Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites
Our Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites are a bite-sized version of the classic Christmas sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. So yummy and so easy to make!
We love Frosted Sugar Cookies. It is one of a handful of Holiday Treats that we definitely make every Christmas. This year we tried something new with these Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites and Boy oh Boy were they a hit with the family! They are easy to bake and you don’t need Christmas cookie cutters. They are so easy to decorate that even the youngest family member can join in on the fun. And most importantly, they are a super delicious bite-sized treat of yummy sugar cookie and creamy buttercream frosting. You’ll definitely want to add these cookies to your Christmas Baking List this year!
How to Make the Sugar Cookie Dough
Step 1: Our Christmas Sugar Cookies Bites start with our Best Sugar Cookie Recipe. This sugar cookie dough is easy to work with, tastes great, and really holds its shape during the baking process. You can find the recipe and detailed instructions on how to make the dough here. We made a half-batch of our Best Sugar Cookie Recipe and ended up with 100 Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites that were approximately 1 square inch in size.
How to Make the Buttercream Frosting
Step 2: The key to these delicious cookies is our Best Buttercream Frosting recipe. It is light and creamy and buttery and super delicious! You will find the recipe and directions here. One batch of frosting will be enough to frost all of the mini cookies. Once you have the frosting made, split it into three portions. One you will leave white, the other two you will tint Red and Green. We like the Wilton Color Right Food Coloring. It is concentrated and you can get a bright color without having to use too much food coloring. To create the three Christmas shades of Christmas Red and Christmas Green we used Wilton Color Right Food coloring in the following amounts:
- Red – 10 drops of Red and 4 drops of Crimson
- Green –8 drops of Yellow and 3 drops of Blue
How to Bake the Cookies
Step 3: Roll out the sugar cookie dough with a rolling pin. We used a small square cookie cutter to cut out our Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites but you could also cut the dough into strips and then cut the strips into squares.
Step 4: Bake the cookies in an oven preheated to 350 degrees oven for 4-5 minutes. Check on the cookies at the 4-minute mark, because they are so small you don’t want to overbake them. The edges will be slightly golden when they are ready to come out of the oven.
Step 5: Allow the cookie bites to cool completely before frosting them.
How to Frost the Cookie Bites
Step 6: Now the fun begins. No fancy decorating skills required. Use a knife to spread the yummy buttercream frosting onto the Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites and then add sprinkles. So easy … so fun.
Step 7: Repeat the process with the Red and White frosting too! Allow the Best Buttercream Frosting to set before you store the cookies away. (But you don’t have to wait to eat them!)
Expert Tips and FAQ’s
Both the eggs and the butter should be at room temperature which will help your cookies turn out lighter and fluffier. For the eggs, room temperature simply means not cold out of the refrigerator. If you forget to take the eggs out before you start making cookie dough you can put the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes to warm them up. The butter also needs to be softened to room temperature which means if you touch it you should leave an indentation on the stick of butter. Do not use butter that has been over-softened or melted. If that happens you should use a different stick of butter or put it back into the refrigerator to let it set up. We have a whole post about How to Soften Butter, click here if you need more information on how to do that.
Yes. In our opinion, you need some kind of a mixer to make a good cookie dough. A stand mixer, while expensive, is a great investment if you believe you have a lot of homemade baked goods in your future. An electric hand-mixer also works well and you can probably find one for around $20. You can hand mix cookie dough in a pinch (which is how we did it growing up), but you will really have to use a lot of muscle to cream the butter and sugar, and eggs properly.
Creaming the butter, sugar and then mixing the eggs in is the most important part of the cookie dough mixing process. Creaming is when you fully incorporate the butter and sugar together and add some much-needed air to the dough. We recommend creaming the butter and sugar for 2 minutes at medium-high speed and then mixing the butter/sugar/eggs for another 3 minutes at the same speed. Once you add the flour, you want to mix the dough as little as possible. Mix it too much and you will get tough cookies. Mix in the flour at low speed and continue mixing ONLY until the dry ingredients are incorporated into the dough. Make sure you scrape down the sides and the bottom to make sure all the flour has gotten mixed in.
We always line our cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper, it keeps the cookie from sticking to the sheet and from over-browning. You can find parchment paper either in rolls or in pre-cut sheets in most grocery stores, and we highly recommend it. Ideally, you should use at least 2 cookie sheets when baking cookies. You don’t want to add the raw cookie dough to a cookie sheet that is hot out of the oven. The dough will start baking even before you get it in the oven.
Everyone’s oven is different. We recommend starting with a test bake with a single cookie to help you hone in on the exact baking time for your oven. You should set your timer for 2 minutes less than whatever the recipe recommends. Once the timer goes off, open up the oven and see how your cookie is baking. Make corrections accordingly. Our oven has a hot spot in the back so we always rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time to get a more even bake. Although this may seem like an unnecessary step, it is better to do this than burn a whole tray of cookies.
Cookies should always be stored in an airtight container. They should be completely cooled before storing them. Cookies stored at room temperature should stay fresh for 3-4 days. You can also keep them in the refrigerator and that extends their freshness for up to a week. If you need them to last longer, you can freeze them for up to 3 months. You can pull them out of the freezer and leave them on the counter for 1 hour and they will be ready to eat.
Other Christmas Cookie Recipes You Will Love
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Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites
Our Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites are a bite-sized version of the classic Christmas sugar cookies with buttercream frosting. So yummy and so easy to make!
Ingredients
- 1/2 batch of our The Best Sugar Cookie Dough
- 1 batch of our The Best Buttercream Frosting
- Nonpareils Christmas Sprinkles
- Wilton Color Right Food Coloring - Red, Crimson, Yellow, Blue
Instructions
- Make a half-batch of our Best Sugar Cookie Recipe and roll out the cookie dough on a floured surface.
