Soft peanut butter cookies are decorated to look like little reindeer! These Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies are the cutest Christmas cookies ever!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year….cookie season! I really can’t get enough cookies around Christmas, so I am excited to share my cookie love today as a guest poster on Twin Stripe. Twin Stripe is my friend Katie‘s lovely blog all about food, design, parties, and the fun things in life! She is going to have some great Christmas recipes this week, so be sure to check them out.
There have been a lot of cookie recipes on Chez CateyLou lately like these gingerbread cookies and these white chocolate cranberry cookies, but I saved my favorite one to share with you today. These Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies are the cutest cookies I have ever made! Look at those little faces – aren’t they precious? And as an added bonus, they taste amazing too.
So on to the building blocks of these reindeer cookies. The key to making these cookies is to have all of your decorating ingredients lined up and ready to go: mini chocolate chips for the eyes, red M&M’s for the nose, and broken pretzel pieces for the antlers.
First you mix up a simple peanut butter cookie dough. Then you roll the dough into one inch balls and bake them. I like to use a mini ice cream scoop to measure out the dough. This way, all the reindeer will be the same size! (On Skippy, On Reese, On Planters and Jif…)
When the cookies come out of the oven, quickly (and carefully! the cookie sheet is hot!) start making the reindeer. Start with the nose – press an M&M into the middle of the cookie. This will kind of spread the cookie out a bit so that it is flat and round. Then put two mini chocolate chips on for eyes. And finally, put the pretzels in for the antlers. I only put 10 – 12 cookies on a sheet at a time so that I can decorate all the faces while the cookies are still hot. Once they start to cool and the dough hardens, you won’t be able to put the pretzels into the cookie. You can definitely fit more dough balls on the sheet, but resist the temptation!
These reindeer cookies will be the hit of any holiday party and will steal the show on a Christmas cookie platter. They are going to become a new holiday staple in my household!
Soft peanut butter cookies are decorated to look like little reindeer! These Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies are the cutest Christmas cookies ever!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 48 large red M&M candies
- 96 mini semisweet chocolate chips
- Pretzels, broken into 96 1-inch pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat together butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, and place at least 1 inch apart on cookie sheet. Bake only 10 - 12 cookies at a time. Refrigerate the bowl of dough in between batches.
- Bake for 7 - 9 minutes, until the cookies are just set. Immediately place one M&M in the center of each cookie for a nose (press down a bit if your cookies aren’t flat enough), 2 mini chocolate chips for the eyes, and 2 pretzel pieces at the top for antlers. Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recipe from Ladies Home Journal
Connect with Chez CateyLou!
Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
These are adorable. And probably pretty darn delicious too. So creative… love the idea! Totally perfect for holiday parties!
Thank you so much, Chris! They are really the perfect Christmas cookie, cute and tasty!
So cute!
Thank you so much!
How cute are these! I bet they are delicious and fun to make.
Thanks, Megan! They were so much fun to make, and to eat!
Brilliant idea! These are the cutest cookies I’ve ever seen 😀
Thanks, Sinead! I am obsessed!
These are just like the ones I wanted to make with my cousins this Christmas – but cuter! Thanks for the step by step instructions, too. They look incredible! Thanks Katie and Cate!
Thanks, Mary Frances!
My daughter would flip over these! I can’t stop smiling looking at them. 🙂 ela
Thanks, Ela! They are the happiest little cookies!
These cookies are adorable! So festive and fun to eat. My nieces would love them! 🙂 Lovely post Cate.
Thank you so much, Anne! These would definitely be a hit with kids!
So adorable, perfect for kids to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas.
Thanks, Julie! Santa would love these 🙂
Hehe I was just thinking how handy pretzels are as decorating tools and they’re so perfect for these reindeer! 😀
Thanks, Lorraine! They are the perfect antlers, and add a nice salty crunch
I can hardly take the cuteness of these!
Thanks, Joanne! The cutest cookies I have ever made, by far!
Oh gosh. These are so adorable – I can totally still make these even though Christmas is over, right?!
Thank you so much! You can definitely make these even though Christmas is over!!!
Oh, those are SO cute! And your photography is lovely. Thanks for stopping by eve’s apple 🙂
Wow, this looks so good! I was wondering if I could use this recipe and photo in a school project. Thanks!
Hi Elizabeth! Sure, you can use the recipe and photo in your school project, as long as you link back to my site. Good luck!
Aren’t these just the cutest! What a fun idea!
Thanks Michelle! They are such a fun cookie for Christmas!
Those look so cute!
Thanks, Tonia!
I am a sucker for cute food, I love these Cate! Pinning!
These are SO cute, I love them! Pinned 🙂
My kids would love these!!
These are adorable! Love the pretzel antlers 🙂