Christmas Cookies

[Ling]

Is this Rose's rugelach recipe the one that's good?

http://www.epicurious.com/run/recipe/view?...gelach&x=12&y=7

[tryska]

A snipped fleck atop of each truffle perhaps.

I was also thinking of a biscotti to add to the list this year. Which leads me to this question -- how many different types of goodies do you usually pull together for enjoyment and gift tins to others? Me it is restricted by time allowances with other cooking commitments and work schedules.

Of course I always start out quite ambitious almost always leaving one recipe of cookie dough behind in the fridge, almost as if in waiting to be the New Year's cookies. Ooops.

the snipped fleck would look good, or even a bit all across the top, perhaps for a different flavor.

i'll have to be honest and say i haven't made cookies at christmas time since i left my mom's house. my roommate was planning a cookie extravaganza since we've got a kitchen we can actually cook in now, but she's trying to lean out for a comp, and i restrict my carbs on a regular basis, so it would be too much temptation to start baking. I do want to make some peppermint bark tho, to give away.

when i used to do the cookie extravaganza, i typically made a spritz cookie, a thumbprint, chocolate chip variants, a couple of different fudges, and pizelles.

[Degustation]

Could you post the Godiva Biscotti recipe or point us to the thread where you found it.

Here's the biscotti link.

[Degustation]

Last year I made a cream cheese/butter thumbprint cookie filled with dark chocolate and topped with one of those, and they were the biggest hit of my assortment.

Jaz - any chance you can post or pm the recipe? I would love to try those.

[Beanloaf]

I'm in a bit of a panic this year about the cookie situation. I just don't have time to complete as many as I have in past years. My usual list goes something like this:

Cut out type cookies

- my special chocolate cinnamon cookies

- plain old sugar cookies

- gingerbread

- shortbread

Drop, Molded, etc

- spritz

- coconut macaroons

- cornmeal & currant biscotti

- something with peanutbutter to keep my husband happy

- one or two new discoveries

Candy

- candy cane bark

- truffles

- dipped apricots

- fudge

What I used to do when I had a miserable desk job, was take the Friday before christmas off. I would start baking on Friday morning and finish up in time to be back at work on Monday, taking periodic naps in between. It was quite a production. I used to move the television into the kitchen to help keep me awake. This year it's not going to happen. I've found myself eyeing up the big tubs of premade cookie dough available at the local warehouse club store. What to do?

[Toliver]

What to do?

This is the Voice of Experience talking:

Relax.

Take a deep breath and let it out.

This is not something you should be stressing about.

Take a moment to calculate your free time and then look at your list of regular Christmas goodies and figure out what you have time to make and what you don't have time to make. Be realistic.

What are your "best" goodies? Which ones are you known for? What receives the most rave reviews? What shortcuts can you take (that prepackaged cookie dough, for example) that will help you out in the long run?

Concentrate on just those and leave the rest to be done next year (if even then).

Yes, the time is short between now and Christmas which makes each minute of it that much more valuable. Don't waste it by worrying that you can't do it all. Don't do it all. Do what you can and be happy with what you accomplish.

[Comfort Me]

“Latke” Cookies

These cookies, adapted from a recipe my grandmother, z"l, made, are very rich, very delicate. Making them always brings back the many happy times I spent making these cookies at her side! Although they started life as a Christmas cookie -- I think my grandmother got the recipe from my cousin, who is a nun -- they have become a regular feature of our holiday celebrations and are wonderful to give as gifts. Don’t worry that the cookies won’t hold together without egg or liquid – they will – yet another miracle of Chanukah!

1 lb. Butter, at room temperature.

1 cup sugar

2 cups crushed plain potato chips (NOT kettle chips! Too tough)

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 ½ tsp. Vanilla

Powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Crush potato chips between layers of paper towels to absorb the excess grease.

3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the potato chips and mix gently, but well. Gradually add flour and vanilla.

4. Roll a rounded teaspoon of dough into a ball and flatten by hand. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies should not brown.

5. Remove immediately to cooking rack. When slightly cooled, roll cookies in powdered sugar or dust the cookies with powdered sugar run through a sieve.

Makes approximately 7 dozen.

Note: Pecan meal is very good added to this recipe. If desired, add 3/4 cup finely-ground pecan meal when adding the potato chips.

[Basilgirl]

An OLD Land'O'Lakes recipe from inside the butter carton - "Butter Pecan Turtle Cookies" (?) - flour, butter and brown sugar - pressed into 13x9 pan - cover with whole pecans - bake - make caramel layer - more butter & brown sugar - bake til bubbly - sprinkle with chocolate chips while hot and let them melt a little, then spread but leave some whole.

Wouldn't be Christmas without them.

Also peanut butter/Hershey kisses cookies. Oatmeal Scotchies. My boss's wife's chocolate chip - she makes the BEST but will not divulge her secrets.

[sherribabee]

“Latke” Cookies

It's like potato chip shortbread. Mmmmmmmm!

