim for hat. Pipe a small dab of frosting on tip of each strawberry for pom-pom. Serve immediately, or store loosely covered in refrigerator.

Steps:

• For the red velvet crust: Adjust the oven racks to the middle and bottom of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13-by-9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place a double layer of parchment into the pan so that it overhangs the long sides; spray the parchment with cooking spray.
• Add half of the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the cookies resemble crumbs. Drizzle in half of the butter and half of the red dye, pulsing until it's all incorporated. Remove the first batch to a large bowl and repeat the with the remaining cookies, butter and dye. Combine both batches, then pour the cookie mixture into the prepared baking pan, using your hands to press the crust down to make one even layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
• For the filling: Beat the cream cheese, granulated sugar and vanilla together in a stand mixer using a paddle attachment. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sour cream and mix again. Pour the filling over the crust and smooth the top.
• Put a large roasting pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven and put the pan with the cheesecake on the top rack. Bake until the cheesecake is set and no longer jiggly, about 45 minutes.
• Turn off the oven, open the oven door and allow the pan to sit in the open oven for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for at least 2 hours. Once cooled at room temperature, refrigerate to chill for another 2 hours.
• To assemble: Remove the cheesecake from the baking pan. Using a 2-inch round pastry cutter, carefully punch out 15 cheesecake circles. Remove them to a serving platter. Refrigerate while you make the mascarpone cream.
• For the whipped mascarpone cream: Add the cream to the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip to stiff peaks. Add the mascarpone and confectioners' sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a number 12 pastry tip.
• For the Santa hats: Pipe a rim of the mascarpone cream around the top of each cheesecake circle. Put an inverted strawberry into the center of each and top with a tiny blob of the mascarpone cream. Chill to set.
• To assemble the snow scene: Arrange the Santa hats on a cake stand, place the miniature Christmas trees, reindeer and sleigh and cowboy Christmas figurines around and dust with confectioners' sugar snow.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Make cookie dough as directed on pouch for cutout cookies. On work surface sprinkled lightly with flour, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Use 2-inch round cutter to cut out 24 cookies. Place cookies on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet; remove to cooling rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
• Dip top one-third of each cookie into melted candy coating. Place dipped cookies on waxed paper-lined surface. Sprinkle three-fourths of the coating with red sprinkles, leaving small border of white at bottom to look like a hat. Place marshmallow on side of each hat. Allow to set completely, about 1 hour.

Steps:

• In a microwave, melt white chocolate at 70% power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth., Dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. Place on wire racks. For Santa's hat, sprinkle red sugar on top part of chocolate. Press one vanilla chip off-center on hat for pompom; let stand until set., Dip other end of each cookie into melted chocolate for beard, leaving center of cookie uncovered. Place on wire racks. With a dab of melted chocolate, attach semisweet chips for eyes and a Red Hot for nose. Place on waxed paper until set.

Steps:

• Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 minutes. Beat in the whole egg and vanilla and peppermint extracts. Reduce the speed to low; beat in the flour mixture. Increase the speed to medium high; beat until combined.
• Transfer 1/3 cup dough to a medium bowl and 1 cup dough to a separate bowl; leave the remaining dough (about 2 cups) in the mixer. Using a rubber spatula, fold 1 teaspoon white food coloring into the 1/3 cup dough. Fold 3/4 teaspoon red food coloring into the 1 cup dough. Fold 3/4 teaspoon green food coloring into the 2 cups dough. Transfer each color of dough to a separate piece of plastic wrap, flatten into disks and wrap. Refrigerate until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the white dough and roll one-quarter of the dough into a 12-inch rope; shape the remaining white dough into a 1-by-12-inch rectangle. Place both on the prepared baking sheet; freeze until ready to use. Shape the red dough into a 1-by-12-inch rectangle (it will be thicker than the white one). Remove the white dough from the freezer, brush the top of the white rectangle with the beaten egg white and top with the red dough, pressing to adhere. Use your hands to shape the top of the red dough to make it triangular. Attach the white rope to the top of the red dough (it should look like a Santa hat from the side of the dough block). Freeze until firm, 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, roll the green dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper into an 8-by-13-inch rectangle. Remove the red and white dough from the freezer and place on the green dough. Wrap the green dough around the hat, pressing into a triangular log. Roll the log in green sanding sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight.
• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 350˚. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap the dough; trim a thin slice off each end. Slice the dough 1/4 inch thick; arrange 2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake, switching the pans halfway through, until the cookies are firm but not browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool completely on the pans.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200°F.
• With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks start to form. Beating all the while, add the cream of tartar and vanilla extract, then slowly add the 1/2 cup of sugar. Continue to beat until the peaks stiffen.
• Spoon the meringue into a quart-size plastic bag. Snip off a corner and pipe 2 dozen 1 1/2-inch-tall Santa hat triangles onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (you should have about 1/4 of the meringue left).
• Sprinkle the triangles with the red sugar, then use the remaining meringue to give each one a pom-pom and trim.
• Bake the hats until they're hard but not browned, about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
• Turn off the oven and leave the hats in it for an hour to crisp before removing.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Beat egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks; beat cream of tartar and vanilla extract into egg whites. Gradually beat white sugar into mixture until meringue forms stiff peaks. Transfer 1/4 of the meringue mixture into a separate bowl. Beat red food coloring into remaining 3/4 of meringue.
• Transfer colored meringue into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe 20 Santa hat shaped triangles, about 1 1/2 inch tall and bending over at the tips, onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the hats with red sugar.
• Transfer remaining 1/4 uncolored meringue into a clean piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe little white pom-poms onto each hat tip and a small edging of fluffy white trim onto the bottom of each hat.
• Bake meringue cookies in the preheated oven until hard but not browned, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Turn off oven and let cookies cool inside oven until crisp, 1 hour.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 225ºF.
• Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in small bowl with mixer on high speed 1 to 2 min. or until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in dry gelatin mix until blended.
• Pipe tablespoonfuls of egg white mixture (in shapes of Santa hats) onto parchment-covered baking sheets.
• Bake 50 min. Turn oven off. Prop oven door open slightly; let cookies stand in oven 1 hour or until completely cooled.
• Melt chocolate as directed on package. Dip bottoms of cookies, 1 at a time, into chocolate to come about 1/4 inch up side of cookie. Gently scrape bottom of cookie against edge of bowl to remove excess chocolate; immediately roll chocolate-covered edge in coconut. Return to baking sheet.
• Use kitchen shears to cut small slit in each marshmallow. Place marshmallows over tips of hats, securing with remaining melted chocolate. Let stand until chocolate is firm.