Santa Hat Sugar Cookie Cups Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 36 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• In large bowl, mix cookie mix, softened butter and egg with spoon until soft dough forms. Stir in 1/4 cup candy sprinkles. Shape into 36 (1 1/4-inch) balls. Place in mini muffin cups. Press indentation in center of each with end of wooden spoon.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately repeat indentation into center of each cookie with end of clean wooden spoon to make 1-inch opening, cleaning off end with paper towel when needed. Cool in pan 20 minutes. Loosen edges with small knife if needed. Remove to cooling rack. Cool completely, at least 30 minutes.
• In small bowl, place half of the frosting. Tint red with food color. Place large piping bag fitted with medium star tip on its side. Using large icing spatula, spoon remaining vanilla frosting so it covers half of the length of side of piping bag. Carefully spoon red tinted frosting on top. Insert tip into indentation in each cookie cup. Squeeze bag to fill opening, and pipe about 2 heaping teaspoons per cookie cup. Sprinkle with remaining 2 teaspoons sprinkles. Store loosely covered at room temperature.

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:

• 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 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 large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture., Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-in. Santa-shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets., Bake 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., For frosting, in a large bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in milk, vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Pipe onto cookies and decorate as desired.

Steps:

• Cream first four ingredients until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Divide dough in half; shape into disks. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate until firm enough to roll, 1-2 hours. , Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion of dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-1/2-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until firm, 8-10 minutes (do not overbake). Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely., For frosting, beat canned frosting, butter and confectioners' sugar until well-blended. Cut a hole in the tip of a pastry bag or corner of a food-safe plastic bag; insert #16 star tip and fill with frosting. Placing hearts point side up, use a small amount of frosting to attach brown M&M's for eyes and red M&M's for noses. Use remaining frosting to pipe hats, beards and mustaches. Sprinkle hats with red sugar; add jimmies for mouths.

Steps:

• Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extracts; mix well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended. Divide dough into 3 portions; wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled and firm enough to handle.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray baking sheets and 5-inch Santa face cookie cutter with cooking spray; set aside. Roll out 1 portion of dough to 1/4-inch thickness on floured surface with floured rolling pin. Cut out cookies with prepared cutter. Transfer with metal spatula to baking sheet, placing 1 inch apart. Repeat with remaining dough portions, spraying cutter with additional cooking spray as needed.
• Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are browned lightly. Cool on baking sheet 1 minute before removing cookies and placing on wire racks to cool completely.
• Use red icing to fill in the hat, leaving the tip of the hat blank. Use white icing to fill in the tip of the hat, the brim of the hat, the beard and to make 2 dots in the center of the face for the eyes. Place a red candy centered between the eyes at the top of the beard for the nose and a mini morsel on each white dot to make eyes. Top beard with Reddi-wip® just before serving.