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Christmas Pudding Cookies are chocolate sugar cookies decorated to look like a traditional Christmas pudding which is a date pudding popular in the UK and my favorite holiday dessert growing up. Chocolate sugar cookies are simply decorated with fondant and icing, for a very festive cookie.

Chocolate cookies are decorated to look like a traditional Christmas pudding

If you’re not familiar with Christmas pudding, it is a dried fruit pudding that is traditionally served in the U.K. at Christmas for dessert, topped with brandy cream and garnished with holly (picture below).

A dark brown Christmas pudding on a plate with brandy sauce

I noticed that not only do I have a distinct lack of cookies on this blog, but I am desperate need of Christmas cookies, so I just changed that. Chocolate lovers will love how chocolatey these cookies are and they’re not too sweet.

Holiday cookies for gifts

These cookies make great gifts for teachers or just to thank your local delivery man or a holiday party hostess gift. I’m also posting a white chocolate, pistachio and cranberry fudge later this week, which also makes a festive gift.

The cookies in the stages of frosting and decorating

The cookies are chocolate sugar cookies that I adapted from my friend Allie from Baking a Moment recipe.  Allie is a very talented baker and she has great tips to get perfectly smooth cookies that don’t spread which is perfect for these cookies to get a perfectly round look. Thanks Allie!

To reproduce the look of the cream that is drizzled over the pudding,  I took a little help from Wilton.com and used their pre-packaged icing.  

The icing is easy to use and spreads beautifully and hardens quickly into a smooth frosting.  

The holly is made from fondant dyed green, also bought from Wilton and to cut the leaves I used this holly leaf plunger and the berries are red frosting.

Making green holly fondant decorations

If you do choose to give these Christmas pudding cookies as gifts, you could nestle in a wooden box, like cute one I found. Or, place them in cellophane gift bags that are used for party favors that can be found in so many stores and secure them with pretty holiday ribbon. Fun gift and personalized giving.

A gift box full of Christmas pudding cookies

A delicious drink to enjoy with these cookies is Santa’s Spiked Rum Milk. And don’t forget to leave some for the man himself.

Santa's Rum Spiked Milk with a coconut rim and dusted with nutmeg
Yield: 20

Christmas Pudding Cookies

A closeup of the cookies showing the pretty fondant green holly and white frosting

Christmas pudding cookies are chocolate sugar cookies decorated to look like a traditional Christmas pudding which is a date pudding popular in the UK 

Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 12 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 stick/1/4 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cold cut into small cubes
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (75 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cups (194 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup (30 grams) corn starch
  • 10 ounces (156 grams) white cookie icing
  • 12 ounces (283 grams) green fondant

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C..
  2. To a mixing bowl with hand blender or stand mixer add the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla. Cream until the sugar is dissolved and smooth then add the egg and mix in well. Don't over mix.
  3. Use a spatula to fold in the salt, cocoa powder, flour and corn starch. Mix until there is no flour visible.
  4. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and turn out the dough into the center.
  5. Cut the dough in half and wrap half in plastic wrap and refrigerate. With the other 1/2 of the dough add to a sheet of parchment paper and put another sheet of parchment on top. (rolling in parchment stops the rolling pin from sticking to the dough).
  6. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2 inch cookie cutter, cut out rounds and put them onto a parchment covered baking sheet, 1/2 inch apart.
  7. Remove the other half of the cookie dough from the fridge and repeat, rolling it out and cutting the cookies. 
  8. Place them all on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
  9. Once cooled, use the white cookie icing to draw the frosting so it looks like it's dripping down the cookie.
  10. Roll out the green fondant and cut out the holly. Once the icing is dry, place the holly at the top and in the middle of the icing.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 114Saturated Fat 3gCholesterol 20mgSodium 73mgCarbohydrates 14gProtein 1g
© Janette
Cuisine: British / Category: Dessert