These easy slice and bake cookies are perfect for the cookie platter, your Christmas cookie exchange, and holiday movie nights with the family!
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- These sugar cookies are great make-ahead holiday treats. Either store the baked cookies till you need them or freeze the cookie dough.
- Santa’s whiskers cookies are made with pantry-staple ingredients that you’ll likely already have on hand.
- Call them cherry slice and bake cookies and serve them for Valentine's Day! So pretty!
Ingredients
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- Salted butter
- Sugar
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Almond extract
- All-purpose flour
- Candied red cherries
- Pecans
- Sweetened flaked coconut
🔪 Instructions
You'll find the complete instructions in the green recipe card below.
- Cream butter in an electric mixer, mix all the remaining cookie dough ingredients until well combined. Then mix in the chopped nuts.
- Mix in the candied cherries - the cookie dough should appear very crumbly.
- Divide the kneaded dough into 2 portions and form dough into an 8 inch log.
- Roll each log in the coconut, wrap in waxed paper, and then chill (or freeze) the cookie dough until you are ready to bake!
🥄 Equipment
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
🥫 Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter. They will stay fresh for one week as long as they are tightly sealed.
Like all slice and bake cookies, Santa's Whiskers cookies also freeze beautifully for up to 3 months either baked or unbaked.
📖 Variations
- Mix in chopped candied green cherries in addition to the red cherries for added Christmas colors.
- Drizzle some melted white chocolate over the cooled cookies on a wire rack.
- Add in some white or semi-sweet mini chocolate chips into the cookie batter for a chocolate chip variety of Christmas cookies.
- Instead of cutting the chilled cookie dough in inch slices, consider using cookie cutters for Christmas-themed shaped cookies.
- Roll the logs of dough in red and green sprinkles instead of coconut.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: If you want to have a soft cookie, make sure you don’t slice the cookies too thin, and bake just until the bottoms are just turning golden brown.
- To speed up the cookie dough chilling process, add your rolled logs to the freezer for 30 minutes or so before slicing.
- Make sure that the butter is at room temperature so that you can easily cream it and mix it with the other ingredients for a smooth cookie dough.
- Be sure to stop and scrape down sides of bowl as you are mixing.
- Double the cookie dough to store in the freezer for effortless cookies whenever you need them during the holidays.
- You can wrap the logs of dough in plastic wrap rather than waxed paper if you wish.
- Add these Santa's Whiskers slice and bake cookies to your Christmas cookie exchange parties with some festive printable tags.
- Instead of using a sheet of wax paper to line your baking sheets, consider using a silicone mat or parchment.
👩🍳 FAQs
Chilling the dough will help you to cut the cookies into uniform slices and helps prevent the cookies from spreading while baking.
Absolutely! Simply use a gluten-free flour such as King Arthur instead of the all-purpose flour.
This simple slice and bake cookies recipe consist of a sugar cookie dough that’s then rolled in shredded coconut, resembling Santa’s whiskers!
📚 Related recipes
If you love the simplicity and taste of sugar cookies, then be sure to check out some more of my favorite recipes!
- Lofthouse Cookies Recipe are the ones you used to beg your mom for in the grocery store! Soft sugar cookies with a thick pastel frosting.
- Red Velvet Sugar Cookies are rolled out and baked in your favorite holiday shapes.
- Best Rolled Sugar Cookies Recipe are the perfect cookie for holiday baking! They don't spread in the oven and come out deliciously perfect every single time.
- Cinnamon crackle cookies are another holiday favorite!
- Not a cookie but these white chocolate covered cherries are perfect for holiday dessert trays!
🍽️ Serve with...
Serve these Santa’s Whiskers on a cookie platter along with some other favorite Christmas cookies and homemade candy.
- Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Peppermint Blossom Cookies
- Gingerbread Snowball Cookies
- Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Truffles
- White Chocolate Lemon Truffles
- Pecan Cranberry Cookies
- Condensed Milk Cookies
📞 The last word
Santa’s Whiskers Christmas cookies are one of my favorite additions to my holiday baking lineup!
Slice and bake cookies are just full of old fashioned goodness - and these are no exception. You can hold the dough in the refrigerator for up to a week and slice off just as many cookies as you want to bake so they're always fresh.
I love them for Valentine's Day along with these red velvet sugar cookies.
Don't save these just for holiday baking! They're delicious all year long!
You may also like learning how to make these cute gingerbread houses.
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Santa’s Whiskers Slice and Bake Cookies
Print Pin Recipe SaveEquipment Needed
Ingredients
- ¾ cup salted butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup candied red cherries, finely diced
- ¼ cup pecans, or almonds, finely chopped
- ½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
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Instructions
- Add the softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Beat the softened butter until fluffy - about 30 seconds.
- Add the sugar, milk, vanilla, and almond and beat until fluffy - about 1 minute.
- Stop and scrape down sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.
- With the mixer on low add the flour all at once and mix until just combined.
- Stir in the chopped nuts and mix, then the chopped cherries.
- Mix until just combined and the dough starts to come together. It will appear very crumbly.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently with your hands until it comes together well.
- Divide into 2 portions and form each into an 8 inch log.
- Sprinkle the coconut on a piece of wax paper, and roll each log in it until it is completely covered.
- Wrap each log in wax paper and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. You can also freeze at this point.
- When you're ready to bake remove the dough from the refrigerator, unwrap, and slice into ½ inch thick slices. If it's been frozen you'll need to let it thaw for a bit until it's soft enough to cut without crumbling.
- Place 1 inch a part on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350° degrees for 12-14 minutes or until the edges and bottoms are just beginning to brown.
- Cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Renee
Can I use maraschino cherries in place of the candied cherries? I really don't care for the taste of candied cherries.
Thanks,
Renee
Marye
No they are too wet.
Angie carvajal
Am going to make some thank you