These cookies are so cute! They’re fun and easy to make. (Kids LOVE them!) And the sweet and salty flavor combination of the cookies and pretzels makes them one of my favorites. They’re also cute, did I mention that? I love cute cookies.

I made them with a chocolate cookie dough, but you could use gingerbread or sugar cookie dough, too. (Or any dough you like!) For the eyes, if you use a lighter-colored dough, you might want to use chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips for more contrast. You could also use mini M&Ms. The nose can be anything–candied cherries, gum drops, or any other suitably sized candy. I used large peanut butter M&Ms.

How to make Reindeer Cookies:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
mini pretzel twists
butterscotch chips
large red M&Ms

Preheat your oven to 350-degrees. In a medium-size bowl, beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer. Add sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Beat again. Beat in egg and vanilla. Mix in flour with a spoon. Divide the dough into two pieces. Wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Roll out one piece of the cookie dough into an 8-inch square (approximately, don’t get hung up on that). Trim sides to make them even. (Save the dough scraps to roll out again with the second piece of dough.) Cut into approximately 2- to 3-inch squares.

Cut across the squares to make triangles. It doesn’t really matter what size the cookies are, by the way. Make them whatever size you want! Place two pretzels at the top on each side. Just slide them under the edge of the cookie and press down on the dough very lightly to make sure they stick. Place two butterscotch chips for the eyes.

Press a large red M&M onto each cookie for the nose.

Bake at 350-degrees for about 8 minutes. How adorable are these?

If you realize after baking that you accidentally forgot to completely decorate a few of them….

….you should eat them immediately. And not tell anyone. It’s the right thing to do. You only want your family to have the good ones.

P.S. You’d better have some of the good ones, too. You have to test them!

*This makes about 5-6 dozen cookies, though the number of cookies you’ll end up with depends on the size of the triangles you cut out.

See this recipe at Farm Bell Recipes and save it to your recipe box.


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