Christmas Cookies

[SusanGiff]

A little early but I'll bump this up to make it easy to find. Last year my faves out of everything I made were Tejon's coconut cranberry chews from page 8 of this thread. Anybody got anything new and interesting?

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Hey, amazing! I logged on specifically to look for this thread. Must be the relative chill in the air. Thanks!

[milgwimper]

Does anyone have cookie recipes other than "biscotti" that can last over a week. I would like to bake cookies for friends and family but it takes about a week or so to get packages to my friends and family. I would really appreciate it if anyone had some good recipes to share.

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Fattigmands last forever. But so do a lot of cookies, especially when you freeze them. And I think it may be a rare cookie that can't be successfully frozen.

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I guess I should have been clearer. It take about a week or so for the mail to deliver my packages. Thanks for the Fattigmands recipe, I will have to try them!

[merstar]

Does anyone have cookie recipes other than "biscotti" that can last over a week. I would like to bake cookies for friends and family but it takes about a week or so to get packages to my friends and family. I would really appreciate it if anyone had some good recipes to share.

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These are very decadent and sturdy - they should hold up well when shipped:

Mocha Truffle Cookies

http://www.edining.ca/viewrecipe.asp?ID=985

[andiesenji]

Does anyone have cookie recipes other than "biscotti" that can last over a week. I would like to bake cookies for friends and family but it takes about a week or so to get packages to my friends and family. I would really appreciate it if anyone had some good recipes to share.

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The cocoa cookies I posted above will keep for weeks in a tightly sealed container. I am making them now for Christmas.

[milgwimper]

Does anyone have cookie recipes other than "biscotti" that can last over a week. I would like to bake cookies for friends and family but it takes about a week or so to get packages to my friends and family. I would really appreciate it if anyone had some good recipes to share.

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The cocoa cookies I posted above will keep for weeks in a tightly sealed container. I am making them now for Christmas.

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Thanks! I have it added to the cookie list! Thanks everyone for your suggestions and recipes!

[devlin]

What a stunning display.

I am an eternal fan of Maida Heatter's Sour Cream Pecan Dreams.  The best cookie in the world.

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Linda, could you maybe forward that recipe to me? I just bought a book of Heatter's cookies that I was sure had that in it, but alas, no recipe.

[andiesenji]

I love those Pecan Dreams also.

I also use a similar recipe that I have from an "Ideals" Christmas cookie book that must be 40 years old.

The only difference between the recipes is that the Ideals one calls for two teaspoons of rose water sprinkled on the pecan pieces an hour prior to adding to the other ingredients and occasional stirring so the nuts are infused with the flavor.

[Lindacakes]

Wa-la!

Sour Cream and Pecan Dreams

Compliments of Maida Heatter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cookie sheets with parchment or foil.

2 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 egg

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter.

Add vanilla and sugar and beat well.

Add egg and beat for a few minutes.

On low speed, add dry ingredients.

Beat only until smooth.

Make 3 balls, divided by 2, and again, and again, and again. (Exactly 48.)

Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

With a wooden handle, make a depression in each cookie.

Make topping.

Sour Cream and Pecan Topping

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sour cream

1 generous cup of pecans, finely chopped

Place sugar, cinnamon and sour cream in a small mixing bowl.

Stir until smooth with a rubber spatula.

Stir in nuts.

Drop some topping in each cookie depression with a small spoon.

Topping should be mounded fairly high above rims of cookies.

Bake 13 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

[Pat W]

Wa-la!

Sour Cream and Pecan Dreams

Compliments of Maida Heatter.

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Thank you!

pat w.

[devlin]

Wa-la!

Sour Cream and Pecan Dreams

Compliments of Maida Heatter.

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You are my hero. Thank you!

[The Old Foodie]

I've just posted my Macadamia and Orange Biscotti recipe to Recipe Gullet. I've been tweaking it long enough - my friends and family are begging me to stop fiddling with the recipe, they say it is great as it is!

It is here: http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2045.html

I make it all year round, but it is perfectly suitable for Christmas, especially as it packs and keeps well, and looks nice in a jar.

It can be varied many ways (choc-hazelnut is good) and also works well Gluten-Free.

[CaliPoutine]

Anybody bake anything good lately?

Today I made:

Candy cane shortbread

Jumbles( excellent!!)

Molasses crinkles( epicruious)

oatmeal pb pieces cookies

I'm getting ready to make Ina Garten's fruitcake cookies and dried cherry pistachio mexican wedding cakes.

I'll add a pic later!!

[Lindacakes]

I'd be very interested to know if you like Ina Garten's fruitcake cookies.

I have two recipes for fruitcake cookies I quite like -- one is Maida Heatter's California Fruit and Nut Bars (apricot, date and fig, I believe) and the other involves slivered almonds and three fruits (can't remember which, but it's a fabulous combo). Both really excellent.

I made the Cranberry Coconut chews touted upthread -- and I like them very much. Buttery, and tangy from the cranberry. The coconut is subtle, more a texture than a flavor.

I made Jayme's maple pecan popcorn, which I think is in Recipe Gullet. THAT was superb. I salted the pecans and I don't think I cooked by syrup long enough, it was a bit more chewy than crunchy. But WOW, was that good.

I also made Dolores Casella's Date Nut bread. I used some spectacular dates I'd gotten my hands on, and pecans. Although the bread was very good and I certainly don't have any trouble inhaling it, it wasn't quite what I wanted.

