Santa Hat Cookies and My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe

At our house Santa really loves sugar cookies. When I saw the candy corn sugar cookie idea, I thought that same technique would make darling Santa or elf hats. These have become a Christmas Eve tradition.

Here's a quick photo guide of what to do. 

(As you can tell, I am not a food photographer, but you should get the idea!)

My Favorite Sugar Cookie Recipe (adapted from my mother-in-law's recipe) 

3/4 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream above ingredients

Add 2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Chill for at least 2 hours, roll out and cut with cookie cutters. To help keep their shape, put cut cookies on a cookie sheet in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking.  

Bake at 350 degrees for  8-10 mins

*In my oven for these small cookies, they are baked in about 6 min, so check after 5-6 min.

I love these cookies, because as long as you don't over bake them, they are soft and have great flavor!

Santa Hat Cookie Instructions 

Make your favorite sugar cookie dough. 

Divide in thirds. 

Color 1/3 of the dough red. 

Place saran wrap in a small bread pan in order to wrap the dough completely. Spray saran wrap with cooking spray. 

In the small bread pan, layer the dough white-red-white. The height of the cookie will depend on how much of the pan you use to layer. I like my cookies rather small, so my dough goes across the whole pan. For taller cookies, layer the dough only over half of the pan. 

Refrigerate the saran wrapped dough for 2 hours. 

Cut slices of dough and then cut those slices into triangles. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets and chill for 15 minutes in the fridge. 

Bake for 6-10 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Allow cookies to cool, and decorate with buttercream frosting. 

* I like to use an open star tip. These cookies are so easy for kids to decorate and my kids love decorating them and setting them out for Santa on Christmas Eve. 

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do!