One of the pitfalls of being on Instagram (which I love!) is the never ending great photos of delicious looking holiday treats! My kids keep sending me pics saying “let’s make these!” while I’m saying “fine - but what other cookie are you willing to drop?” The answer is none of course!
Cookie baking will probably commence later this week. There are perennial favorites but I’d also like to try a couple new varieties. A mix of cookies and bars. Don’t really make any “candy”.
Maybe I’ll be more motivated if I read what everyone else is up to. Which recipe did or will you make first? Is there a MUST have cookie or two? Which one would you drop if you could without all h_ll breaking through? (sugar cookies with frosting for me - ALL those steps!!!)
If you don’t bake or don’t eat sugar that’s fine. I give away more than we eat so it’s part of our gift giving as well.
My two must-haves are Mexican Wedding Cakes/Russian Tea Cakes/Butterballs and Pepper cookies, which are horribly misnamed as there is only 1/4 tsp pepper in the entire recipe, which makes about 90 cookies!
We have a cookie baking every year with friends and with the kids coming home from college they want one for their friends so we are actually having TWO!
The cookies we make every year:
Gingerbread with decorations
Butter cookies with decorations
Spritz
Chocolate Chip
Orange sour cream drop cookies with orange glaze
Candy Cane cookies
Then everyone brings new ideas and new recipes to try out so the end result is a big variety of goodies. I’m hoping to do linzer tortes and caramel peanut butter brittle cookies. It’s the most WONDERFUL time of the YEEEAAAAAR.
Our favorites are Peanut Blossoms, Mexican Tea Cakes, and a kind of thumbprint cookie where the thumbprint is filled with a few chocolate chips and a walnut half.
This year at my sister’s house I made a thumbprint cookie where the thumbprint is filled with jam. My jam-loving brother-in-law hovered over my shoulder, complaining that I was “underjamming” them and explaining at great length and hilarity that it was impossible to “overjam” them. The jam cookies are gone, but the happy memories of all of us, covered with flour, jam and cookie dough and laughing about “overjamming,” remain.
@Leigh22 I buy the Betty Crocker mix as a cheater and it is well loved. We don’t do gingerbread people but just round cookies with a spritz of buttercream on top but they are a favorite. Right amount of “gingerbread” flavor.
Here is the recipe, typed from a page photocopied out of an old magazine. Martha Stewart? Not sure. I’ve had this recipe a long time. Enjoy!
Pecan Cranberry Biscotti
Makes 24
Pecans work well in this recipe, but you can substitute your favorite nut.
1.5 cups pecan halves, toasted
1 t. baking powder
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.25 cups sugar
1/8 t. salt
3 large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks
1 t. vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries
Zest of one lemon
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Finely chop half the pecans, leave remaining one in halves; set aside.
In electric mixer, combine baking powder, flour, sugar, and salt. In bowl, beat eggs, yolks, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients; mix on medium low until sticky dough is formed. Stir in pecans, cranberries and zest.
Turn dough out onto well-floured board, sprinkle with flour; knead slightly. Shape into 9-by-3.5 inch logs. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool enough to handle, about ten minutes. Reduce oven to 275 degrees.
On cutting board, slice logs on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. Return pieces cut side down to baking sheet. Bake until lightly toasted, about 20 minutes. Turn over. Bake 20 minutes or until slightly dry. Cool on wire rack. Store in airtight container.
I started baking last night. I make cream cheese spritz, white chocooate cherry shortbread, Andes mint, cut out sugar, and molasses cookies. Sometimes I dip pretzels in white chocolate and roll in sprinkles. The spritz go the fastest and I usually have to make them a second time.
I baked last week for a holiday fundraiser I was co-chairing. Made 9 doz cream cheese brownies, 6 doz pecan tassies, 7 doz chocolate dipped coconut macaroons and 8 doz almond macaroons. I was surprised by how fast the coconut macaroons were scooped off the table.
My list this year is apricot/coconut rum balls, orange/cranberry cookies, sugar cookies, pecan shortbread, chocolate crinkle cookies, Buckeyes and gingerbread… I give cookies to everyone in my family including the “kids” because I’m the only one who bakes so I make alot. I used to make these cookies I called almond joys because they were exactly like an almond joy bar, but I dropped them this year because they are too intense to whip together easily and I’m getting lazier as I get older! I also dropped cognac balls from one of the Silver Palate cookbooks which are yummy but I noticed I seem to be the only one who ate them and I don’t need eat all those cookies. I’ll bake. Others must eat.
Every yr our kids have a huge gingerbread house competition. The kitchen is a disaster for an entire day, but it has been a highlight of their Christmas vacations for at least 20 yrs. When they finish, we text out pictures of the houses unidentified by builder to dozens of people to vote on a winner. So many great memories!
