Christmas Cookies Redux

[Darienne]

Good news Heidi.  I should think about it also.  I just found last year's post and nothing has changed for me.  Still making the same cookies...the shorter the better.  

As for the calamansi...my fifteen year old tree still sits barren in it place, covered with wicked thorns, producing nothing.  The parent tree gave itself to wonderful marmalade fifteen years ago.  

I await the photo of the baklava.  What's not to love?

[kayb]

Found a recipe for a shortbread cookie with minced maraschino cherries, dipped in melted white chocolate and sprinkled with red sanding sugar. I think those may have to be added to the rotation.

 

Got the stuff t'other day to make the Raincoast Crisps. They were a favorite in last year's baskets. And I always make extras...

[Toliver]

22 hours ago, heidih said:

I am baking in stepmother's kitchen - baking powder "best by" date is February 2012 and soda looked tired but I tested them and they were lively.

How do you test them?

I will be starting my Mom's Xmas baking this weekend and I know I will encounter ancient "Best By" dates in her kitchen.

Thanks! 

[blue_dolphin]

15 minutes ago, Toliver said:

How do you test them?

I will be starting my Mom's Xmas baking this weekend and I know I will encounter ancient "Best By" dates in her kitchen.

Thanks! 

 

I've done the tests described in the link below, but if I really have any doubt, I just buy fresh, particularly for the baking powder.

HOW TO TEST YEAST, BAKING POWDER, AND BAKING SODA FOR FRESHNESS

[Toliver]

5 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

I've done the tests described in the link below, but if I really have any doubt, I just buy fresh, particularly for the baking powder.

HOW TO TEST YEAST, BAKING POWDER, AND BAKING SODA FOR FRESHNESS

Thanks. The tests are simple to do. 

Now I hope other ingredients I need from her pantry aren't too old (vegetable oil, peanut butter, etc).

[TeakettleSlim]

Last year I started almost a week late but made a batch of cookies every day of December through the 24th. Baked enough off for us to enjoy that day and froze the rest. When I needed cookies to give away I would bake up an assortment fresh. Then at the end of the month I still had enough that our spread had about 15 kinds on it. I felt awesome. I plan to do it again, starting on the 1st this year. Will pop back in here to post the list when I've got it sorted out.

[Toliver]

I was able to start my Christmas baking when I was visiting my Mom for Thanksgiving.

I made a batch of @Kim Shook's Dream Cookies with M&M mini-candies in them. They looked festive and tasted great. 

When I go back down for Christmas, I'll be making a batch of Butterballs and @andiesenji's Creamsicle Cookies. The orange zest in the cookies remind my mom of Christmases when she was a child where an orange in the stocking on Christmas morning was a real treat. Creamsicle cookies are her new holiday favorite.

My niece and I made sugar cookie cut-outs and spent hours icing/frosting them...our yearly tradition. My niece took a bedraggled-looking Christmas Tree-shaped cookie and free-handed the face of the Grinch on it. She's becoming a real cookie artist! 

We also made some "fake fudge" (a Sandra-Lee-ish recipe), Oreo Peppermint White Chocolate bark, original recipe Chex Mix and a batch of the Ranch-Dill Oyster Crackers, which go great in Turkey Noodle soup.

[Smithy]

Thank you for the reminder of Andiesenji's Creamsicle Cookies, Toliver.  They're going on my baking list.

[Porthos]

I started working on my list yesterday and I got started baking today, but it was a rocky beginning. I am trying Maida Heatter's Giant Ginger Cookies Recipe, EXCEPT, I am trying to make small cookies. The dough is exceptionally sticky. I couldn't make my disher work, then I foolishly tried putting it into a pastry bag. That was worse. I shoved the mixing bowl into the fridge, licked my wounds for a while, and then decided to get back on the horse by making a couple of our old standards. Chocolate Chip Cookies and White Chocolate Craisin Cookies. The several hours of time helped me to come up with a plan. I am going to treat them like the Chocolate Crinkle Cookies we make. Keep the dough chilled, make small round balls the get rolled in powdered sugar for easier handling, and bake. Based on the few cookies I did bake up I would not call them giant ginger cookies, I would call them molasses spice cookies, good tasting but no high note of ginger.

