Eggnog Cookies Three Ways

This recipe made 119 cookies, so I finished them in 3 different ways.  Chocolate drizzle with walnuts, chocolate thumbprint with various toppings and pecan with eggnog frosting. It makes a very light cookie, so be careful you might not realize how many you're eating!

 Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 tsps vanilla
• 1 cup eggnog
• 1 1/2 tbsps rum extract
• 5 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsps baking soda
• 2 tsps cinnamon
• 1 tsp cream of tarter
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger

Sugar Mixture

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Place shortening and sugar in bowl and cream until fluffy. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.

Roll into balls, dip in sugar mixture and place on cookie sheet.

Press  some of them down with a fork. These will be for the drizzle cookies.

For thumbprint cookies make an indentation with your thumb, or finger or even the end of a wooden spoon.

Bake 350F for 12 minutes. Let cool. 
When you take them out of the oven, re-press the center slightly for the thumbprint cookies.

For the thumbprint cookies melt some chocolate chips and spoon into indentations. Have your toppings at hand, ready to drop onto the warm chocolate as you go. I used dried cranberries, slivered almonds, coloured sprinkles and walnuts.

To melted chocolate chips (approx. 1/2 cup) I added 1/2 tsp of shortening.  Mix until melted together.  While still warm drizzle from a spoon over top of fork-flattened cookies. Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top while chocolate is still warm and sprinkle some of the leftover sugar/nutmeg mixture on top of that.

Finally I creamed 3 tbsps of butter with 4 tbsps of eggnog.  Add 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of icing sugar, mixing well between several additions.  This mixture frosted about 36 cookies. Cap them off with a pecan half.

How will you decorate and finish yours?