<p>We always make sugar cookies, spritz, and kiffles. A couple of years ago I decided to make some spritz using the camel disk. I guess I didn’t back off the cookie press soon enough, and the camels came out looking like buffalos. To this day, my DD wants Christmas buffalo cookies. (Who wants a skinny ole camel-shaped cookie anyway?! lol)</p>
<p>I love Spritz, too and make little green wreaths every year as the “bring to work” cookie…I wonder if that’s the favorite Christmas cookie. I know it was the cookie I always let the boys make from the time they were old enough to push the plunger because it was the one I like to help make when I was little.</p>
<p>Sugar cookie cut outs with my grandma’s ancient cookie cutters! And topped with homemade icing - butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and milk. And of course sparkly colored sugar. Wish I could post my pic from last christmas. They were so crayola bright and pretty.</p>
<p>Love the peanut butter “kiss” cookies…but also…</p>
<p>Peanut butter balls ( know, more of a candy, but it ranks at the top )</p>
<p>Sugar cookies…my secret is almond extract instead of vanilla and I only do this at Christmas time…ummmm! :-)</p>
<p>spritz, the powdered sugar weding cookie things, and the peanutbutter with kisses. You all said them before me! LOL</p>
<p>does anyone have any amazing (and simple) ginger cookie recipes. I had one I loved - really gingery and melt in your mouth - that I lost when we moved (23 years ago and I am still missing those cookies). It did not have other spices - just ginger - and was not hard like a ginger snap. About the only thing I can remember about it is that it had ginger in it and to bake them you plonked a dollop of dough on the baking sheet and pressed it down gently with the tines of a fork.</p>
<p>My favorite cookie is from the Penzys catalog.
Ginger Snaps</p>
<p>[Recipes</a> at Penzeys Spices Gingersnap Cookies](<a href=“http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/recipes/r-penzeysgingersnaps.html]Recipes”>HomePage | Penzeys)</p>
<p>If you store in an airtight container they are hard, leave on a plate and they are soft. I LOVE THESE…the flavor is very intense and just a couple of cookies really satisfy the urge.</p>
<p>Similar to earlier post, these are my faves!
Chewy Ginger Cookies
3/4 C EACH butter and Crisco
2 C Sugar, plus some for ‘shaking’
1/2 C DARK molasses
2 eggs
4 C flour ( I prefer White Lilly flour. It does make a difference!)
4 t baking soda
2 t EACH cinnamon, ginger, & ground cloves
1 t salt</p>
<p>Cream butter and Crisco with 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in dark molasses and eggs. Sift together flour, soda spices and salt. Mix into creamed mixture. Chill 2 hours. Roll dough into one to one and one half inch balls and shake in a bag of sugar.
Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9-12 minutes in a 350 degrees oven. Makes about 60 cookies. (Bake at about 9 minutes for a nice, chewy cookie.)</p>
<p>I am away for a week, in NY for Thanksgiving to see my parents and D1. When I get back I will post the cookie recipe. I don’t remember the proportion.</p>
<p>I am going to share this thread with D2 because she is a baker. When she is stressed, she bakes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recipes everyone and I look forward to seeing yours as well oldfort. I am looking forward to trying ALL off them!! :)</p>
<p>I do make a cookie my mum used to make called Swedish Melting Moments and they do melt in your mouth. Kind of a short bread cookie with a lemon/confectionary sugar icing on top. Bluedad and the boys make the bulk of the cookies where they do quantity over quality but they enjoy the heck out of it and it’s their tradition so I’ve never tried to alter it.</p>
<p>Thanks for recipe sharing. I love cookies. Ok, more the eating than baking. I rarely bake them because H is not a cookie guy and then I eat them all…Now I’m going to go back to the Weight Loss for dummies thread. I love ginger cookies and jelly in the middle/shortbread cookies.</p>
<p>Good timing for me on this thread. I am going to my first cookie exchange party this year and I’m not a baker so I am on the lookout for fabulous no fail recipes. I am capable of baking - just don’t do it.</p>
<p>Praying lady, do you sub the almond extract for vanilla in the cookies? Like the same measurements? I have heard others do this as well.</p>
<p>Holiday Favorite -Caramel Nut Brownies (making these tomorrow - not a cookie, but will be a hit anyway) </p>
<p>Ingredients
· 14 ounces caramels (48)
· 1/3 cup evaporated milk ( 5 OZ CAN DIVIDED as recipe states below)
· 1 (18.25 ounce) package German chocolate cake mix (with pudding mix inside)
· 1/2 cup butter, melted
· 1 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
· 1 cup semi-sweet milk chocolate chips</p>
<p>Directions
Peel caramels and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir in 1/3 cup evaporated milk. Heat and stir until all caramels are melted.