 

16 more to go before the 21st.

[TeakettleSlim]

I have my list. The baking has begun. Yes, I AM self-indulgent, how did you guess?

In no particular order:

 

1. Peppermint swirl cookies

2. Nut gems (a Russian tea cake type thing)

3. Thumbprint cookies a) with jam, and b) red velvet cream cheese filled

4. Chocolate ginger molasses cookies

5. Biscotti a) double chocolate walnut and b) dried cherry, lemon, ginger, white chocolate

6. Peppery bourbon gingerbread snowflakes

7. Cut out cookies a) regular and b) chocolate

8. Mocha peppermint shortbread

9. Those orange creamsicle cookies

10. Confetti cookies

11. Garam masala cookies with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

12. Smitten kitchen's pretzel linzers with caramel filling

13. Cornmeal lemon rosemary butter cookies

14. Pumpkin maple cookies

15. Cinnamon bun cookies

16. Brown sugar/brown butter/cinnamon/coffee cut out cookies

17. Eggnog cookies

18. Brown butter/honey/pistachio bars

19. Struffoli

20. Marshmallows

21. Sourdough fruitcake

22. Pralines

[Tri2Cook]

There was a time when my Christmas baking list was similar in length. In recent years, I tend more towards making the  list, taking a good look at it, saying "fork that"... and then I start crossing things off to get it back down to something I really want to do. I like the variety but I've learned that, for me, with the really long list, the joy begins to run out before the list does.

[Darienne]

10 hours ago, TeakettleSlim said:

I have my list. The baking has begun. Yes, I AM self-indulgent, how did you guess?

In no particular order:

 

1. Peppermint swirl cookies

2. Nut gems (a Russian tea cake type thing)

3. Thumbprint cookies a) with jam, and b) red velvet cream cheese filled

4. Chocolate ginger molasses cookies

5. Biscotti a) double chocolate walnut and b) dried cherry, lemon, ginger, white chocolate

6. Peppery bourbon gingerbread snowflakes

7. Cut out cookies a) regular and b) chocolate

8. Mocha peppermint shortbread

9. Those orange creamsicle cookies

10. Confetti cookies

11. Garam masala cookies with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

12. Smitten kitchen's pretzel linzers with caramel filling

13. Cornmeal lemon rosemary butter cookies

14. Pumpkin maple cookies

15. Cinnamon bun cookies

16. Brown sugar/brown butter/cinnamon/coffee cut out cookies

17. Eggnog cookies

18. Brown butter/honey/pistachio bars

19. Struffoli

20. Marshmallows

21. Sourdough fruitcake

22. Pralines

Where is the OMG! button?

[ElsieD]

10 hours ago, TeakettleSlim said:

I have my list. The baking has begun. Yes, I AM self-indulgent, how did you guess?

In no particular order:

 

1. Peppermint swirl cookies

2. Nut gems (a Russian tea cake type thing)

3. Thumbprint cookies a) with jam, and b) red velvet cream cheese filled

4. Chocolate ginger molasses cookies

5. Biscotti a) double chocolate walnut and b) dried cherry, lemon, ginger, white chocolate

6. Peppery bourbon gingerbread snowflakes

7. Cut out cookies a) regular and b) chocolate

8. Mocha peppermint shortbread

9. Those orange creamsicle cookies

10. Confetti cookies

11. Garam masala cookies with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

12. Smitten kitchen's pretzel linzers with caramel filling

13. Cornmeal lemon rosemary butter cookies

14. Pumpkin maple cookies

15. Cinnamon bun cookies

16. Brown sugar/brown butter/cinnamon/coffee cut out cookies

17. Eggnog cookies

18. Brown butter/honey/pistachio bars

19. Struffoli

20. Marshmallows

21. Sourdough fruitcake

22. Pralines

 

I'm gobsmacked.  Who eats all these?

[TeakettleSlim]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

I'm gobsmacked.  Who eats all these?