I plan on baking a lot of gingerbread for gifts this year and I'm in search of excellent gingerbread recipes. I like Tartine's Gingerbread Tiles a great deal -- there's another cookie thread in which someone has posted photos of her tiles done with a springerle pin. I did that last year and liked it a lot, but I want to use springerle molds for the same thing this year -- an old fashioned Santa I'd bought for spekulaas and just didn't like the spekulaas recipe. The color of the dough was like . . . ginger spice dough that had just received a terrible shock. It was a weird gray.

Anyway, I thought if I spent the winter seeking the perfect gingerbread recipes (both cake and cookies), then it will have been a winter well spent.

[CaliPoutine]

The fruitcake cookies were really good!!

[Curlz]

I made Jayme's maple pecan popcorn, which I think is in Recipe Gullet.  THAT was superb.  I salted the pecans and I don't think I cooked by syrup long enough, it was a bit more chewy than crunchy.  But WOW, was that good. 

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FYI, the recipe is called Caramel Popcorn, and it is in RecipeGullet, right here! Thanks for alerting us to this one, Linda--sounds great!

[patsikes]

I am looking for a new gingerbread cookie recipe that yields a nice fat puffy soft cookie cutouts.

I have a recipe that I like, but no matter how thick I try to roll them they are still crunchy.

One recipe I am contemplating for the puffy version is a honey based dough. It is from Disney and is what they use for their huge gingerbread houses. They sell cookies supposedly make from the same stuff which is close to what I want but with more spice.

Any ideas?

Otherwise, my cookie & candy plan for this year is:

-Snowflake Spritz

-Gingerbread cutouts

-Winter Wonderland Cookes (chocolate cookie with white chocolate chunks)

-peanut brittle

-fudge

-caramels

-turtles

Any help on a recipe would be great!!

[CaliPoutine]

Where can I find the coconut cranberry chew recipe?

[onehsancare]

Where can I find the coconut cranberry chew recipe?

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Page 8 of this thread, or here (I just copied it for my use!):

Coconut-Cranberry Chews

makes 7-8 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1½ cups (¾ lb.) butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 large egg

3¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1½ cups dried cranberries

1½ cups sweetened flaked dried coconut

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, beat 1½ cups butter, sugar, orange peel, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in egg until well blended.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture, stir to mix, then beat on low speed until dough comes together. Mix in cranberries and coconut.

Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on buttered baking sheets.

Bake at 350° F until edges just begin to brown, 11 to 15 minutes. If baking two sheets at once in one oven, switch their positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely.

[CaliPoutine]

Thanks!!

How much orange peel? I see it in the directions, but not the ingredients.

ETA: I found it in the original recipe ( Sunset Magazine)

Its 1 TBL.

Edited December 4, 2007 by CaliPoutine (log)

[onehsancare]

Thanks! I hadn't even noticed the omission!

[kbjesq]

I am looking for a new gingerbread cookie recipe that yields a nice fat puffy soft cookie cutouts. 

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Patrick, try this recipe from CI: Thick and Chewy Gingerbread Cookies.

[patsikes]

Thanks for the reply kbjesq, but I can't view the recipe because I am not a CI member...and I am just too darn cheap. :-)

[kbjesq]

Thanks for the reply kbjesq, but I can't view the recipe because I am not a CI member...and I am just too darn cheap.  :-)

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Did you try the link? I don't think that this is a recipe that requires a membership to view. (I do have a membership but I have not had to log in to see this recipe, and usually the site requires a log-in for non-free stuff).

Let me know, I'm interested. And FWIW, I'm probably not going to renew my CI membership. I don't think that it's a good value. I'd rather spend the $20 annual fee on another cookbook.

[CaliPoutine]

Thanks for the reply kbjesq, but I can't view the recipe because I am not a CI member...and I am just too darn cheap.  :-)

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Did you try the link? I don't think that this is a recipe that requires a membership to view. (I do have a membership but I have not had to log in to see this recipe, and usually the site requires a log-in for non-free stuff).

Let me know, I'm interested. And FWIW, I'm probably not going to renew my CI membership. I don't think that it's a good value. I'd rather spend the $20 annual fee on another cookbook.

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20.00? I only paid 12.95!!

[andiesenji]

I am looking for a new gingerbread cookie recipe that yields a nice fat puffy soft cookie cutouts. 

I have a recipe that I like, but no matter how thick I try to roll them they are still crunchy.

One recipe I am contemplating for the puffy version is a honey based dough.  It is from Disney and is what they use for their huge gingerbread houses.  They sell cookies supposedly make from the same stuff which is close to what I want but with more spice.

Any ideas?

Otherwise, my cookie & candy plan for this year is:

-Snowflake Spritz

-Gingerbread cutouts

-Winter Wonderland Cookes (chocolate cookie with white chocolate chunks)

-peanut brittle

-fudge

-caramels

-turtles

Any help on a recipe would be great!!

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Hi Pat,

I made these cookies three years ago and they have become a staple in my holiday arsenal of "best" cookies, the second ones I prepare after my cocoa cookies. They are fat, soft and have lots of flavor.

Last year I took a portion of the double batch I prepared and added cinnamon chips and finely chopped pecans, rolled the dough into a log, refrigerated it, took the log to my friend's home and sliced then baked them.

Big, Soft, Gingerbread cookies.

I can't tell you how well they will keep, I have never been able to keep any long enough to tell.

I did roll some out to make cutouts. I used rice flour on the rolling surface, rather than AP flour.

I roll the dough and cut directly on a Silpat mat that I then slide onto a sheet pan, after pulling the excess dough away from the cutouts. It keeps the figures from being distorted while moving them. (I'm a wee bit picky about my cutouts being perfect.)

Edited December 4, 2007 by andiesenji (log)