These fun and festive melted snowman cookies are a great way to get the kids involved!
One random day recently, Addie got the idea of making melted snowman cookies. I can’t remember which magazine she was reading at the time – it was either Highlights for Kids or National Geographic for Kids. I believe she saw an article about melted snowman cookies and wanted us to make them together.
The recipe she found used a pre-made sugar cookie base, but I wanted something homemade. We spend one weekend afternoon making these and a had a lot of fun in the process. The sugar cookie base I used did not require any chilling, so that was a huge plus. Also, I did not use a traditional royal icing recipe and opted for something simpler instead.
While we didn’t have the right size marshmallows, we did what we could with the giant ones we had instead. Addie had fun decorating the cookies after the icing dried. She put in the marshmallows, added the M&M candies for buttons and gave the snowmen faces using sprinkles for noses and drawing on eyes with black icing.
While we didn’t create the prettiest melted snowman cookies, we sure had fun in the process. Plus, they tasted really good so that made up for my terrible piping skills.
Husband’s rating: 4 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Melted snowman cookies
Ingredients
Sugar cookie base
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 16 Tablespoons) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour divided
Icing
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water divided
Snowman decorations
- 24 Marshmallows medium sized not the mini marshmallows or giant ones
- 48 M&M candies
- sprinkles We used orange ones for the noses
- black food gel or an edible black food marker
Instructions
Bake the cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Turn the mixer to low and add the egg, extracts, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
- Slowly add about 2 cups of the flour into the mixer. Your dough should stay together when pinched but should not be sticky. You will likely use up to 2 and ¾ cups of the flour. Set any remaining flour aside.
- On a floured surface, roll the cookies out so they are about ¼” thick. You want them tall and thick so don’t roll these too thinly. If desired, use a cookie cutter or turn a glass upside down to cut out shapes. I used a biscuit cutter for mine. Keep dusting the cookie dough with flour so that they don’t stick to your rolling pin.
- Place the cut out cookies on your prepared baking sheet and make sure to leave at least an inch in between each one.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 6-8 minutes (you may have to do this in 2 batches). Do not allow the cookies to brown.
- Let the cookies chill completely before frosting them.
Make the icing
- In a small bowl, dmix the powdered sugar with 1 Tablespoon of water. The icing should be stiff but pipeable. If it feels too thick (where you can’t stir the icing), add a tiny bit more water. Transfer about ¼ of the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small tip. If you don’t have one, use a zip top bag with one corner cut off.
- Pipe a puddle shape onto your cooled cookies. You want to make sure th shape you pipe is completely enclosed like an oval or a circle. Save the remaining icing and dye it black with black food gel (or you can use an editable black marker).
- Add a bit more water into the small bowl with the reserved icing. We are thinning it out so it is slightly runny. Transfer this into a new piping bag with a larger round tip or into another zip top bag with a larger hole cut out.
- Fill the middle of the shape you just piped out. You may want to use a toothpick to fill in all the nooks and crannies. Repeat with the remaining cookies.
Decorate the cookies
- Place a marshmallow in the middle of your “puddle.” Add M&M cookies to the “puddle” area for buttons.
- Use a food marker to draw on the face and nose or you can use the leftover icing and dye it black with black food gel to pipe them on.
- If you are piping arms (onto the “puddle” area), make sure the icing has set first. Otherwise the marker or gel will bleed into the white icing.
- Let the cookies set before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
This snowman cookies is stunning, thank you for your recipes that taught me how to make snowman cookies