 

I freeze them in whatever form makes the most sense for that cookie, and can bake a variety fresh when needed. After I have enough for a nice variety, I start giving them away. We have a big platter on Christmas Eve, with the in-laws here. Some go to my mother's friends in her apartment building. Many turn into goodie bags for a local charity for homeless teens. Some I keep in freezer for general holiday and beyond munching. 

 

Edited to add: I find it a lot more relaxed than trying to make several kinds all on one day and then have all these fresh cookies sitting around needing to be dealt with immediately.

Edited December 2, 2017 by TeakettleSlim (log)

[Porthos]

We've worked on our list for this year. We need to add 4 or 5 more. My DW will make the springerle. She will also make the Russia Tea Cakes because I think they are an uninteresting waste of time cookie.

 

When the cookie baking first turned into enough for 35 tins and 2 platters my DW was doing most of the baking. Now that I am retired and a house husband I do most of the cookie making.

 

Oatmeal Raisin*
Wadleigh’s Chocolate Chip*
Shortbread  (Fannie Farmer's recipe)
Cherry icebox
Brownies
Soft Ginger Cookies*
Chocolate Crinkle
Pferrernuesse
White Chocolate Chip Craisin*
Russian Tea Cakes
Bourbon balls
Budd’s Almond Cherry Chip
Springerle

 

* Already in the freezer.

 

The Maida Heatter Soft Ginger Cookies will not happen again. They are supposed to be a basic drop cookie. After chilling for 24 hours I was able to make one sheet of 24 using my drop-dough-in-powdered-sugar-then-make-a-ball technique but about half way through the second sheet the dough, which had been out of the refrigerator less than 15 minutes, got too sticky to work with. The cookies taste fine but are not a simple drop cookie.

 

Sourcing question. I have only found candied cherries in one store and at a price I didn't want to pay. The produce man at Vons said that they hadn't received any and my DW and I couldn't locate any at Stater Bros. Are they harder to come by this year?

[cakewalk]

Do you folks freeze cookies that are already baked? Or are you freezing the cookie dough? I often freeze dough after it's mixed, but I've never frozen fully baked cookies. Mostly it's a room issue, but also I suspect I'd have a lot less to send if I had fully baked cookies in my freezer. 

[MelissaH]

44 minutes ago, cakewalk said:

Do you folks freeze cookies that are already baked? Or are you freezing the cookie dough? I often freeze dough after it's mixed, but I've never frozen fully baked cookies. Mostly it's a room issue, but also I suspect I'd have a lot less to send if I had fully baked cookies in my freezer. 

I've done both.

[Porthos]

We freeze most cookies. They stand up to freezing nicely. There are a few that don't go in the freezer. Springerle need to "ripen" after baking. Bourbon balls are made the day before tins are filled. If we end up adding in some form of rice krispie treats they don't go in the freezer either.

 

@cakewalk We are pretty disciplined to stay out of them. We do take a few cookies from each kind of cookies as they are bake - strictly for quality control.

[Porthos]

Tried an experiment today. When I print out seldom used recipes I toss them into the recycle bin when I'm done with them. Most of the recipes for Christmas cookies fit in that category. I wondered if making PDFs of the recipes and using an old monitor along with my laptop (in the family room) would work. Yes. I liked it a lot.

 

 

Now to clean the counters from all the cookie baking I've in the last few days.

[Beebs]

Anyone have a good pfeffernusse recipe recommendation? I normally make molasses ginger cookies, but would like to change it up. I prefer a softer, cakier pfeffernusse.

[Kim Shook]

On 12/1/2017 at 2:04 PM, Toliver said:

I was able to start my Christmas baking when I was visiting my Mom for Thanksgiving.

I made a batch of @Kim Shook's Dream Cookies with M&M mini-candies in them. They looked festive and tasted great. 

When I go back down for Christmas, I'll be making a batch of Butterballs and @andiesenji's Creamsicle Cookies. The orange zest in the cookies remind my mom of Christmases when she was a child where an orange in the stocking on Christmas morning was a real treat. Creamsicle cookies are her new holiday favorite.

