Hunter's Christmas Cookies

My friend Hunter has made these delicious molasses cookies during the holidays for the last several years. And she made them again last night! And they were still absolutely delectable! And I even got to take some home!

This year, Hunter outdid herself by also making these adorable snowmen cookies. They looked so cute and they even tasted great! I think you could easily modify the decoration of the cookies to become ghost cookies for Halloween too.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along these cookie recipes in case anyone is on the prowl for some new recipes for their holiday baking!

Hunter's Molasses Cookies

3/4 cup crisco

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 cup flour

1 egg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Melt shorting over low heat. Remove, set aside for 5 minutes. Add sugar, molasses and egg and mix. Add soda, flour, spices, and salt. Beat well with mixer. Chill several hours or overnight. Form dough into 1 inch balls; roll in sugar. Bake on greased cookie sheet 8 - 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Yields 3 dozen.

Hunter's Snowmen Cookies

adapted from AllRecipes.com

1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookies dough, sliced and baked according to pkg directions

large marshmallows, cut in half on the diagonal

1 c confectioners sugar

2 t milk

2 t corn syrup (you may need to add a little more if the icing is too thin)

1/4 t almond extract

orange food coloring

black food coloring

mini chocolate chips

As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, place half of a marshmallow at the top of each cookie. The marshmallow will melt a little and adhere to the cookie better.

While the cookies cool, make the icing. In a small bowl, stir together the sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and extract until icing is smooth. If its too thick, add more corn syrup.

Divide the icing into three bowls. Add orange food coloring to one, add black food coloring to another and keep one white. Using the white icing, frost each cookie completely covering the cookie and marshmallow. Place two mini chocolate chips on the marshmallow to form eyes and three chips down the middle of the cookie to form buttons.

While the icing hardens, place the orange and black icings into separate ziplock bags. Cut a small corner off of each bag when you're ready to frost. Use the orange frosting to create the "carrot" nose and the black frosting to create the stick arms.