I've posted pictures of some of the cookies we have made to give away to friends and neighbors.
I got a late start on making Christmas cookies this year. All three kids came down with some stomach bug on Monday (what a great way to begin Christmas break!) and I didn't think it would be a good idea for me to be baking tasty treats that they couldn't eat. Fortunately everyone is feeling well again so today we made Fudge Ecstacies, Forgotten Cookies, and Peanut Blossoms.
Peanut Blossoms
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. peanut butter
2 Tbl. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
sugar
milk chocolate kisses (about 48)
Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, combine flour, 1/2 c. sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, shortening, peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg; blend at low speed until stiff dough forms. Shape into 1 inch balls; roll sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately top each cookie with a candy kiss, pressing down firmly so cookie cracks around edge; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely. Makes 4 dozen.
I won't be making as many types of cookies as I have for past Christmases because of the late start but I plan on making at least another two or three batches tomorrow.
Carnival of the Recipes #18 is up!
This week was so hectic that I forgot to post my recipes. I knew what ones I wanted to post, I just didn't remember it until about 12:30 last night. To late to make the Carnival so I decided I might as well wait until today to do it.
My family is still debating which of these chocolate cookie recipes we should make this year.
Fudge Ecstasies
1 (12-oz.) package semisweet chocolate chips
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 Tbls. butter
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt together 1 cup chocolate chips, unsweetened chocolate squares, and butter.
In a mixing bowl, beat melted chocolate, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Beat until well blended.
Stir in remaining cup of chocolate chips.
Drop by heaping teaspoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (or cover cookie sheet with parchment paper.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Edges should be firm and surface dull. Do not overbake.
Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute, remove to rack to continue cooling.
Makes 3 dozen
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. cooking oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. flour
sifted powdered sugar
Combine melted chocolate, oil, and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in vanilla, salt, flour and baking powder. Chill for at least two hours (or overnight.) Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
Recipe List:
Mulled Apple Cider
Scorpion Bowls
Pot Stickers for Putzes
Chicken Quesadillas
Very Best Spinach and Salad Dressing
Taunton's Spiced Pecans
Easy Orange Roughy
Sicilian Meatloaf
Poor Man's BBQ
Blue Cheese Steak Wellington
Beef Burgundy
Heidi's White Hot Chicken Chili
John Boy's Chili
Chicken Enchilada Soup
Beer Beef Stew
Chili Verde
What's a Garbanzo Bean Soup
Shrimp Jambalya
Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti
English Toffee
Beigli and Chrusciki
Cranberry Pie
Chocolate Covered Cranberries
Cookies - Ginger Cookies, Chocolate Chunk Macaroons
Black and White Chocolate Mousse Cake
Black Russian Chocolate Chip Kahlua Cake
Snickerdoodles
Infamous Pie Crust
Kentucky Cream Candy
Cookies - Fudge Ecstacies, Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
These are rectangular cookies with stripes of green, brown, and pink.
Ribbon Cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1/4 cup finely chopped maraschino cherries, well drained
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 square (1 oz.) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
6 drops green food coloring
Line a 9"x5" or 8"x4" loaf pan with foil.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, vanilla, and egg; blend until a stiff dough forms.
Divide the dough into three parts. Stir the cherries and almond extract into one part, the chocolate into the second, and the nuts and green food coloring into the third.
Spoon and evenly press (in any order) the chocolate, green/nut, and cherry doughs into the lined pan. Cover; chill several hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the dough from the pan. Cut in half lengthwise. Cut each half into 1/4" slices. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 7 to 9 minutes until edges are slightly brown.
Cool on wire racks.
You can decorate these cookies with colored sugar or other decorations before baking or decorate the cooled cookies with icing or frosting. If you're going to be doing a lot of baking, make the dough the day before and cut and bake these cookies the next day before the kitchen gets too warm. The cooler the room is, the easier the dough will be to handle and the less flour you will need when rolling it out. These cookies are soft and puffy but too much flour can make them tough.
3 1/4 c. cake flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. sour cream
Combine dry ingredients; set aside. Cream butter. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla; beat well. Beat in sour cream. Gradually add dry ingredients. Chill dough for at least an hour.
Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness onto a lightly floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Bake on lightly greased or parchment paper covered cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes (adjust time for size of cookies).
Either the icing or the frosting may be tinted with food coloring. You can use liquid coloring for pale colors but need paste coloring for darker colors. Once the icing/frosting is made, divide it into separate bowls to add the coloring.
Royal Icing - makes a hard, shiny glaze.
3 egg whites (1/4 cup pasteurized egg whites)
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract, optional
Beat egg whites, sugar and cream of tarter with mixer at medium speed for about 5 to 7 minutes. Use immediately or store in covered containers.
