Christmas Cookies

[forever_young_ca]

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

My mother used to make the tarts in regular size muffin tins - so you got a huge tart. Myself, I do a variety of sizes, from mini tarts to larger, depending upon how I am serving them. Personally I prefer the mini tart shells, so you get a couple of bites of sweetness without being tooooooo much. I make the pastry quite thin when I do the minis so it cooks through and does not overpower the filling.

I made some minis last night, cooked until the pastry was brown and the filling was bubbly - sorry did not time it. They are great for breakfast too...

[forever_young_ca]

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?

I am from western Canada and it is very much a tradition here to do Christmas baking. I use the baking in a variety of ways - I keep them on hand to serve with coffee for "drop in" Christmas well wishers and I give them to friends as gifts. Last year I participated in a cookie exchange - I did a few of my favourites, my friends did the same, then we swapped. The result is an incredible array of great sweets.

[Joni]

Another question...forever young...I am assuming in the mini tarts. you do not pre-cook the tart shell?

[Skwerl]

Did I miss it or has no one posted a traditional cutout butter cookie recipe? I think it is very important to add to the EGullet Christmas Cookie Book 2003. I used to have a very nice, rich recipe, but lost it a few years ago. it makes me wish I had made them more often than just in December so I would have memorized the recipe!

Josh

[TrishCT]

Did I miss it or has no one posted a traditional cutout butter cookie recipe? I think it is very important to add to the EGullet Christmas Cookie Book 2003. I used to have a very nice, rich recipe, but lost it a few years ago. it makes me wish I had made them more often than just in December so I would have memorized the recipe!

Josh

Seek and ye shall find...

Here is my mother-in-law's recipe for crisp and super easy roll out cookies. A nice tip...using powdered sugar instead of flour to roll them out in... better flavor.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (don’t substitute) at room temp.

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Colored sugars for the top

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar well, mix in the egg, the milk and the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients gradually. Chill for easy handling, but you do not have to chill.

Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness (about 1/3 of the dough at a time). Make sure the board is floured really well or dough will stick. (You can use confectioner’s sugar instead of flour, it makes the cookie tastier.) Cut them and put sugars on them. Bake them on cookie sheets at 400 ˚ on the medium rack in the oven for just 5-8 minutes. Watch carefully or they burn. Makes 6-8 dozen.

[forever_young_ca]

Another question...forever young...I am assuming in the mini tarts. you do not pre-cook the tart shell?

No I don't pre cooke the tart shell. The raw filling goes into the raw pastry and is cooked all together in the oven. The top of the tart is bare - no pastry topping - this is an "open" tart.

Hope you enjoye them.

[laurenmilan]

For me this year, it's those Ginger Biscotti (with candied ginger and a ginger-5 spice icing), macaroons half-dipped in dark chocolate, and a Top Secret Recipes version of Starbuck's Cranberry Bliss Bars. So far, all 3 have been successful (brought them to a cookie exchange, to the office and 2 parties).

[Flossie]

Forever-young - I really like the idea of a cookie exchange. I must see if I can try this in the new year, maybe it will encourage some of my friends to bake.

[prasantrin]

Forever-young - I really like the idea of a cookie exchange. I must see if I can try this in the new year, maybe it will encourage some of my friends to bake.

Has anyone here ever organized a cookie exchange amongst e-Gullet members? I've participated in one or two organized through a Usenet group. It was more like a secret santa exchange with cookies as the gift, rather than an exchange where everyone ends up with some of everyone else's cookies. It was a lot of fun, though.

[snowangel]

Reminder to everyone to also post your recipes on RecipeGullet. Makes them easier to find.

[kthull]

I've finally settled on my list for this year:

Caramel Nut Acorns (recipe earlier in this thread)

Snickerdoodles

Cherry Swirls

Ricotta Cookies

Ruth Moulton's Spice Balls

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

Pine Nut Tassies (December Gourmet)

Chocolate Cookies (December Gourmet)

Caramel Pecan Cookies (December Gourmet)

Plus desserts.

[forever_young_ca]

Reminder to everyone to also post your recipes on RecipeGullet. Makes them easier to find.

I would love to post my recipes on RecipeGullet, but alas I cannot get into that screen anymore - it has been unavailable to me since the new look has come on line

[forever_young_ca]

Here is my mother-in-law's recipe for crisp and super easy roll out cookies. A nice tip...using powdered sugar instead of flour to roll them out in... better flavor.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (don’t substitute) at room temp.

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Colored sugars for the top

Thanks for this recipe. I made it today. As I was craving lemon, I substituted for the milk, the juice and finely chopped peel (mircroplaned) of one lemon. I cut them out as angels and stars and sprinkled with coloured sugar. A great Christmas cookie!

There are actually a few left to feed to next weeks company

[jat]

I am really not a cookie person. But I do love crisp macaroons and crisp

ginger snaps. A co-worker used to have a bakery and she brings something

new in every week. They all are great. I asked her for her Strasbourg

cookie. They are similar to the Milano with chocolate. The Strasbourg cookie

is a white cookie that looks a little wider than the milano, and half of it is

dipped in chocolate.

Let me find it and I'll post it on the reicpes.

[jat]

My husband loves nouget cookies. Does anyone know of a good source or

have a great recipe? Thanks.

[TrishCT]

Here is my mother-in-law's recipe for crisp and super easy roll out cookies. A nice tip...using powdered sugar instead of flour to roll them out in... better flavor.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (don’t substitute) at room temp.

