During the holidays, especially with my mixed Jewish and Catholic background, things get pretty hectic. Sometimes, I just can’t find the time to whip up homemade batter or dough. That’s when I turn to the supermarket shelves for a little help. But hey, who says store-bought can’t be fun? These Hanukkah candy-stuffed dreidel cookies are a blast, and nobody minds that they’re not made from scratch.
You can either use your favorite homemade sugar cookie dough or take a shortcut like I do with store-bought logs. Then, all you need are some white and blue cooking icing, a tub of vanilla frosting, and M&M’s Minis. Check out the step-by-step below.
Sugar Cookie Dreidels
Ingredients
- 2 16-oz. logs sugar cookie dough
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 7-oz. tube white cookie icing
- 1 7-oz. tube blue cookie icing
- 1 16-oz. tub vanilla frosting
- 1 10-oz. bag M&M’s Minis
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar cookie dough and flour together with your hands until well combined. Divide the dough in half. Roll out each half on parchment paper until it’s about 1⁄4 inch thick. Use a dreidel cookie cutter to cut out your cookies. You’ll need three cookies for each treat: two whole cookies and one with a hole in the middle to hold your treats inside. So, cut out a number of cookies divisible by 3: 6, 9, 12, 15, and so on. For every third cookie, use the back of a piping tip to cut out the center of the cookie, like a donut. Once you’ve cut out your cookies, refrigerate them for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Bake the cookies until they’re golden around the edges, which should take about 9 minutes. Let them cool completely.
- Now, it’s time to assemble your dreidels. Start by outlining the edge of one whole cookie with cookie icing.
- Place a cutout cookie on top of the icing, and fill the hole with some M&M’s Minis.
- Outline the edge of the filled cookie with more cookie icing, and then place another whole cookie on top. Transfer the assembled dreidel to a wire rack set on a baking sheet and let the icing set for about 5 minutes. Repeat this process with the rest of your cookies.
- Warm up the vanilla frosting in a liquid measuring cup in the microwave until it’s melted, which should take about 30 seconds. Pour the frosting over the assembled dreidels, allowing it to spill over the sides to cover them.
- Let the frosting harden for about an hour, then decorate with blue icing. Enjoy your festive dreidel cookies!