My niece and I made sugar cookie cut-outs and spent hours icing/frosting them...our yearly tradition. My niece took a bedraggled-looking Christmas Tree-shaped cookie and free-handed the face of the Grinch on it. She's becoming a real cookie artist! 

We also made some "fake fudge" (a Sandra-Lee-ish recipe), Oreo Peppermint White Chocolate bark, original recipe Chex Mix and a batch of the Ranch-Dill Oyster Crackers, which go great in Turkey Noodle soup.

I'm so glad that you like those cookies.  I've made them since I was a little girl - the recipe is from one of those series that you used to be able to buy at the grocery store.  A new volume every week or so and depending on how much you spent on groceries, you could get the books for about $1.  Women's Day, I think.  They are our favorite cooky and can stand up to alot of messing with (adding nuts, cinnamon, etc.) and are delectable perfectly plain.

 

@TeakettleSlim & @Porthos – wow!  Y'all are my heroes.  Incredible lists.  Talk about something for everyone.  Hope you’ll share pictures when they are done!

 

@cakewalk – I always freeze baked cookies.  One the kitchen is a mess from mixing the dough, I’d rather just go ahead and bake them then.  And I’ve never had a cooky that didn’t freeze well.

 

I do so many different “goodies” for Christmas (2 different kinds of fudge, Sponge candy, peanut brittle, Turtle candy, lemon chess tarts), that only 3 kinds of cookies will grace the table.  One doesn’t really count – I do easy GF cookies from a cake mix for a niece and a friend.  They love them, but I think they are gacky.  I will be doing my PB cookies and some decorated sugar cookies.

 

[Toliver]

7 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

I do so many different “goodies” for Christmas (2 different kinds of fudge, Sponge candy, peanut brittle, Turtle candy, lemon chess tarts), that only 3 kinds of cookies will grace the table.  One doesn’t really count – I do easy GF cookies from a cake mix for a niece and a friend.  They love them, but I think they are gacky.  I will be doing my PB cookies and some decorated sugar cookies.

 

@Kim Shook Thanks for posting the link to the PB Cookies.

I will be making a batch when I take my Christmas vacation. I see it uses bread flour, which is great. I bought some bread flour to use when making the Creamsicle Cookies (I found the original cookie too brittle and  @andiesenji suggested adding some bread flour to make them less so...worked like a charm) and wondered what I would do with the rest of the bag of bread flour. Your recipe fits the bill, so to speak.

[Kim Shook]

3 minutes ago, Toliver said:

@Kim Shook Thanks for posting the link to the PB Cookies.

I will be making a batch when I take my Christmas vacation. I see it uses bread flour, which is great. I bought some bread flour to use when making the Creamsicle Cookies (I found the original cookie too brittle and  @andiesenji suggested adding some bread flour to make them less so...worked like a charm) and wondered what I would do with the rest of the bag of bread flour. Your recipe fits the bill, so to speak.

You probably don't need to have this advice, but I always use the Reese's PB chips.  I've tried other brands in the past and they just didn't have that true PB flavor.

[Toliver]

13 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

You probably don't need to have this advice, but I always use the Reese's PB chips.  I've tried other brands in the past and they just didn't have that true PB flavor.

That's the exact brand I bought. It helps to shop in a Walmart grocery store that doesn't offer too much brand variation. I was lucky the one brand of peanut butter chips they carried was the Reese's brand.

I have the JIF peanut powder, too. I'll report back on how the cookies went over in a few weeks.

[Kim Shook]

14 minutes ago, Toliver said:

That's the exact brand I bought. It helps to shop in a Walmart grocery store that doesn't offer too much brand variation. I was lucky the one brand of peanut butter chips they carried was the Reese's brand.

I have the JIF peanut powder, too. I'll report back on how the cookies went over in a few weeks.

I love these cookies and have been perfecting them over the last  40-some years (I'm 58).  But I admit that they aren't quite THERE yet.  I'd like them to be chewier - I take them out when the "shoulders" are just slightly firm and maybe that is too soon.  I'd love to know how yours turn out!