Christmas Honey And Cocoa Cookies

In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and water and stir until the soda is completely dissolved. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream margarine with sugar using an electric hand-held mixer. Blend in the eggs and the yolks, one at a time. Add the seasoning, honey and cocoa powder. Mix to combine. Pour in the baking soda-water mixture and mix well. Add the sifted flour gradually and mix until combined.

Put your dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Then use your palms to knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. Knead until a stiff dough forms. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 to 7 days.

Heat your oven to 355 F (180 C). Divide the dough into smaller pieces, and roll each piece to a 1/3 inch thickness. Cut into hearts or whatever shape you desire. Put the cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking tray, spacing them about an inch apart.

Bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes. When cookies are ready remove them from the oven, and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

In the meantime, make the egg white frosting. Beat the egg whites using a mixer until stiff but not dry-looking. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Note the frosting includes raw eggs so those with sensitivities to this may want to make the frosting mixture using sugar and water, or use your preferred frosting recipe.

Now the time has come to decorate the cookies. The eyes are made by dropping a dot of frosting where the eyes should be and topping the frosting with a black pearl. The nose is made by topping a dot of frosting with an M&M (put this below the eyes, where you want the nose to be). The pretzels are used to make the ears. Put a little line of white frosting in two spots above the eyes (where you want the ears to be) and stick a pretzel on top. If you cannot buy black pearls, just color about 1/3 of the frosting with black food coloring.

The real number of cookies is roughly 100, not 36 which is more than the TastyKitchen serving size menu allows.