Small Batch Melting Snowman Cookies

Yield: 6 melting snowman cookies // Total Time: 40 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. //

Soft and chewy brown sugar cookies topped with icing, decorated to look like an adorable melting snowman!

Small batch 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!

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 and can easily throw off a recipe. 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!

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. You’ll want to be extra careful when you add in the matcha as well!

Underbake for perfect cookies

• Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. If you used a 3 tbsp. cookie scoop & use an oven thermometer, these will be ready to take out at the 10 minute mark!

Cookie scooting

• 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!

Room temperature ingredients

• You’ll want your cold ingredients at room temperature for this recipe so that they all come together to form a nice, cohesive dough. That includes the butter, egg yolk, and milk. Take them out at least 30 minutes at up to 1 hr. 30 min. before starting the recipe. To bring an egg to room temperature quickly, you can place it under hot water for 1 minute. To bring butter to room temperature quickly, slice it, place it on a plate, and microwave it in 5-second intervals. For milk, you can also microwave it in 5-second intervals until it’s no longer cold (but not hot!)

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.

Powdered sugar: for sweetness and for keeping the cookies extra soft and chewy.

Light brown sugar: for sweetness and for moisture.

Egg yolk: for binding and for moisture.

Milk: for moisture. Use your favorite milk here (I used oat milk!) Since it’s only 1 tbsp. and we are using it for hydration, it won’t drastically affect the dough to use regular or an alternative.

Vanilla: for flavor. I use and love this vanilla extract!

For the topping:

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: small batch melting snowman cookies

Here are the steps to follow to make these cookies. You can find the complete recipe (which is printable!) at the end of this blog post.

1. Beat the butter and sugar. In a small bowl, beat together the butter, powdered sugar and light brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy (~2 min.)

2. Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla until combined.

3. Add dry ingredients. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients together just until no flour streaks remain.

4. Bake. Use a 3 tbsp. cookie scoop to dish the cookies out evenly spaced apart on a lined baking sheet, then bake for 10 minutes.

5. Get perfect cookies. Once the cookies come out of the oven, I recommend “scooting” them. This just means take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is slightly larger than the cookie, place it on top of the cookie, and swirl the bowl around to make the cookie a little more round.

6. Make the icing. Mix together the powdered sugar and milk together until it’s smooth. Then, remove ~1 tbsp. into a small bowl, and ~4 tbsp. (1/4 c.) into another small bowl. Into the 1 tbsp. bowl, mix in orange food coloring. To the 4 tbsp. bowl, mix in the cocoa powder. If either of the colored frostings seems too thin, just mix in a bit of powdered sugar until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

7. Decorate the marshmallows. 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.

8. Ice the cookies. 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, then top the icing with sanding sugar. Use the remaining brown icing to draw arms on each of the cookies, then place 3 sugar pearls as buttons on each cookie.

8. Serve and enjoy!

Small batch melting 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 cookies ahead of time?

• Definitely! Once the dough has been made, cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for no more than 2 days before baking. When you’re ready to bake, you will most likely need to let the dough sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, just until it’s scoopable. Then, it’s ready to be baked as normal!

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, and here’s an article about why I use a kitchen scale, and why you should too!

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!