[JAZ]

Last year I made a cream cheese/butter thumbprint cookie filled with dark chocolate and topped with one of those, and they were the biggest hit of my assortment.

Jaz - any chance you can post or pm the recipe? I would love to try those.

Here it is.

For the cookie base:

1 cup butter, softened

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp. almond extract

pinch salt

2 cups flour (all purpose)

Beat the butter and cream cheese together until thoroughly combined; add sugar and extracts and beat until smooth. Stir salt into flour and add, mixing until well blended.

Scoop out 1-tablespoon sized balls of dough out onto a parchment lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. With the back of a small round spoon (or your finger), make a small indentation in each.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or more, until very lightly browned. If necessary, deepen the indentations with the spoon (they tend to disappear as the cookies bake), then remove from the sheet and cool.

The cookies can be made to this point and frozen.

To finish:

Drain a large bottle of Amarena Fabbri cherries (reserve the syrup for another use, if you want).

Melt a half pound or so of dark chocolate (you can temper it if you like, but it's really not necessary). Spoon it into a pastry bag or ziplock bag with a small hole snipped out of one corner. Pipe a small amount of choclate onto each cookie and top with a cherry before the chocolate sets.

[pnapoli]

Also, it includes plans, templates and recipes for a Notre Dame de Paris cathedral made from gingerbread.

no effin' way. complete with flying buttresses and stuff? wow. i've got to check that out. have you made it?

[rickster]

I was thinking of trying to make this until I realized the recipe calls for 11 pounds of flour.

[MsRamsey]

JAZ, I think I'll make those cookies. They sound great. One question: Definitely no eggs in the recipe?

[forever_young_ca]

This is my favorite Christmas cookie. It is a light, rich bite that is not sweet at all.

I have these cookies for years, and have no idea where the recipe originated from.

HUNGARIAN CRESCENT COOKIES

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cup ground unbleached hazelnuts, or 3/4 cup almonds and 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans

1 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter, beat in sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and nuts.

Add flour and salt in 3 batches, then extracts.

Chill dough 30 minutes. With lightly floured hands roll into one long rope, cut into 2 1/2 " pieces and curve into crescent shape.

Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool and dust completely with icing sugar. Freezes well.

Also, in our family at Christmas butter tarts are a must. I don't think that there are as common in the USA as they are in Canada, but here is my mother's recipe -it is always a hit and truly the best butter tarts I have every eaten.

BUTTER TARTS

1 cup raisins, soaked in boiling water

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp butter

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

bit of salt

Drain raisins and put in large bowl. While raisins are still very hot add butter, stir, add brown sugar. The heat of the raisins should melt the butter and sugar. Add remaining ingredients.

Fill favorite tart shell and bake at 400 degrees until bubbly. Do not overbake or they will be dry.

Freeze well.

[Joni]

Do you bake mini tart shells...or can this even be done? What size tarts do you bake>

[Flossie]

Pardon me for interrupting but I am fascinated by this thread and by the variety of cookies that people bake and the effort that they expend in so doing. I am from the UK (Northern Ireland to be precise) and we don't have a tradition of this frenzied baking. I speak as someone who loves baking and loves collecting recipe books and I've never heard of a lot of the cookies mentioned in this thread. What do you do with all those cookies? Keep them in the house to serve with coffee? Give them as gifts? I'd love to know the background to all this cookie baking. Is it widespread across the US? Canada?

[JAZ]

JAZ, I think I'll make those cookies. They sound great. One question: Definitely no eggs in the recipe?

Definitely no eggs.

[therdogg]

Flossie-

Yes, baking Christmas cookies is traditional. Many give them away as presents, packaged in tins, and of course we always leave out a plate on Christmas Eve for Santa and his reindeer. For many families cookies are the requisite (and only) Christmas dessert. Christmas cake is rare here (at least _good_ fruitcake is rare- it mostly serves as the topic of jokes). For many, Christmas would feel lonely and bare without at least butter cookies, although probably the most traditionally "Christmas" cookie is gingerbread men (it's not often made outside of Christmas).

My mother would typically take several days off work to go into her Christmas cookie baking frenzy. It was the only time of year she would ever bake. I don't think she was that unusual- there are probably as many "Christmas bakers" as there are "Christmas Christians" (folks who go to church once per year- Dec 25). LOL

[Flossie]

Thanks, Therdogg, I'm beginning to get it. It's like that here with Christmas cake - people have a ritual for 'baking the cake' and probably don't bake again until next year's cake. At least, it's like that nowadays; when I was growing up my mother baked every week.

[ludja]

Pardon me for interrupting but I am fascinated by this thread and by the variety of cookies that people bake and the effort that they expend in so doing. I am from the UK (Northern Ireland to be precise) and we don't have a tradition of this frenzied baking. I speak as someone who loves baking and loves collecting recipe books and I've never heard of a lot of the cookies mentioned in this thread. What do you do with all those cookies? Keep them in the house to serve with coffee? Give them as gifts? I'd love to know the background to all this cookie baking. Is it widespread across the US? Canada?

