Easy and Tasty White Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Merry Christmas, all! I was originally only going to post these cookies on Instagram, but they were just too good not to post here. I’m not someone who usually gravitates to sugar cookies, but I just cannot stop eating these.

I’ve always been intimidated by royal icing. Not just making it, but the idea of cleaning multiple bowls and icing tips right before Christmas has prevented me from even bothering the last couple of years. This year, I really wanted to make sugar cookies for our family’s Christmas Eve get together, but I figured there had to be an easier way.

I got the idea to use white chocolate after eating a snowman cookie from Starbucks. The cookie itself was dry, but I did pick off all the white chocolate decoration on top and eat it. Decorating with candy melts was easier than I thought. I just melted them in the microwave in a bowl that was large enough to dip the entire cookie. Then I topped them with sprinkles. When I wanted some swirly decorations, I used the end of a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate onto the cookie. Keep in mind that if you want to add sprinkles, you need to work quickly, since candy melts harden really fast. Also, make sure you’re using candy melts and not pure white chocolate, since the latter will need to be tempered in order to work properly. I used Ghirardelli, and they tasted pretty good.

For the cookie recipe, I used King Arthur Flour’s Holiday Butter Cookies. I had originally tried to use regular shortbread, but I found that the addition of the extra egg yolk in the butter cookie recipe made them the perfect texture. Rather than refrigerating the dough before rolling it out like the original recipe suggests, I rolled it out right away between 2 sheets of parchment. Then I stuck the whole thing in the refrigerator for an hour and then cut them out and baked them. Using parchment paper instead of a floured surface allows you to roll the cookies out multiple times without them getting too tough, since they aren’t picking up the extra flour every time.

I hope you enjoy these cookies, and Happy Holidays!