- We used a small square cookie cutter to cut out our Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites but you could also cut the dough into strips and then cut the strips into square.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 minutes. Check on the cookies at the 4 minute mark, because they are so small you don't want to over bake them. The edges will be slightly golden when they are ready to come out of the oven.
- Next, make a batch of our Best Buttercream Frosting Recipe. We split this batch into three bowls and colored one batch green using 3 drops of Americolor Leaf Green Food Coloring, one bowl red using 4 drops of Americolor Super Red Food Coloring and left one bowl white.
- Frost the Sugar Cookie Bites and add Christmas sprinkles.
Did you Make this Recipe? Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @twosisterscrafting on Instagram so we can see it!
These Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites seems delicious and amazing one , will love to make this one .
This Christmas Sugar Cookie Bites seems amazing and delicious , will love to try this recipe for sure . Thanks for sharing this one
Love this “CHRISTMAS SUGAR COOKIE BITES”, seems so delicious one. will love to try this. Thanks for sharing these cookies recipe with us.
These look delicious! Sounds like they would be so yummy frozen too!
How thin/thick do you roll them?
I usually make them a little thicker than I would a full sized cookie. Maybe 3/8″? But there is no right or wrong size.
Just made my first batch and they turned out amazing! Your cookie dough recipe is the best I have found! No chilling and the dough is super easy to work with, roll out and tastes fantastic! Almost like a shortbread. I took a shortcut on frosting them by just leaving them against each other on the cooling racks and drizzling the frosting (which I thinned out with extra milk) randomly all over them and adding sprinkles. I made mine blue since that is my Christmas decorating scheme. Will definitely be using this recipe from now on and just change the frosting color and sprinkles to suit the occasion. Thanks for the yummy recipe!!
Can you freeze the with the frosting on them?
Yep! Do this all the time.
Thanks for the awesome post! I made these for a cookie exchange and they are fabulous!
When you freeze them- can you frost them first and then store them?
Sure! I would add a layer of parchment paper or aluminum foil between the layers.
This recipe is by far the best sugar cookie I have found. It was easy to make, was not sticky, did not have to chill the dough, and was husband approved. They came out soft and did not spread. Kudos to you for sharing this recipe!!! I give it 10 stars! Thank you so much for the recipe!
It may be easier to press into a baking sheet, bake and then ice add sprinkles and then cut into squares. May save some time..
That would work!
I loved this idea but I cheated a little. Instead of rolling and cutting them out I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, sprayed it and spead the cookie dough out in the pan. Then baked, cooled and frosted. Then cut into little squares. I cut the cookie sheet pan 6×12. Happy baking!!
Great idea!
Is this recipe a good one for using cookie cutters on? Will it hold its shape well? I am wanting to make Halloween cookie shapes using this dough. I love this recipe but I’ve only ever made the small squares with it! The dough is so nice to work with and requires no chilling
Definitely. This sugar cookie recipe is good on all counts!
These look so yummy! I’m making a batch of these tomorrow! I’m using your best sugar cookie recipe but cutting it in half. Question for you. Do I need to cut your best buttercream frosting in half too? Thanks I can’t wait to make these!
I would do a full batch of frosting that way you will have plenty to frost the cookies with.
Was just looking for an easy holiday cookie recipe to do with a 4 & 6 year old granddaughters. I found it! Thank you!
How long does the frosting take set?
Hi Teresa – we usually let it set up a couple of hours before we store the frosted cookies.
I’m going to be making these soon. I have never baked cookies from scratch. Do you have a rough estimate of how thin (or thick?) I should roll the dough out?
Hi Lynn – I rolled these sugar cookie bites out a little thicker than I would normally make a regular sugar cookie. I would say a little less than 3/8″ thick.
How thick do you roll the dough? These look thicker than sugar cookies.
Hi Terry – I did make them a little thicker than I would a regular sized sugar cookie. I didn’t want them to break and crumble.
I always try a recipe the way it is written before I make my own changes, but this recipe is perfect no changes needed. Thank you for sharing The grands loved helping and sneaking some while decorating. Again thanks.
Hi Bonnie – we are so glad you liked the recipe!
Hi again!
Do you have a recipe for shortbread cookies? I’m making some mini bourbon balls that call for crushed shortbread cookies. Thank you!
Hi Cindy – that recipe sounds yummy. We don’t have a shortbread recipe posted. Sorry!!!
Ok, thank you for your reply! I can email it to you, if you like. It’s a recipe I found in a magazine…it does look good! If you give my your email, I’d be happy to share it.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Are these soft sugar cookies?
Hi Jamie – yes, this sugar cookie recipe does make a cookie that is on the soft side. However, for this particular recipe with the “bite-sized” squares you need to make sure you don’t over bake them. Hope that helps.
Hi! I’m thinking of making these for Thanksgiving and for a party on December 3rd…Can I freeze 1/2 (unfrosted) for the party? How would you wrap them to freeze?
Hi Cindy, yes you can freeze them. We have done it many times. We usually put them in a Tupperware-type container, and put them in layers with parchment paper or foil betweeen the layers.
I am wondering if these could bee baked in bar cookie fashion, then frosted, decorated and cut when finished? I am always trying to save time ☺
Hi Terri, you probably could bake them that way. You would need to make sure you cleaned your knife a lot otherwise the sides of the cookies will be covered in icing. You could also try our sugar cookie bar recipe. https://www.twosisterscrafting.com/christmas-sugar-cookie-bars/