Name: Christmas Reindeer Cookie Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 (16.5 ounce) package of chocolate chip cookie dough; 8 ounces chocolate frosting (½ a 16 ounce tub); 8 mini pretzel twists, cut in half vertically; 16 candy eyes; 8 red or brown M&Ms

Easy, quick and fun to make, these Reindeer Cookie Bars are the perfect treats this holiday season! With only a few ingredients and ready in about 30 minutes, it’s one of our family’s favorite Christmas dessert recipes and I’m sure it will become one of yours too!

I absolutely love baking during the holiday season but there are so many things I want to do and so many treats I want to make that I often run out of time. But I still want to make more, do more and create as many delicious, fun foods as I can while the holiday season is here. Easy, yummy and festive holiday desserts are something I go out of my way to find.

I was really excited to try these reindeer cookie bars because they are simply adorable. They really add to the warm, holiday atmosphere that I try to create in my home. These Christmas cookie bars are also surprisingly easy to make. They may look complicated but they only take about 10 minutes to put together. How can something this festive and tasty be made so quickly? Let me tell you!

Why You’ll Love Them

Easy to decorate. No fancy piping bags or tips required.
Simple ingredients. If you know how to make cookies, you can make these.
Kids can help. This is a fun holiday dessert to make as a family.
Feeds A Crowd. Sell them a bake sales, serve them a Christmas parties, or set them out at family dinners.

Ingredients

First, you need to get together the ingredients for these reindeer cookie bars.

For this recipe, you will need:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough– Any type of packaged, refrigerated cookie dough will work.
Chocolate Frosting– I like to look for fudge frosting which tends to be darker chocolate but any kind of chocolate buttercream will work. You can even make your own!
Mini Pretzel Twists– These will be used to make the reindeers antlers.
Candy Eyes– Any store that sells baking supplies or cake decorating ingredients will have candy eyes. You can also order them online to be delivered right to your door!
M&Ms– I use M&M’s to make the reindeer noses. Red M&M’s are great for Rudolph while brown candies are good for all the other reindeer in Santa’s lineup.

With just five ingredients, you are going to make the most adorable reindeer. I like to use packaged chocolate chip cookie dough to make this recipe as easy as possible but you can also make your own cookie dough. One regular sized batch of cookie dough will work!

How to Make Reindeer Cookie Bars

Now comes the fun part of the recipe- baking and decorating! Let me walk you through the steps with a little more detail so you know exactly how it’s done.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and place a parchment circle in the bottom of a 9” cake pan. I also like to spray a little baking spray in the pan just to make the cookies easier to pop out once baked.

2. Press the cookie dough into the pan, making it as even as possible.

3. Bake the cookie cake for 20-25 minutes. The top will be a golden brown and the center will not look liquid or wet.

4. Let the baked cookie cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then flip the pan upside down to pop out the big cookie. Let the cookie cool completely on a cooling rack.

5. Spread the frosting over the entire top of the cookie, covering it completely.

6. While the frosting is still soft, cut the round cookie into eight slices as if it were a pizza. I like to cut it all the way in half, then cut those halves in half and then in half again! Just be sure to wipe your knife after each cut so the cookies stay clean.

7. Line up the triangles on a pretty tray or cutting board so the points are facing you.

8. Press two pretzel halves in both top corners of the triangles. These are the antlers for your reindeer.

9. Add an M&M near the bottom point of the triangle then add two eyes near the center.

10. Let the frosting set a little before serving the reindeer bars. This will help the decorations stick better.

Pretty easy, right? Just bake, frost and decorate! A Christmas recipe this easy is going to be made again and again in my house. I will probably bring them to every holiday event I have this year!

How to Store Reindeer Cookie Bars

Once your reindeer bars are decorated, place them in an airtight container with a sealed lid. They will keep at room temperature for about 3-4 days. Be sure to keep them in a single layer in the container and do not stack them or the decorations can get messy. You don’t want a reindeer with one crooked eye!

Tips and Tricks

Here are a few tips that you may find helpful to make your reindeer cookie bars perfect.

Add more chocolate frosting if you want a really rich treat. The more frosting, the better!
Be sure to add the decorations right after frosting the cookies. They will stick better to the wet frosting.
Cut the pretzel twists in half with a serrated knife, sawing back and forth slowly to cut them perfectly. This works well to make even, precise antlers. Of course, you can always just break the pretzels freely to make realistic, random antlers!
Use two small 6 inch cake pans to make smaller cookie bars. Divide the dough between the two pans and bake for only 15 minutes. Cut the small cookie circles into 8 and decorate them the same as the larger reindeer. This gives you more, bite sized reindeer cookies that are perfect for buffets and dessert bars.

So are you ready to make Christmas reindeer cookies? I definitely am! I love these reindeer cookie bars and how simple they are to make during such a crazy busy season. I think you are going to enjoy making and eating them, too! Let me know what you think!

MORE YUMMY DESSERTS TO TRY!

I hope you like this recipe for Reindeer Cookie Bars– be sure to give it a review below!

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