These are very pretty but they don't have a lot of flavor. They are pretty bland. I used a natural food coloring so mine were pink which was fine with me. I like pink pointsettias. I also used mini chocolate chips or peanut butter chips in the middle instead of the icing. Next time I will reserve a bit of dough, color it yellow and roll up tiny balls to press in the middle before baking. In order to get the pretty shape you need to first make the slices in the dough ball, then gently pull the pieces out from the center. They will look like flowers before you bake them so keep working with the dough ball to work the petals into the shape you want before baking. They do not unfold on their own during baking so you need to do that before.

Question. Reviewers commented that these cookies turned out pink, not red. Could it be because there is nowhere in the recipe instructions that tell you when to add the red decorator sugar? So, when do you add it? Sounds like these would be a hit if they turned out red. :0) ( Oh, the 5 stars are for your beautiful cookies and photos!)

The recipe i originally submitted, before being accepted and edited, said to use about 20 drops of red food color to make the cookies. Since then, I have decided that i like the way the cookies look much better when i use red gel food color from the craft store. I just keep adding little dabs of color and mixing until i get the perfect color. And I roll the cookie balls in the red decorator sugar before they are cut into sixths for the petals...In my original recipe i also said that i baked the cookies on sheets lined with aluminum foil (dull side up, so as not to burn the cookies!) so that I could peel them off easier after baking. Hope this helps, because when done right, these cookies are such a pretty and yummy addition to any christmas cookie tray.

If you use food coloring instead of paste you're going to end up with pink cookies. Use paste instead to get a true red color. The cookies themselves are yummy and pretty! I love sugarplum's picture in this recipe. Her cookies always rock!!

I thought these cookies tasted really good but they didn't look nearly as attractive as in the picture. The dough is hard to work with. I think next time I will try a cookie press.

My cookies looked nothing like the ones in the picture. I more than doubled the amount of red food coloring, and still wound up with pink cookies rather than red ones. Also, it is rather difficut to make slits in one-inch balls of dough that are spaced one-inch apart other one-inch balls of dough on a baking sheet. My cookies did not flatten like the ones in the picture, but stayed in more or less the shape of a ball. I had to bake much longer than the recipe instructed. The end result was a very unattactive, and not too tasty cookie. I didn't even bother with the yellow dots. No one raved about these cookies. One friend said, "I kind of liked them," and I gave him the remainder of the batch. Maybe I did something wrong? I followed the recipe to a T. I might try them again next Christmas to find out for sure.

Great Christmas recipe, except I used yellow M&m's in the middle instead of icing. Just push in center when cookies come out of oven.