(Stir every minute until melted-approximately 3 minutes or so )</p>
<p>Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease a 9x13 inch pan. (Suggestion use parchment paper, which makes getting them cut and out much, much, much easier)</p>
<p>In a large mixing bowl, mix together remaining milk,
cake mix, melted butter,</p>
<p>Press ** 1/2 of mixture in prepared baking pan.<a href=“This%20will%20be%20a%20very%20thin%20layer-it%20will%20rise%20when%20cooked%20don’t%20worry”>/b</a>
Bake for 8 minutes.</p>
<p>Sprinkle 1 cup of walnuts and 1/2 cup of chips Top with Caramel</p>
<p>Using a teaspoon, make small balls with the batter and smash flat. Very carefully, place on top of the caramel sauce until the top is covered. If there are small gaps not to worry will fill in.
Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup chips
Bake for an additional 18 minutes.</p>
<p>Remove and let cool. Then cut.</p>
<p>I thought The Gourmet Cookie Book was a bit disappointing - (they did the best recipe from each year) - but they had the best thumbprint cookie I have ever had. Here’s the recipe: </p>
<p>Aunt Sis’s Strawberry Tart Cookies
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 sticks cold unsalted butter cut up in bits (no wonder they are good!)
2 large egg yolks, beaten lightly
1 cup strained strawberry jam (I used blackberry too and it was good as well)</p>
<p>In a large bowl whisk dry ingredients, add butter and blend the mixture till it resembles a coarse meal. Stir in egg yolks, and blend till it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic and chill at least two hours or overnight. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it soften a bit. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll level teaspoons into little balls (these will be tiny adorable cookies) and arrange the balls on a cookie sheet about two inches apart. Use your thumb to make an indentation in each cookie - if it cracks reroll the dough. Fill each indentation with about 1/4 tsp jam and cook in the middle of the over 12 to 15 minutes until edges are pale golden. Let cookies cool on the sheet for two minutes before transferring them to racks to cool completely. Can be made one month in advance and kept frozen in airtight containers.</p>
<p>When I was younger my Great Aunt Edith used to send tins of her Christmas cookies to everyone in the family. She did eventually pass on her secrets which were to knead the dough by hand, to make the cookies small, to refrigerate the dough overnight and then to work in small batches so the dough stays cold. My favorite cookies of hers that I make are a crisp gingerbread with molasses and a powder covered ground almond crescent. But the cookie she made that I haven’t seen anywhere else is this refrigerator cookie. I like it because you make a few logs and then you just cut off cookies and have them fresh each day.</p>
<p>Aunt Edith’s Almond Icebox Cookies</p>
<p>2 sticks butter
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups white flour
1/4 pound of chopped or sliced almonds</p>
<p>Mix butter and sugars, then add egg yolks and mix thoroughly. Add flour and soda and mix and finally the almonds. Form into logs about 1" in diameter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight or longer (I’ve kept it for weeks.) Slice into thin rounds (about 1/8") and bake on greased cookie sheets at 325 degrees for 10 to 11 minutes.</p>
<p>Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies - These are excellent and fast and easy</p>
<p>Yield: Makes 5 dozen
8 ounces softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour - I use whole wheat
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups cranberries
2 cups old fashioned whole grained oats
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
12 ounces white chips
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the creamed mixture one at a time, and then beat in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and beat these dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Fold in the craisins, oats, and orange peel, then stir in the white chips. Place rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees F until the cookies are lightly browned (10-12 minutes). Cool and serve.</p>
<hr>
<p>If you can find the Christmas issue of Bon Appetit 1983 (online maybe) - it has the best collection of international Christmas cookies.</p>
<p>Well since someone asked for ginger cookies these are my favorite: </p>
<p>My mother always used a dove shaped cookie cutter for these. For our neighborhood holiday party I usually do a mix of six and five pointed stars.</p>
<p>Aunt Edith’s Ginger Birds
2 sticks soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
2/3 cup corn syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
4 1/2 cups sifted flour</p>
<p>Cream butter and sugars. Add molasses and corn syrup and mix well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to the other ingredients. Knead till smooth. Chill several hours. Roll out very thin (about 1/8" though if you like a chewy cookie you can make them thicker). Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. This is a tough dough - you can re-roll scraps and they don’t seem to suffer in quality. Some people like a little lemon icing on these, but it certainly isn’t necessary.</p>
<p>All of these sound delicious. I think the thumbprint/tart cookies sound great. I had been leaning towards doing these for the party, but many of the recipes you all are recommending are very tempting. </p>
<p>[Thumbprint</a> Cookies Recipe & Video - Joyofbaking.com <em>Tested Recipe</em>](<a href=“Page Not Found- Joyofbaking.com”>Thumbprint Cookies - Joyofbaking.com *Video Recipe*)</p>
<p>To make thumb print cookies different, use ground almond instead of flour, raspberry jam center, sliced almond spokes from center to edge, 3-4/cookie.</p>
<p>A few old friends and I make cookies together every year. It takes hours, but is well worthwhile for the variety. Due to two of us having offspring with nut allergies, they all have to be nut free these days.</p>
<p>Some of my favorites are:</p>
<p>Ginger biscotti
Krumkakke
chocolate waffle cookies
Thumbprints
butterscotch refrigerator cookies
Nanaimo bars
creme de Menthe bars</p>
<p>not nut free, but my personal favorite, non baked, Brandy Balls</p>
<p>If interested in any of these, would be happy to post recipes</p>