The merriest of all Christmas cookies! Santa’s Whiskers Cookies are soft slice and bake cookies flavored with almond, studded with cherries, and rolled in coconut.
Can you believe it’s already day 4 of 2018 Sally’s Cookie Palooza? If you’re just joining us, here are all the recipes published so far this week:
- Peppermint Bark Cookies
- Spritz Cookies
- Christmas Cookies in a Jar (with free printable!)
Today I’m sharing an adorably named slice and bake cookie known as Santa’s Whiskers Cookies. My sister-in-law told me about these cookies last Christmas and I waited all year to bake them. Rolled in coconut, these almond flavored cookies are bejeweled with festive cherries and baked until golden around the edges. Aren’t they pretty?
Let’s talk about Slice and Bake Cookies. There are many cookies I obsess over, but if one type of cookie were to win 1st place… it would be the slice and bake cookie.
Slice and Bake Cookies
I love baking slice and bake cookies because sometimes I don’t feel like rolling 2 dozen cookie dough balls. Who’s with me? Instead of rolling each individual cookie, you roll the cookie dough into logs, then slice the logs into discs. These discs are your cookies. It’s literally so easy. Here are some you can try:
- Toasted Hazelnut Slice and Bake Cookies
- Sprinkle Slice and Bake Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Orange Slice and Bake Cookies
- Salted Pistachio Chocolate Slice and Bake Cookies
- Pecan Shortbread
- Pinwheel Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Icebox Cookies
- Brown Sugar Shortbread Cookies
- A mint chocolate version, a maple walnut version, and a vanilla spice version in Sally’s Cookie Addiction
- Icebox Slice & Bake Cookies – 1 Dough, 5 Flavors
All the Good Stuff About Santa’s Whiskers Cookies!
- Easy ingredients: sugar, flour, butter, egg.
- There’s no leavener, so the cookies are extra dense and buttery.
- 1 bowl recipe.
- Since you’re slicing the dough, you control the thickness.
- Soft and thick in the centers!
- So festive with cherry and almond.
- Crunchy crumbly toasted coconut edges = coconut is Santa’s “whiskers” 🙂
- Make ahead. Make the dough, roll into logs, chill for up to 5 days, slice then bake.
I have some success tips for you. First, divide the cookie dough in half and roll into 2 logs. Smaller logs are easier to roll in the coconut. Chilling the cookie dough logs is imperative to the recipe. The cookie dough is very buttery and without time in the refrigerator, the cookie dough will spread all over the cookie sheets. Remember that chilling is the #1 tip for how to prevent cookies from spreading. You could even shape this cookie dough into logs and freeze. Simply thaw in the refrigerator for an hour or two before slicing and baking.
*Santa Claus does not have whiskers. The whiskers = his beard and mustache!*
I used maraschino cherries and green candied cherries; I found the green cherries in the holiday section of my regular grocery store. If you can’t get your hands on green cherries, just use red maraschino cherries or add some pistachios or green sprinkles. At the very last minute, I decided to garnish the cookies with melted white chocolate. Optional, of course, but since this is a Christmas cookie—it made for an extra special accessory!
Could these cookies BE more jolly? Cue Chandler Bing’s voice.
Santa’s Whiskers Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 2 dozen cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
The merriest of all Christmas cookies! Santa’s Whiskers Cookies are soft slice and bake cookies flavored with almond, studded with cherries, and rolled in coconut.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup (133g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (63g) finely chopped maraschino cherries (I used a mix of green and red)*
- 1 cup (80g) sweetened shredded coconut, for rolling
- optional: one 4-ounce white chocolate baking bar and extra coconut for topping
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract on high speed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, and continue to beat until fully combined. On low speed, beat in the flour and salt until combined. The cookie dough will be thick and slightly sticky. Switch to low speed and beat in the cherries *just* until combined. Too much beating will turn the cookie dough pink. (Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!)
- Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and, with floured hands, divide or cut into two. Shape each half into an 8-inch log, about 2.5 inches in diameter. The measurements don’t have to be exact. Roll each log in the shredded coconut. Tightly wrap the logs in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 5 days. Chilling is mandatory for this cookie dough. I prefer to chill mine for 4 hours or even overnight—the colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Slice each log into 12 equally thick cookies and place cookies on baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes or until brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If desired, drizzle the cooled cookies with white chocolate. Melt the chopped white chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave in 15-second increments, stopping and stirring after each until completely smooth. Drizzle on the cookies. Sprinkle with extra coconut, if desired. Allow chocolate to set completely in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature, if desired, before serving. You can make/assemble the cookie dough logs and chill in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (see step 2). Cookie dough logs freeze well too, up to 3 months. Allow the logs to thaw overnight in the refrigerator then continue with step 3.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack | Double Boiler (optional for melting chocolate)
- Cherries: I used maraschino cherries and green candied cherries—I found the green cherries in the holiday section of my regular grocery store. If you can’t get your hands on green cherries, just use red maraschino cherries or add some salted or unsalted pistachios or green sprinkles. Dried cranberries or dried cherries are a wonderful substitute for the red cherries too! Stick with around 3/4 cup – 1 cup total add-ins. If using maraschino cherries packed in juice, lightly blot before or after chopping.
- Nuts: Santa’s Whiskers Cookies typically contain nuts, but I skipped the nuts in this recipe. If desired, use half chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds, or pistachios and half chopped cherries. Stick with around 3/4 cup – 1 cup total add-ins.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Too much work, base cookie itself is a bit bland & dry. Combination of cherries & coconut is great; the coconut is the only reason they are brown on edges (to determine doneness, mine needed several more minutes). I would have preferred chopped cherries but not finely so I could taste cherries more. I’d decrease the vanilla & increase the almond extract, plus once chocolate is away from heat I’d add almond extract to it too. I tried the microwave method to melt the chocolate & it seized; even adding oil didn’t help. Next batch I used the microwave again but in a GLASS container (per Google) & it came out fine so I spooned it on like icing. If you cut roll thinner to get more cookies you can put them close together since mine didn’t expand much at all. We served ours with chocolate ice cream drizzled with maraschino juice from the cherry jar.
Love these! I made the cookies and cream and then the other half was strawberry and white chocolate. I got so many compliments on the flavors. Going to try more variations on the future.
Was excited to try these and feel I may need to tweak. The cookies were thicker when I cut the logs and I didn’t want to flatten them as I wasn’t sure how much they would spread when baked. They are quite thick so feel that was an issue. The cherries got a gummy texture when baked. Not sure why. Coconut don’t want to stick, I think I used too much flour to make a log bc it was sticky. So I lightly brushed cherry juice on the outside and it did stick better. Otherwise such a pretty cookie!
Has anyone tried making Santa’s Whiskers with defrosted drained frozen cherries?
I dyed my coconut and cookie dough green for a grinch themed cookie and just used the red candied cherries and they turned out great!
I still have to check your notes. My family does not like coconut. Could I roll the cookies in something else?
Can I make these with dried cranberries and pistachios instead?
Hi Caryn, absolutely! Replace the cherries with dried cranberries and chopped pistachios. See Sally’s recipe notes.
Thanks…I missed that in the notes! Duh. 😉
I just made these for the first time. Like others have commented, the coconut didn’t stick well. I attributed this to using too much flour when I rolled the dough into logs, so next time…less flour! Also like others, I didn’t find enough cherry flavor so instead of drizzling with white chocolate, I’m going to make a cherry glace (powdered sugar and maraschino cherry juice). Despite these comments, Sally is still my baking hero- the texture of these cookies is delightul and her recipes are so easy to follow and reproduce.
Hi Sally,
Really enjoying your website. My question is how do you get such nice even strands of white chocolate on the Santa’s Whiskers? What’s the model of application- piped?
Hi Diane, for these photos, I used a squeeze bottle to drizzle the melted white chocolate on top.
Is the measurement for the cherries 63 grams or 3/4 cup? 63 grams is a lot less than 3/4 cup. Thanks
Hi BP, great question! The correct amount is 63 grams, and it can look different from the cup measurement because volume can vary so much with ingredients like chopped cherries—how finely they’re chopped and how tightly they’re packed affects how much fits into a cup. Different ingredients also naturally weigh different amounts (a cup of flour, a cup of sugar, and a cup of chopped fruit will all weigh completely different), which is why weight is always the most accurate way to measure. Go with the 63g here, and you’ll be all set.