Hidden Surprise Rudolph Noses with Baileys Irish Cream and Chocolate Frosting

Hidden Surprise Rudolph Noses with Baileys Irish Cream and Chocolate Frosting
Milwaukee Published 6:00 a.m. CT Dec. 5, 2017
 jsonline.com  https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/food/recipes/2017/12/05/hidden-surprise-rudolph-noses-baileys-irish-cream-and-chocolate-frosting/898602001/

Marianne Baseheart of Milwaukee created this Triple Play cookie with Rudolph’s red nose in mind. As for the addition of Bailey’s Irish cream: “The reindeer have to keep warm, right?”
Recipe tested by Joanne Kempinger Demski

Makes 2 dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon double-strength vanilla
36 maraschino cherries, drained and laid out on paper towels to dry
¼ cup chocolate chips (also for hidden centers)
Baileys Irish cream/chocolate frosting:

2 ½ tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons Baileys Irish cream
In a bowl, beat butter with powdered sugar until creamy. Mix in cornstarch, flour and vanilla.

Dough will be soft and buttery.

Gently press a piece of paper toweling on top of cherries to absorb extra moisture. Cut 12 cherries in half to use later as “noses.”

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Now you’re ready to make the individual cookies with the hidden surprise inside.

Using a measuring spoon, scoop out 1 level tablespoon of dough. Scoop dough out of spoon and then stick your thumb into center of dough. Place a cherry and three chocolate chips inside the thumbprint and gently press them down.

Using dough that has been displaced, cover top of chips and cherry. Gently round out the dough using your hands.

Place about an inch apart on foil-lined baking sheet. (Foil makes it easier to remove the delicate shortbread.) Bake in preheated oven 12 to 14 minutes until very bottom of cookies begins to lightly brown. Remove from oven and cool on the cookie sheet.

If you try to move them while they are warm, they will crumble.

While cookies cool, make frosting: In a bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and cocoa until creamy. Add liqueur and mix until smooth. If it is too thick to spread easily, add milk a teaspoon at a time.

Once cookies are cooled, frost “noses” with the frosting. Put a cherry half on top for Rudolph’s Nose.

When the frosting sets, press the side of a wooden skewer into place below the nose to create the split or the “cleft” of the reindeer nose — so they look like reindeer snoots!