Christmas cookies are definately a big tradition in Germany and Austria as well--and I would suspect via immigrantion that may be a large reason for the Christmas cookie baking here. (Probably also from Scandinavian countries?) It's traditional to have a selection of cookies and to bring them out when people come over to visit anytime during the holidays to have with coffee or gluwein (a hot, spiced wine).

My mom (from Austria) makes no less than 10 different kinds of cookies...most have nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts) and tend to be more European style (smaller and tending less towards thick and gooey after-school-with-milk cookies--which are great too!)

I haven't reviewed the whole post yet, but our family favorites are 'Vanillekipfel' or vanilla crescents. They are also always among the top choice with any people new to them...

They are rich cookies filled with ground nuts and then drenched in vanilla powdered sugar while still warm out of the oven. You make them well ahead of time and let them ripen. (just got off the phone with my mom and she was just baking them today...).

Interestingly, the recipes for these that you see around most often (including in Saveur's current December issue) use ground almonds. In the part of Austria my family comes from walnuts are more abundant and they use them instead. I think they taste even better with walnuts (the walnuts are nice and buttery; while almonds are drier). Also, in most cases (including in the photo in Saveur) people make them pretty thick... My mom rolls the dough into ropes about 1/2 inch thick(or slightly larger). Then cut into 3 inch lengths; curve to form a nice delicate crescent. Yummmm...

edited for typo

Edited December 10, 2003 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

This is my favorite Christmas cookie. It is a light, rich bite that is not sweet at all.

I have these cookies for years, and have no idea where the recipe originated from.

HUNGARIAN CRESCENT COOKIES

1 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cup ground unbleached hazelnuts, or 3/4 cup almonds and 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans

1 cups cake flour, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter, beat in sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and nuts.

Add flour and salt in 3 batches, then extracts.

Chill dough 30 minutes. With lightly floured hands roll into one long rope, cut into 2 1/2 " pieces and curve into crescent shape.

Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool and dust completely with icing sugar. Freezes well.

So, I just got a chance to catch up on the thread and this variation of hazelnut crescents sounds great also! Thank you for the recipe. (Maybe I'll bake these to bring home to compare w/the vanillekipfel).

Also--have to say I am intrigued by the butter tarts. Have seen them mentioned a few times and they sound great also--thanks for your special recipe!

[snowangel]

The Family has spoken; this year's choices:

Christmas cookies (a recipe from my great aunt Laura; a cut-out cookie with nutmet). Some will be decorated (for them), some undecorated (for me )

Maida Heatter's Sour Cream Pecan Dreams (from the first cookie book). These are my all-time favorite cookie that doesn't have chocolate.

Maida Heatter's Pecan Passion Bars (from her second book)

Chocolate cookies (rolled in powdered sugar); similar to the Chocolate Aggies in MH's first book, but baked hotter for a shorter period of time

Chocolate chip cookies

Spritz with lemon zest instead of almond extract

And, the Taffy Treats from the Dec. 4 Star Tribune. A buttery cookie layer over a walnut/evaporated milk/powdered sugar filling dipped into melted caramels and walnuts (PM me for recipe).

[Marmish]

I make a few of my mom's traditional Christmas cookies, plus a few new favorites, and usually one or two new ones each year. They include:

butterhorns

lemon bars - which I think I am replacing this year with a lemon shortbread glazed bar cookie

7 layer bars

Martha Stewart cranberry orange and espresso sables

one of the winners from the Chicago Tribune holiday cookie contest a few years ago - the dough has cornmeal and coconut in it, and the filling is coconut and dried cranberries, rolled and sliced. These are my favorites, I think.

pretzels filled with caramel and dipped in chocolate

I give most of them away as gifts to friends and coworkers. This year, I am baking less, but also made limoncello. My mom starts in October and freezes them. Her chest freezer has practically nothing else in it but cookies by now.

[pnapoli]

a co-worker just gave me this recipe for anise cookies:

cookies:

5 cups flour

10 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups sugar

1/4 lb butter melted and cooled

5 eggs

2 oz anise

2 oz vegetable oil

2 oz vanilla

2 oz orange juice

grated skin of 1/2 large orange

frosting:

3.5 cups of confectioner's sugar

4 tablespoons butter softened

1/4 cup of milk

3/4 tsp vanilla

mix all ingredients. drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheet. bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. cool on racks and frost or add sprinkles

makes 4-5 dozen

[Jaymes]

one of the winners from the Chicago Tribune holiday cookie contest a few years ago - the dough has cornmeal and coconut in it, and the filling is coconut and dried cranberries, rolled and sliced. These are my favorites, I think.

I'd love that recipe.... If you have time and are comfortable.

(That last was just a nostalgic bit for the oldtimers. )

Edited December 11, 2003 by Jaymes (log)