¾ cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tablespoons milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Colored sugars for the top

Thanks for this recipe. I made it today. As I was craving lemon, I substituted for the milk, the juice and finely chopped peel (mircroplaned) of one lemon. I cut them out as angels and stars and sprinkled with coloured sugar. A great Christmas cookie!

There are actually a few left to feed to next weeks company

Foerveryoung, glad you enjoyed the cookies! The lemon sounds like a good variation. If E-Ger's decide on a cookie swap...count me in...

[Skwerl]

I tried them too, and they were great, but not quite the butter cookie recipe I was looking for. I think my favorites this year are coconut thumprints with apricot jam. I've made more than one meal of cookies this week.

Josh

[TrishCT]

Tonight at my house the serious cookie baking commences, hopefully to be completed by Saturday afternoon. Here are the cookies we are baking (and some blessedly are no bake) for the family table and for presents. If anyone wants any of these recipes, let me know and I will post them.

1. Chocolate Almond Lace Cookies (my signature cookie, a prima donna)

2. White Chocolate Cranberry Bars (easy bar cookie, rich results)

3. Chocolate Crunch Cookies (no bake, chocolate, cornflakes)

4. Lemon Balls (soft lemon iced cookies)

5. Tagalong Stix (no bake, taste like a twix candy bar)

6. Pignoli Cookies (almond paste delights, expensive but worth it)

7. Donna's Bakery Cookies (butter cookies with jam sandwiched

between them, half dipped in chocolate)

8. Oatmeal M&M (my daughter makes these, her favorite)

[TrishCT]

By request, enjoy!

White Chocolate Cranberry Bars

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsalted or regular butter, softened

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. grated orange rind

1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts

12 oz pkg (2 cups) white chocolate or vanilla chips

1 Tbsp. shortening

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray with no-stick a 13x9x2 baking pan.

2. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mix well.

3. In large bowl, combine brown sugar, sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; blend well.

4. Gradually add flour mixture; blend just until combined. Fold in cranberries, walnuts, orange rind and 1 1/2 cups of the chips (reserving 1/2 cup for topping).

5. Spread batter in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.

6. In small saucepan, over low heat, melt reserved 1/2 cup chips and shortening. Drizzle over warm bars with a fork (making irregular lines). Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. Cut into 48 bars.

[TrishCT]

Also by request. Marlene, I need assistance adding recipes to recipe gullet, thank you.

Lemon Balls

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened*

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. lemon extract

2 tsp. grated lemon rind

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

Icing:

2 cups confectioner's sugar

3 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon extract

2 tsp. grated lemon rind

Colored rainbow sprinkles if desired

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray foil lined cookie sheets with no-stick spray.

2. Blend the sugar and butter (or shortening) until light. Beat in the eggs, milk, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon rind. Mix until well blended.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix until combined (the dough will be sticky). Drop dough by 3/4 teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool, then frost with icing.

5. To make icing: Combine confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract and rind (adjust to taste, I love lemon and add as much rind as I can get away with). Beat until smooth to make icing thick enough to spread on cooled cookies. Cover with rainbow colored sprinkles if desired. Makes 5 dozen or more depending on size.

*You can use shortening in lieu of butter, it makes a softer cookie, your call.

[JAZ]

So, did anyone have any surprising successes or failures with their christmas cookies? Due to a lack of time, I limited myself to two cookies and two candies, but at the last minute changed from my good and extremely easy browned butter crisps to a still-easy-but-much-more-time-consuming variation on sand tarts filled with caramel and almonds. They were the new hit, so now I guess I'll have to plan on making them every year.

My peanut butter truffles were disappointing this year, though. I've used Jif's Extra Crunchy in the filling for years, but I think they may have changed the formulation or something, because this year the filling was much sweeter and softer than in past years. A pain to dip and not nearly as tasty as usual.

[kthull]

I also ran out of time and only did four out of the nine types I had planned on making. But a couple from the December Gourmet magazine were really, really good. Specifically the pine nut tassies and the caramel pecan cookies.

I tried the chocolate cookies from the same issue, freezing the log ahead of time. But then I was never able to cut them without them really breaking apart...even after having the log in the fridge for several days. They weren't all that great, but that could have been the result of standing so many days in the fridge. If I were to try them again, I'd form the cookies by flattening balls with a glass and then chilling them layered between sheets of wax paper. They were really good right out of the oven, but on the dry side after fully cooled.

[rcarter]

I just found this thread while doing some research to plan my cookie selection for 2004. My annual baking includes

1. Molasses cookies

2. Cranberry pistachio biscotti

3. White chocolate, cranberry, pistachio and apricot cookies

4. Peanut blossoms (not my favorite, but always requested)

5. Decorated sugar cookies

I also have fun experimenting with 5-10 additional recipes a year. I will definitely try kthull's Caramel Acorn cookie and kitwilliam's Chewy Ginger cookie this weekend!

[devlin]

Two varieties of biscotti: anise/sambuca flavored and cantuccini to dip in vin santo.

And a family recipe from since a million years (my mother was Norwegian), fattigman bakkels, a gorgeous, somewhat finicky cookie to make, but well worth it.

My family always ask for these when they come for Christmas.

[Curlz]

I just found this thread while doing some research to plan my cookie selection for 2004.  My annual baking includes

2.  Cranberry pistachio biscotti

←

Would you be willing to share the recipes for these?!? I'm determined to make an assortment of biscotti this year, and have been collecting recipes--these sound great! Thanks in advance...

Curlz