Tis the season for Christmas eats and Christmas treats! I’ve already shared these peanut butter snowballs, this hot chocolate dip, and this eggnog pound cake so I thought it was probably about time for some new Christmas cookies!
These melted snowman cookies are so adorable and easy to make! Let the kids help decorate the cookies with their own melting snowmen then let them enjoy them as a tasty treat!
A great way to keep kids entertained and have some holiday fun together!
Plus, the nice thing about making melted snowman cookies is that they’re supposed to look like melted snowman so if they’re not perfect, just say that cookie is a little more melted!
These would be great with many of these Christmas party themes and fun to enjoy after a night of Christmas movie trivia games, especially if you watch Frosty!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Fun to make – like I mentioned, these are kind of like gingerbread houses where there’s a concept you’re going for but they don’t have to be perfect! Let kids get in on the fun and make their own decorated melted snowman! Easy – there’s nothing really to these other than making sugar cookie dough and a little royal icing! Freeze well – the sugar cookies themselves freeze great and then you can decorate them later, like on a snow day!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
How to Make Melted Snowman Cookies
Okay so making these melted snowman cookies isn’t tough but it does take a few steps – making your cookies, making your frosting, then making your snowmen! I’ve broken it down here in case you want to make the sugar cookies ahead of time and decorate them later! Or do it all at once and while you’re waiting for the cookie dough to chill, play some these candy cane games for fun!
1 – make the sugar cookies
First, you need to make your cookies. You can’t have melted snowman cookies without cookies to decorate! You can either use this recipe (recommended) or another good sugar cookie recipe like these cream cheese sugar cookies! Start by creaming together the butter, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla until smooth. Once that’s smooth, add two cups flour, the baking powder, and the salt to the creamed mixture. Mix until well combined. If dough is super sticky you can add up to another 1/2 cup more flour until it forms a soft dough. Just add it in one tablespoon increments at a time so you don’t end up adding more flour than necessary. Divide the dough into two equal balls and wrap each ball tightly in plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour, longer is fine. After the hour, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Then, remove one of the balls of dough from the refrigerator and allow dough to sit at room temperature until it is soft enough to roll out easily. Lightly flour your working surface, then roll the dough out until it is about 1/4″ thick. Use a round cookie cutter, I used a 2 1/2″ one but you can use any size, that has been dipped in flour to cut out cookies. Place cut dough on ungreased baking sheet about 1″ apart. Repeat until all dough has been cut into cookies. Just like any time you make cut out sugar cookies, cut as close to the edges as possible and use the scraps from your cutting to roll out and make your next set of dough to roll out. Keep cutting until you’ve used all of the dough from the first dough ball then do the exact same thing for the other ball of dough. Pop the cookies in the preheated oven and bake for 7-10 minutes, until the edges just start to brown. Keep a close eye on them because they do cook quickly and you don’t want them to get hard and crispy! Remove the sugar cookies from the oven and let sit on baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
2 – Make the Royal Icing
While the cookies are cooling, you can make the royal icing. In a large, grease-free mixing bowl, sift the meringue powder and powdered sugar together. Once those are well mixed, add five tablespoons of warm water and whisk with a stand or hand held mixer on high for about 10 minutes, or until icing is thick enough that it isn’t runny, but not so thick that it won’t slide on the cookie. Add a bit more water, a teaspoon at a time, if needed to get the texture you want. You want it to coat a spoon like in the photo below. It should still drizzle off but drizzle in a thick layer, not be super runny like soup.
3 – Make the Melted Snowmen
After the cookies are completely cooled, use a spoon to drop a dollop of icing in the middle of the cookie, then carefully spread it out towards the edges to make it look “melted.” I personally like to do this with the back of a spoon but you could also do it with a knife or silicone spatula. If the icing runs a bit off the sides, that’s totally okay, these are melted snowman cookies after all. If the icing all just runs off, your icing is probably too runny. Add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and mix again. If that’s still too runny, add another 1/4 cup powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want. Top the spread out icing with a marshmallow for the snowman’s head before it hardens. The icing will hold the marshmallow onto the cookie. Now it’s time to turn that marshmallow into a snowman. Bring your snowman to life by dying some of the icing black and using the black icing to pipe on eyes, a mouth, and arms. You can also do a little orange icing to pipe on a nose for the snowman. Then finish him off by adding some M&M Minis in the icing for his buttons, a piece of licorice for the scarf, and any other decorations you want. Sprinkle with decorator’s sugar if you want to make it look even more like snowflakes on your melted snowman cookie! Let the icing on the cookies harden completely, locking all of your decorations in place. Then enjoy eating the adorable little snowmen you worked so hard (okay maybe not so hard) to create! These are not only great to just make with your kids, they’re really fun to bring to parties or to give to friends because they look impressive but are actually pretty easy to make!
Expert Tips
Let the icing set for at least two hours before eating the cookies. If you need something that’s done more quickly, you can also try using this sugar cookie icing but it doesn’t set in quite the same way. Or you can refrigerate the cookies to set the icing more quickly, but you run the risk of the cookie texture not being the same as if you let them harden naturally. Make sure to use grease-free bowls and utensils when whipping up the icing. The icing won’t set properly if it gets mixed with grease of any kind (butter, oil, non-stick spray, etc.). Substitute six tablespoons of pasteurized egg whites for the meringue powder if you can’t get meringue powder. Whisk the egg whites first until they turn foamy and then add the powdered sugar and beat it all together for five minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container for up to a week. Store any unused icing in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
More Christmas Cookies
If you like these melted snowman cookies, you have to try these other yummy Christmas recipes!
Chocolate cherry cookies – if you like chocolate covered cherries, you’ll love these chocolatey treats! Orange sugar cookies – also called Christmas cookies, these bite-size cookies have a lovely citrus flavor! White chocolate cranberry macadamia nut cookies – the best of all the worlds meet in these delicious holiday cookies!Cherry cheesecake cookies – these cookies combine cherry pie, cheesecake, and sugar cookies all in one delectable treat! Best ginger molasses cookies – these soft and chewy cookies are filled with holiday spice and everything nice!
