Pan-Styled Santa Claus Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 package (500 g) of dry sugar cookie mix
• 220 g powdered sugar (about 1 cup)
• 1 tbsp. dry egg powder
• Red food coloring
• Red decorative sugar, for sprinkling
• 8 sugar pearls, for decoration
• Unsalted butter, to grease the pan
• Special equipment: 20cm cast iron frying pan, 3 pastry bags, a #13 small star tip, a #3 round tip, and a #4 round tip

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and generously grease a 20cm cast iron skillet with butter.
2. Mix the sugar cookie dough according to package directions. Spoon half the dough into the prepared pan and spread it evenly, right up to the sides. Set the remaining dough aside for another use.
3. Bake until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 11-13 minutes. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the cookies with a large spatula and place them on a cutting board.
4. Cut the cookies:
   
   Heat a small, sharp knife by dipping it in boiling water for 3 minutes. Wipe the knife dry and carefully cut the cookies into 8 wedges, leaving the pieces in place. Cut slowly, otherwise the cookies may crumble. Let the cookies cool completely on a cutting board.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the royal icing.:
   
   In a large bowl, combine the powdered sugar and dry egg whites. Add 2 tablespoons of water and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft, glossy peaks form, 3-4 minutes (you may need to add up to 1 more teaspoon of water).
6. Transfer a quarter of the icing to a pastry bag fitted with a #13 star tip.
7. Tint the remaining icing red. Transfer 1/4 cup red icing to a small bowl and add water, 1/4 teaspoon at a time, to thin it (when squirting the icing with a spoon, the lines should disappear within 5 seconds). This will be your filling icing. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip #3. Transfer the remaining thick red icing to a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip #4.
8. Decorate the cookies:
   
   Using thick red icing and a #4 tip, pipe a 5cm (2") circle in the center of the cookie. Using the same icing, pipe eight 2.5cm (1") circles on eight slits, each 2.5cm (1") from the edge of the cookie. Each triangle cookie should have two semicircles on the side.
9. Fill each circle with icing using a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip. Sprinkle each circle with decorative red sugar. If any sugar gets on the cookies, brush it off with a pastry brush. Your Santa Clauses are taking shape: the segments in the large red circle are the hats; the small circles are the mittens.
10. Place a white pearl on the tip of each triangle cookie to create a small white circle of pearls in the middle of the red center circle. These are the pom-poms on Santa Claus hats.Pipe stars of white icing around the edge of the central red circle. This will be the edge of the caps.
11. Working with one triangle cookie at a time and starting from the edge of the white border, pipe a V shape with white icing, the corner of which will be between the two red semicircles. Repeat with the remaining cookie. You should end up with a white eight-pointed star surrounding the central red circle. You have drawn 8 Santa Claus beards..
12. Pipe a small dot of thick red icing from a piping bag fitted with a #4 tip into the middle of each V (Now every Santa has a nose). Finally, pipe stars of white icing around the outer edge of the cookies. This is the trim on every Santa's coat..
13. Let the glaze dry before serving, about 30 minutes.