Put the rack of cookies on top of wax paper to catch the drips then you can dip the cookies in the icing or spread it on with a table knife. (If your icing begins to harden while you're using it, stir in a drop or two of warm water.)
Vanilla Frosting
1/3 c. shortening
1 T. margarine
3 c. sifted powdered sugar
3 T. milk
1 1/2 t. vanilla
Beat all ingredients together until well mixed. Spread or pipe onto cookies.
I made these last Christmas for the first time and will probably make them again this year.
3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 pound butter, softened
1 cup flour
1/3 cup raspberry preserves
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond paste, crumbled
In an electric mixer, cream cheese and butter until fluffy, add flour. Mix just until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Press ball into a greased mini muffin pan or you can also use the mini muffin paper cups in the muffin pans instead. Divide the preserves among the pastries (about 1/2 tsp. in each.)
Beat together the egg, sugar, and almond paste. Spoon 1 level teaspoon of the almond mixture over the preserves in each pastry.
Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
Remove pan from the oven. Cool in slightly pan on a wire rack, then remove from pan to continue cooling. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Store in an airtight container.
Makes 2 dozen
As I promised last week, I'm going to be sharing my Christmas cookie recipes for my Carnival of the Recipes posts. Every year I try one or two new recipes. There are also some recipes that I will make once every few years. They're all good recipes but I can't make them all every year so I select the ones that will balance out the rest of my choices. (I try to get an assortment of types - bar, shaped, drop, rolled - and flavors.)
There are also some recipes that I make every year. The first two of these are Childhood Thumbprint Cookies and Forgotten Cookies. Not only are these two of my family's favorites, they also work well together because one recipe uses two egg yolks and the other recipe uses two egg whites. The thumbprint cookies are a shortbread-like cookie filled with fudge. The forgotten cookies are chocolate chip filled meringue cookies that I make at the end of the day since they need to sit in a warm oven overnight.
This recipe came from Southern Living magazine, December 1985.
1 c. butter
2/3 c. sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. salt
Cream butter; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
Combine flour and salt; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Chill.
Roll dough into 1" balls; place balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Press thumb in each ball of dough, leaving an indentation. Bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes; do not brown. Allow to cool on wire racks. Place about 1/2 t. chocolate frosting in each cookie indentation.
Chocolate Frosting:
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract
Combine sugar, cocoa, and milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, and boil 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Beat until mixture is of spreading consistency.
I won a ribbon at the Kentucky State Fair one year with this recipe.
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
2/3 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 c. mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and continue beating until they stand in soft peaks. Gradually add sugar, beating thoroughly until mixture form stiff peaks.
Sprinkle vanilla and chocolate chips over the top; fold in.
Drop by small teaspoons onto lightly buttered cookie sheet (or cover cookie sheet with parchment). The cookies may be close together since they will not spread.
Place in hot oven and turn the oven off immediately. Let the cookies dry overnight in the oven.
This is the time of year when I usually begin thinking about cookies. Every year for...well, it's none of your business how many years, I have made Christmas cookies. Not just a batch or two but lots and lots of cookies.
When we bought our house the thing that sold me was the size of the kitchen. I thought, I'll have room for a half dozen or more cooling racks and still have space to spare!
I have scaled back my cookie making from when I was younger. It's not age slowing me down, it's the increase in "helpers". The more children I have helping, the longer it all seems to take. I still make at least ten or more different types of cookies (about half of what I used to make.)
I'll share a recipe or two each week for my Carnival of the Recipes posts. This week's recipe is for Marbled Cheesecake Bars. I'm making these today for my sons' Tae Kwon Do bake sale.
Marbled Cheesecake Bars
2 cups finely crushed creme-filled chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs (about 24)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 (14-oz) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (1 oz) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line 13x9" baking pan with heavy foil; set aside. In medium bowl, combine crumbs and butter; press firmly on bottom of prepared pan.
In large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Pour half the batter evenly over prepared crust.
Stir melted chocolate into remaining batter; spoon over vanilla batter. With table knife or metal spatula, gently swirl through batter to marble.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Cool. Chill. Cut into bars. Store covered in refrigerator.
Makes 2 to 3 dozen bars.
I spent yesterday baking cookies and will do the same for most of today along with fixing a side dish to take to the Christmas festivies with my husband's side of the family so it will be a light blogging day.
See "Continue reading..." for the list of cookies I've made. I'll add to it as I make more.
Cookies I've made so far include:
M&M Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
Pumpkin Bars
Tiny Holiday Tarts
Fudge Ecstacies
Cookies 'n' Cream Brownies
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pecan Tassies
Molasses Sugar Cookies