Poinsettia Blossom Cookies

I combined a couple of recipes to come up with this one after being inspired by cookies I saw on the cover of a magazine. The dough tends to be a bit sticky, so make sure your knife is sharp when cutting the petals; you may need to spray it with non-stick cooking spray as well. We like these cookies made with black cherry or cherry Jell-O. The additional food coloring makes the color a bit more vivid. Use red paste food coloring for a really bright presentation. These cookies would also be cute for Easter, by using lemon, lime or orange-flavored Jell-O.

• Ready In: 53 mins
• Yields: 3 dozen

Ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup butter, softened
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 (3 ounce) package  red Jell-O, dry
• 2  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract or 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon  red food coloring (optional)
• 2 1⁄2 cups flour
•  red sugar crystals
• 36  miniature M&M's chocolate candies (yellow)
• 1⁄2 cup  frosting, if using

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, dry Jell-O powder, eggs and extract. Add baking powder, salt, and food coloring. Add flour and mix well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate about 2 hours or until dough is firm. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and roll in red-colored sugar. Place balls about 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Using a sharp knife, make cuts in top of each ball, not quite all the way through, to make 6 pie-shaped wedges. Spread wedges apart very slightly to form flower petals; cookies will separate and flatten as they bake. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. If using candies, immediately press one candy in center of each cookie. Let cookies cool on baking sheet a minute and then remove to wire rack to cool completely. If not using candies, pipe a dab of prepared cake frosting in center of each cookie when they are completely cooled.