Yield: 8 melting snowman cookies // Total Time: 1 hr. 10 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. //
Soft and chewy brown sugar cookies topped with icing, decorated to look like an adorable melting snowman!
melting snowman cookies
Introducing the PRETTIEST holiday cookies. These melting snowman cookies feature a super soft and chewy sugar cookie and are topped with icing and a decorated marshmallow to look like a melting snowman! (a little sad but also cute?) Below you’ll find everything you need to make these delicious, adorable holiday cookies!
small batch melting snowman cookies
I love making small batch bakes because they are the perfect size myself and others who don’t have a lot of people to bake for in their home. Small batch helps cut down on waste and eliminates the feeling that all that excess dessert MUST be eaten. Here on my blog I post a lot of small batch bakes with a mix of some 8-10″ single layer cakes from time to time. All my recipes can easily be doubled or tripled to fit your need, so long as you use grams to measure!
recipe tips
weigh your ingredients
Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient. In a small batch recipe it is especially important to get those correct measurements because there is less room for error. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. This one is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out!
room temperature ingredients
It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. If you have ever had your batter look curdled, it is most likely due to the ingredients separating from being at different temperatures. Take out the eggs, butter, and cream cheese at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe. To get an egg to room temperature quickly, you can run it under hot water for 1 minute. To get butter and cream cheese to room temperature quickly, you can slice them and lay them flat on a plate, then microwave in 5 second intervals until they are soft to the touch.
mix the dough carefully
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Overmixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies super tough and chewy.
under bake for perfect cookies
Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. Once the edges turn slightly golden brown, the cookies are ready to come out. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
cookie scooting
Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!
ingredients and substitutions
For the sugar cookies:
All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
Baking powder: for helping the cookies rise.
Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies.
Dark brown sugar: for moisture, flavor, and sweetness. I recommend dark brown sugar for the best flavor, but light brown sugar will work in a pinch!
Egg: for binding and for moisture.
Vanilla: for flavor.
For the melting snowman:
Powdered sugar: the base of the icing which will be used for the snowman puddle, arms, and face.
Milk: helps to thin out the icing. Just like above you can choose to use your favorite milk or dairy alternative here! I used vanilla oat milk.
Marshmallows: for the snowman head, make sure you have regular sized marshmallows and not the mini ones.
Food dye: you will need either black or brown for the arms, eyes and mouth, and then orange for the nose. Alternatively, you can mix cocoa powder into the icing to achieve your desired color, which is what I chose to do!
Sprinkles: you’ll want white sanding sugar for topping the icing, and sugar pearl sprinkles for the little buttons!
how to make melting snowman sugar cookies
Here’s what the process of making these super cute melting snowman sugar cookies looks like. The full recipe and instructions can be found at the end of this blog post.
- Beat together the butter and brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- Beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes, then bake.
- Make the marshmallow snowman heads by slicing off a little of the bottom of each marshmallow, then piping on the icing.
- Pipe the white icing in a puddle pattern on top of the cookies.
- Top each cookie with a marshmallow snowman head. Pipe on some stick snowman arms and add little sprinkle buttons. Serve and enjoy!
snowman cookies q&a
can I double this recipe?
Of course! Obviously they will not be small batch anymore but small batch isn’t always what we need! I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
can I make these snowman sugar cookies ahead of time?
Definitely! There are a few options for prepping these cookies in advance!
- Option 1: Make the cookie dough days in advance. Once you’ve made the cookie dough, you can wrap it up tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking it off. Be sure to let the cookie dough sit out for 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking, so that it’s soft enough to scoop.
- Option 2: Make the cookies days in advance. 2-3 days before you want to serve the cookies, you can bake them off and keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature. When you want to decorate them, just whip up the icing, decorate, and serve!
- Option 3: Make the cookies months in advance. The cookies can be baked and then frozen for up to three months before using. When you want to make and serve them, simply let the cookies defrost to room temperature, whip up the icing, frost them, and enjoy! Alternatively, you can freeze balls of the cookie dough for up to three months, then bake them and frost them.
how should I store these cookies?
These cookies will taste the best on the day that they are baked, but can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
why do you measure in grams?
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
a note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
tools and ingredients
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
did you make these melting snowman cookies?
If you made these small batch melting snowman cookies I would love to see them and know your thoughts! Please leave a comment and review down below, and tag me on Instagram @freshbeanbakery. If you have any questions about the recipe I will gladly do my best to answer them in the comments below!
Melting Snowman Cookies
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Cookies
- 90 g unsalted butter room temperature (6 ⅓ tbsp.)
- 150 g dark brown sugar (¾ c.)
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
Melting Snowman Topping
- 330 g powdered sugar (2 ¾ c.)
- 4-5 tbsp. milk
- 8 large marshmallows
- 1 ½ tsp. cocoa powder
- drop of orange food dye
- 24 gold and white pearl sprinkles
Instructions
Brown Sugar Cookies
- With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy (2-3 min.)
- Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together just until no flour streaks remain.
- Cover the dough and leave it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.*
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or with a silicone baking mat.
- Use a 3 tbsp. cookie scoop to dish out the cookies on the prepared cookie sheet, placing them at least 2” apart to allow room for spreading. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the sides of the cookies start to turn golden brown.
- Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, you can take a bowl that is slightly larger than the cookies and swirl it around over the cookies to make them a little more uniform and circular.
Decorating
- Mix together the powdered sugar and milk, adding in one tablespoon of milk at a time until it's thick enough to pipe.
- Remove ~1 tbsp. of the thick frosting into a small bowl, and ~3 tbsp. into another small bowl.
- Into the 1 tbsp. bowl, mix in orange food coloring. To the 3 tbsp. bowl, mix in the cocoa powder. If either of the colored frostings seems too thick, you can add a bit of powdered sugar in to thicken it up.
- Slice off a bit of the bottom of each marshmallow so that you have a shorter head. The sliced-off side will be the side that sticks to the icing on the cookie. Transfer the orange and brown icing to piping bags fitted with small round tips, then make the faces on the marshmallows.
- Add a bit more milk to the remaining white icing to thin it out a bit so that it can spread easily on the cookie.
- Use a spoon or a piping bag fitted with a larger round tip to drizzle the white icing all over the cookies, allowing some parts of the cookie to remain exposed.
- Place the decorated marshmallow onto the cookie. Use the remaining brown icing to draw arms on each of the cookies, then place 3 sugar pearls as buttons on each cookie.
- Serve and enjoy!