Kris Kringle Cookies and Frosting Recipe (2024)

This is a traditional Christmas cut-out cookie and frosting recipe! This Christmas cookie cut-outs recipe is easy-to-make. Perfect for your holiday cookie tray, Christmas cookie exchanges, or on a plate for Santa, these delicious holiday cookies are a family favorite.

Please note that Kris Kringle refers to Santa Claus as these are traditional Christmas cookie cut-outs, and some would be left out on a plate with milk for the Big Guy on Christmas Eve.

Kris Kringle Cookies and Frosting Recipe

These Kris Kringle cookies predate my childhood. This is an old recipe. I do not know where my mother got the recipe, but it is pretty old (older than I am, and I am no spring chicken). My mother would make up a batch (or two) a few days before she would sit us down with the frosting to decorate. Whenever we saw the cookies appear in the front hall (where it was nice and cool), we knew that decorating duty was upon us that weekend.

My mother also made up sanding sugar… before it was called sanding sugar. These instructions on how to make colored sugar was something she made up along with the cookies. The frosting was made the day we frosted the cookies as it does get crumbly and hard.

When we were little (say under 10), we used to LOVE decorating Christmas cookies. By the time we got to be preteens, we thought of any excuse to head out and avoid Christmas cookie decorating duty.

Alas, my mother was having none of that. She firmly believed in child labor, and so for a few years, we made a slapdash effort at it. Once we got into our late teens, we were baking, coloring sugar, making frosting, and decorating duty, so it was a matter of pride that they tasted and looked good.

As we got older and moved out, my mother would buy cut-outs from a local bakery and then frost and decorate them herself. This is an excellent Christmas cookie frosting. This was a compromise on time and homemade. So, if you are buying cut-out, use this frosting or the royal icing frosting to make your cookies fun and festive.

Clearly, these are great cookies to make with kids and these Kris Kringles are one of my favorite cookies from my childhood.

These are the perfect cookie for the holidays. They transport well for cookie exchanges or to give as a holiday food gift; they look great on a cookie platter and will keep for a week in a cool, dry place. This time of year, round out your Christmas cookie baking with these fantastic Kris Kringle cookies.

Happy holidays!

Tips and notes for making this Kris Kringle cookie and frosting recipe:

● Pull out your butter about an hour ahead of when you plan on baking, and allow it to sit on the cupboard and soften to room temperature.
● In the United States 8 tablespoons of butter = 1 stick, and 1 stick of butter = ½ a cup. This recipe uses two (2) sticks of butter or 1 cup for the cookies and then again for the frosting.
● If you would like to substitute margarine for butter in the frosting recipe (do not substitute margarine for butter in the cookie recipe), use white, not yellow margarine.
● For my UK and Australian friends: confectioners sugar is icing sugar (powdered sugar, 10x).
● How to make vanilla extract.
● Decorate your cookies with colored sugar, decorator sugar, or holiday sprinkles. You could use dried fruit bits and cut-up maraschino cherries, too. Just make sure you drain the cherries and snip them with kitchen scissors before placing them on the frosting.
● When you frost your cookies, allow them to air dry after frosting and decorating for 30 minutes. This will set the frosting, and you will not be scraping it off your storage container.

Here are some more Christmas cookie recipes for the holiday season:

● Christmas Butter Cookie Recipe
● Hungarian Christmas Cookies Recipe
● Stained Glass Cookies Recipe

Kris Kringle Cookies Ingredients:

● 1½ teaspoons of Cream of Tartar
● 1 teaspoon Salt
● 4½ cups All purpose Flour
● 16 Tablespoons Butter, softened
● 2 cups White Sugar
● 3 Eggs
● 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
● 1½ teaspoons of Baking Soda dissolved in 2 TBSP Milk

Kris Kringle Frosting Ingredients:

● 16 Tablespoons Butter, softened
● 2 pounds sifted Confectioners’ Sugar
● ½ cup COLD water
● 1 tsp Flavoring (suggestions are vanilla, peppermint, or anise)

Kris Kringle Decorating Ingredients:

● Colored Sugar
● Decorator Sugar
● Sprinkles
● Edible Glitter
● Decorator Cinnamon Imperials

Kris Kringle Cookies Mise en Place:

● Stand Mixer (paddle attachment, whisk, bowls, etc.) or Hand Mixer
● Baking Sheets
● Measuring Cup
● Measuring Spoons
● Rubber Spatula
● Plastic Wrap
● Rolling Pin
● Wire Racks
● Cookie Cutters
● Frosting Knife
● Large Bowl
● Piping Tip(s)
● Pastry Bag

Kris Kringle Cookies Recipe Directions:

1. Sift cream of tartar and salt into the flour, and set aside the dry ingredients.

2. In a large bowl, using a stand mixer, cream one cup butter and white sugar together.

3. Add the eggs and beat well.

4. Add the vanilla extract, milk and soda mixture and beat well.

5. Add 3 cups of the sifted flour mixture to the butter mixture until well incorporated.

6. Keep adding flour to make a dough that may be rolled.

7. Chill to make dough easy to handle (2 hours to overnight).
8. Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and preheat oven to 400ºF.

9. Roll dough on a lightly floured board to desired ¼-of-an-inch thickness.

10. Cut with cookie cutters or knives into shapes.

11. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet in preheated 400ºF oven for 8-10 minutes.

12. Cool completely before frosting.

Kris Kringle Cookie Frosting Recipe Directions:

1. Cream butter until light and fluffy.

2. Slowly add confectioners’ sugar. It will be very crumbly.

3. Add water and flavoring and beat until smooth.

4. Use immediately, or the frosting will become crusty. If it does get crinkly while you are in the middle of frosting your cookies, give it a good stir by hand, and that will smooth it right out.

5. The frosting can be tinted using gel food color or food coloring.

Kris Kringle Cookie Decoration Instructions:

1. You can smear the cookies generously with the frosting using a butter knife and then dust them with colored sugar and sprinkles.

2. Or you can fill a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip with the frosting. First, pipe the outline around the cookie. Then add small squeezes in the middle to almost fill up. Use a toothpick to fill out the gaps.

3. Sprinkle the frosting generously with colored sugar and then tap to remove the excess.

4. After you frost and decorate your cookies, allow them to air dry for 30 minutes. This will set the frosting and you will not be scraping it off your storage container.
5. Store in a cool place in an airtight container.

● For more Christmas cookie recipes on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

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