3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/4 teaspoons salt

17 ounces, cold unsalted butter (4 sticks plus two tablespoons)

1/4 cup white chocolate

Red candy coloring

Red sanding sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 2 cookie sheets.

On a piece of wax paper, sift together flour, cocoa powder, confectioner’s sugar and salt.

Place the ingredients in a large bowl of an electric mixer.

Add butter cut into half-inch cubes. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together.

On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick. Use a Rudolph cookie cutter, or a cookie cutter of your choice, to cut out the dough. Place Rudolphs two inches apart on the cookie sheets, Prick each cookie once with a fork. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool in the pans for five minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Do not attempt to move the cookies before they have completely cooled, or the legs might break off.

Melt white chocolate and stir until well combined six drops of red candy color (add more or less as desired). Pour the melted chocolate into a pastry cone. Cut a small tip off the end of the cone. Pipe a red nose on each Rudolph. Before the chocolate dries, sprinkle the noses with red sanding sugar.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Tester’s notes: Laura Meade Kirk writes “The toughest part of making these cookies was finding a reindeer cookie cutter. I finally found one at the Old Country Store in Mansfield, Mass., for 50 cents. These are simple to make, but make a huge mess as our stand mixer sprayed flour, sugar and cocoa all over the counter until the dough began to form. These cookies are extremely fragile. We found them to be a little stronger when we baked them 12 minutes instead of 10. There was no discernible difference in taste or texture. We also tried cheating by using a Red Hot for Rudolph’s nose, but it was too big for our cookies.”

From Christmas Cookies from the Whimsical Bakehouse

by Kay Hansen and Liv Hansen.