No Christmas Cookie platter is complete without an appearance by the one and only Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Cookies!
Quite possibly my favorite addition to my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies recipe series!
Not only because they are totally adorable, but I love me some chocolate shortbreads!
Crispy chocolate shortbread decorated with vegan royal icing
And those salty pretzel horns were the perfect contrast of flavors!
I love a crispy, sandy textured shortbread cookie and this easy to make recipe is going to become a year round addition to your cookie recipe file!
This is part 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies recipe series
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Notes for Success:
My recipe for royal icing is unique because it included EnerG Egg replacer. *not sponsored
I know it is a strange ingredient but for some reason I like that it gives these iced cookies a “softer dry” than traditional hard drying royal icing.
But for those who do not have it or don’t want to buy it simply use the 3 ingredient royal icing recipe here instead
Reindeer Cookies
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Shortbread Dough:
- All Purpose Flour 2½ cups (312g)
- Cocoa Powder ½ cup (40g)
- Baking Powder 1½ teaspoons (7g)
- Salt ½ teaspoon (3g)
- Vegan Butter 1 cup (226g)
- Granulated Sugar 1 cup (200g)
- Aquafaba 4 Tablespoons (60ml)
- Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
For the Royal Icing:
- EnerG Egg Replacer 4½ teaspoons (20g) *see notes
- Warm Water 6 Tablespoons (90ml)
- Vanilla Extract ½ teaspoon
- Confectioner's Sugar 4 cups (480g)
- Mini Pretzels for the Horns *as needed
Instructions
- For the cookie dough
- Cream the vegan butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- Add the aquafaba and the vanilla extract and then stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl
- Next sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and add it all at once to the creamed mixture. Mix just until it is all combined.
- Wrap this dough disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight before using or you can store it for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
- You must re work this dough with some additional flour to a pliable consistency after it has been chilled. Do not skip this step.
- Knead it with a small bit of flour until it is no longer a crumbly mass, but a soft pliable dough
- Roll out the dough to ½ or ¼" thick depending on how thick you like your cookies, and cut them out with a 2½" cookie cutter
- Transfer cookie cutouts to a parchment lined sheet pan and bake in preheated to 350° F oven for approximately 22 - 25 minutes depends on the size and thickness
- For the Royal Icing
- Combine the egg replacer with the warm water and whisk smooth
- Place the sifted confectioners sugar in a mixing bowl and then add the vanilla extract and the egg replacer mixture.
- Mix on medium to high speed until it is smooth
- Color the icing brown, blue and red leaving some white.
- On completely cooled cookies, decorate as shown in the video.
- Allow cookies to dry slightly at room temperature
Notes
Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks
Can Bob’s Redmill egg replacer be used as the egg replacer? Same amount? <3
So for the Royal Icing, I *for some reason* like the EnerGy ~ I know it’s weird but I feel like it gives it that soft dry that I prefer over a hard iced royal. that said, Bob;s is not the same for this application (in baking recipe yes for sure!) But I would rather you just make a traditional royal icing which is basically my sprinkles recipe!