‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond: Cookies for Santa Sundae Is a Festive Christmas Treat
Christmas desserts are a welcome part of the holiday season. During this time of year, Ree Drummond finalizes the Christmas dessert menu at The Pioneer Woman Mercantile. One of the desserts that will be on the menu this year is the Cookies for Santa Sundae.
This delicious recipe was created by Michael Calhoun, the general manager at P-Town (Drummond’s pizza shop) and Charlie’s (Drummond’s ice cream shop). Here’s what Calhoun showed The Pioneer Woman during her TV special.
The Pioneer Woman Mercantile Cookies for Santa Sundae
During the discovery+ Hometown Stories series, Drummond gives us a peek inside the process for creating desserts for the holiday menu at The Mercantile. Drummond, along with her son, Todd, chose between the Merry Berry Sundae and the cookies for Santa Sundae. As you probably guessed, the Cookies for Santa Sundae won, and will be the featured dessert on the holiday menu at The Mercantile.
Michael Calhoun, the general manager at P-Town and Charlie’s, whipped up the Cookies for Santa Sundae. Calhoun starts by placing cookies and cream, chocolate chip cookie dough, and mint chocolate chip ice cream into a bowl. Then he drizzles hot caramel and hot fudge on top of the ice cream.
Making Santa’s ‘hat’ and finishing the sundae
Calhoun makes Santa’s hat next. He makes waffle cone batter and mixes in cocoa power and red food coloring. One question Drummond has is how Calhoun makes the Santa hat bend at the end. He tells her that once you make the waffle batter and roll the cone, you have roughly 30 seconds before it hardens. Within that time, all you have to do is bend the end of the cone before the mixture gets hard.
Calhoun decorates the Santa “hat” by adding marshmallow cream around the top of the cone so that it looks like the fur of Santa’s hat. Next, Calhoun places a chocolate chip cookie on the side of the ice cream. A marshmallow is placed on the end of the cone, which is supposed to resemble the pom pom at the end of Santa’s hat.
Finally, red and green sprinkles are placed on top of the sundae. Drummond joked that there’s so much cream that it looks like Santa is underneath all the toppings. You can find the complete ingredients and directions here.
Todd Drummond does the cookies for Santa sundae taste test
When Todd visited Charlie’s to do the taste test, it was clear which sundae he liked best. Drummond pointed out that he spent more time eating the Cookies for Santa Sundae than he spent eating the Merry Berry Sundae. Todd took just one bite of the merry berry sundae and about 12 bites (according to Drummond) of the cookies for Santa sundae.
Some of the things Todd (Drummond calls him her “resident sweets expert”) liked about the Cookies for Santa Sundae was the addition of the cookie and the marshmallow cream. He also liked the caramel and crunchy sprinkles. He says the ice cream cone is really what makes this sundae stand out from the other one.
RELATED: 4 of Drummond’s Kitchen Secrets
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