This quick and easy Christmas Cookie Dough recipe will make all your cookie baking this holiday season will be a breeze. With just a few simple ingredients, you can turn this dough into four separate sensational cookies that will be the star attraction on any Christmas cookie tray!
Christmas Cookie Dough Base
This one no-fail cookie dough recipe acts as the perfect base for several delicious and very different cookies. You make one dough, and get four different cookies – with ease!
4 Christmas Cookies, 1 Dough
From this one dough, you can make these four Christmas cookies:
But don’t stop there! Let the kids join in the fun making their own creations using candies and toppings of their choice.
And the best thing about this recipe is, it doesn’t make just any sugar cookie dough. This recipe includes instant vanilla pudding which makes them so soft and moist with an incredible vanilla flavor.
They are absolutely the most perfect cookies to give as gifts, to take to Christmas parties or cookie swaps, or just when you want something extra special to leave out for Santa!
💗 Why We Love This Recipe
- Easy recipe – It’s the perfect sugar cookie recipe you can use to make many other types of cookies with different themes for any occasion.
- Big batch – this recipes makes dough for about 6 dozen cookies so you get a lot with one recipe.
- Perfect for cookie exchange – make all the cookies, with little effort and have a huge variety for a cookie exchange of Christmas party.
- Easy drop cookie dough that doesn’t require chill time, a rolling pin or even cookie cutters.
- Kids can help – fun for the kids to make, decorate and especially eat!
🥄 Recommended Tools
- Electric mixer
- Large bowl
- Cookie scoop
- Medium bowl
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
🛒 Ingredients
- Unsalted butter- room temperature
- Shortening
- Sugar – regular white granulated sugar
- Eggs – best at room temperature
- Vanilla extract
- Flour – all-purpose
- Instant vanilla pudding – this makes the cookies extra soft and pillowy
- Baking powder
- Salt
📄 How to Make this Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
Step One: Mix Wet Ingredients
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or hand mixer, add to a large bowl and mix the room temperature butter, shortening, and sugar just until smooth and creamy.
- Add in eggs, vanilla flavor, and instant pudding mix. Continue mixing on low speed until thoroughly incorporated.
Step Two: Whisk Dry Ingredients
- In a separate bowl stir together all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
Step Three: Combine the Dough
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time mixing between additions until all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the soft dough forms.
Step Four: Bake
Choose which type of cookie you want and follow the rest of the instructions for that particular cookie.
Hidden Kiss Cookies
Thumb Print Cookies
Frosted Cookies
Sprinkle Cookies
Save for Later
Because this recipes makes a big batch of dough, you can easily make one of the cookies, then freeze the rest of the dough for use later. (See the freezing instructions below.)
Variations and Add-ins:
The base for this dough recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies. It can be split to create multiple variations with just one batch:
- Chocolate chip sugar cookies: You can substitute the vanilla pudding with chocolate pudding and throw in a few chocolate chips. They will be a lighter and less crispy version of traditional chocolate chip cookies.
- Peppermint: The ways you can change up the flavors of these cookies are endless. For a real festive Christmas Cookie, you could add just a little bit of peppermint extract and some crushed candy canes to the dough. When the candy melts in the oven it gives the cookies a wonderful chewy texture.
- Frosting: You can use butter cream or cream cheese frosting with these cookies. Have fun by adding different extracts to change up the flavors. You can even use a little unsweetened cocoa powder to make a chocolate frosting for your cookies.
- Food coloring: This is one of the easiest ways to change up the looks of the cookies making the perfect for any holiday. Pink food coloring for Valetines Day or green for St Patrick’s day are always really popular choices.
- Almond cookies: If you love almond flavor, add some almond extract to the dough, then before the dough goes in the oven, top the cookies with some shaved or slivered almonds.
- Citrus sugar cookies: This variation is great any time of year. From December to March, when oranges are in their peak season, add some fresh orange zest to the dough with a little orange extract. Lemon zest with lemon extract is always a hit in the summer months
- Snickerdoodle style: Who doesn’t love warm cinnamon flavors? I have a great Snickerdoodle Cookie recipe that you’ll love, but with a few additions, this dough can give you those same flavors. You can add a touch of cinnamon to these soft sugar cookies, or you can roll the dough in a cinnamon sugar mixture before adding the dough balls to the cookie sheet.
- Chocolate mint: For a super special version of these cookies, add a little cocoa powder to the dough then fold in some mint chocolate chip or some chopped up Andes chocolate mint.
Can I Make This Sugar Cookie Dough in Advance?
This easy recipe for cookie dough can be made up to three to four days in advance. For best results, you will want to make sure your mixing bowl with the dough is covered tightly with plastic wrap, or that you transfer the dough to an airtight container before adding it to the fridge.
If you’re decorating them with colorful sprinkles, you’ll want to wait until right before baking them to add them to prevent the sprinkles from running onto dough.
How Do I Make Even Shaped Cookies?
The best tip for baking even sized cookies is to use a cookie scoop to help you measure the dough. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can use level tablespoons to measure out the size of the cookie dough portions.
Can I Use Royal Icing with These Cookies?
Royal icing is a runny type of icing made with corn syrup or meringue powder. It’s used for flat rolled cookie shapes for piping and flooding. It works best on flat even surface cookies, It’s not the best choice from drop dough cookies like these.
Are These Sugar Cookies Supposed to Be Soft?
While some sugar cookies bake up with really crispy edges, these are soft and tender cookies. They are firm enough to hold up to a layer of frosting without crumbling and when you bite into them there is the slightest bit of chewiness.
Can You Freeze this Dough for Later?
You can certainly freeze this cookie dough successfully for up to several months with a few easy steps:
To Freeze the Whole Batch
If you are making a whole batch of this dough for freezer, you should first place it in the fridge for a couple of hours. This helps take some of the stickiness out of it and helps it firm up. Then, just form it into a disk shape the best you can and place it in a freezer bag.
If you’re adding candy or other type toppings, wait to add them when you’re ready to thaw and bake the cookies.
To Freeze Individual Dough Balls
This method is awesome for portion control. Drop the dough by the scoop into individual mounds in a single layer on the baking pan. Place the pan in the freezer for a couple of hours or until the dough is frozen. Place the balls into an airtight container or a freezer bags and store in the freezer until you’re ready to thaw and bake.
To Bake Frozen Dough
There are a lot of types of cookie doughs that you can bake from frozen. But for best results, you will need to let this dough thaw before baking. You can just let it sit out on the counter for a couple of hours or throw it in the fridge the night before you’ll be baking them.
🎄More Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Christmas Wreath Cornflake Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- Pinwheel Sugar Cookies
- Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies
- Peanut butter balls
Christmas Cookie Dough
Ingredients
- ¾ cups butter – softened
- ¼ cup vegetable shortening
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3.4 ounces instant vanilla pudding mix 1 box
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar with an electric mixer.
- Add in eggs, vanilla, and instant pudding mix. Continue mixing until thoroughly incorporated.
- In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time mixing between additions until all the flour is incorporated.
- Using a dough scoop or spoon scoop drop by tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until set and lightly golden brown around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
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