At Christmas, cookies are never enough, especially if there are children in the house.
Among the various recipes already proposed here on the blog, the cinnamon cookies are definitely my favorite in terms of taste, while the most spectacular ones are definitely the stained glass cookies.
The recipe I leave you today, however, is for the Rudolph reindeer cookies, very cute little cookies made with classic shortcrust pastry with the addition of cocoa powder (which serves more to color than to flavor) and a pinch of cinnamon, decorated with sugar eyes and red chocolates to remind of the funny reindeer friend’s nose of Santa Claus.
Now take a minute to read the recipe and then…let’s COOK and EAT!!
See also
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Affordable
- Rest time: 15 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for the Shortcrust
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 1/4 oz butter (Cold)
- 1 egg (At room temperature)
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 3/4 oz milk chocolate (or dark chocolate)
- sugar eyes
- red smarties
Tools
- 1 Mixer
- 1 Cookie Cutter gingerbread man shape
- 1 Small Bowl
- 1 Toothpick
- 1 Baking Tray
- 1 Parchment Paper
- 1 Cooling Rack
- 1 Kitchen Scale
- 1 Plastic Wrap
Steps
To prepare Rudolph reindeer cookies, start with the shortcrust pastry.
I leave you HERE the very quick process to prepare it; you just need to replace the vanilla with cinnamon and add the cocoa powder to the flour.
Once the shortcrust has rested in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 3/16 inch and cut it using a gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutter. I had two of different sizes, so I had fun creating cookies of different sizes.
As the shortcrust cutouts are ready, transfer them to a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and once done, place the entire tray back in the fridge.
Meanwhile, turn on the oven and preheat it to 350°F in static mode.
After the chilling time in the fridge, transfer the tray directly to the oven.
Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes (for smaller cookies it took about 8-9 minutes of baking).
When the cookies are well cooled, proceed with the decoration.
Turn your cookies upside down so that the gingerbread man’s head becomes the reindeer’s muzzle. Attach a red smarties (or candy) in the center using chocolate melted in the microwave or bain-marie as glue.
Then place the sugar eyes above the nose, again using melted chocolate to attach them to the base.
Finally, using a toothpick, draw the ears and antlers of the reindeer.
Let the chocolate dry before serving your Rudolph reindeer cookies, perhaps accompanied by a delicious hot chocolate 😉.
