Holiday Basket Recipes

It has been recommended that the cookie baskets need some sort of "key" or a chart telling people what kind are in them.   Well, this is the next best thing.   This also provides you with a recipe for each kind of cookie if you want to make them yourselves :)

Dipped Cherry Cookies

2 1/2 C flour

1/2 C sugar

1 C butter (room temperature)

1/2 C chopped maraschino cherries (drained) --- get the ones without the stems

2/3 C white baking chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 t almond extract

1 package vanilla candy coating

• In a large bowl cobine the flour and sugar.   Cut in the butter until crumbly.   Knead in the cherries, white chocolate, and almond extract until you have a ball of dough.
• Shape into balls (about 3/4 to 1 inch) and place onto parchment lined baking shets.    Flatten slightly with a glass dipped in sugar and bake at 325 for 10-12 minutes.   Remove to wire racks to cool.
• Melt the candy coating and dip the top 1/2 of each cookie into the candy coating.   Place on waxed paper to cool.

(As a bonus, whatever is left with the candy coating you can use to dip pretzels -- delicious!)

Eggnog Snickerdoodles

 

1/2 C butter, softened

1/2 C butter flavored shortening

2 C sugar

1 egg

1 t rum extract

1/2 C evaporated milk

1/2 C French vanilla nondairy creamer

5 1/2 C flour

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1/2 t nutmeg

• Cream the butter, shortening and sugar.    Beat in the egg and rum extract.   Add the salt and baking soda and mix well.    In a separate measuring cup mix together the evaporated milk and creamer.   Add to the mixture alternately with the flour.
• Combine the nutmeg with 1/3 C sugar.   Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the nutmeg mixture.
• Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.   Flatten slightly with a glass dipped into the nutmeg/suguar mixture. 
• Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.   Cool completely on wire racks.
• For the icing combine 1 C powdered sugar with 5 to 6 teaspoons of creamer and spread onto cooled cookies  

Marbled Chocolate Peanut Cookies
PEANUT BUTTER DOUGH
1 C butter
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 1/4 C sugar
1 1/4 C brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 C chopped peanuts

Cream peanut butter, butter and sugars.   Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.   Add baking soda and salt and mix well.    Mix in flour.    Stir in chopped peanuts.   Set this mixture aside.

CHOCOLATE DOUGH
1 C butter
1 C brown sugar
3/4 C sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 C baking cocoa
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
12 oz. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars and then beat in vanilla and eggs.   Mix in baking soda and salt.   Mix in cocoa and then flour.   Stir in chocolate chips.

In a very large bowl add 1/3 peanut butter dough and then 1/3 chocolate dough.  Repeat this with the remaining dough layering the doughs in the bowl and then fold them gently together so that the dough is slightly marbled.   Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Butter Pecan Cookies

1 C butter softened

1 C brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 t vanilla extract

2 C flour
3 t baking powder
1 t salt

1 egg white

2 C chopped pecans

2 T butter

1 C pecan halves

Cream butter and brown sugar.   Mix in egg yolk and vanilla.    Mix in baking powder and salt and then mix in flour.    Refridgerate for an hour or two so that you can roll dough into balls.  

In the meantime take 2 cups of chopped pecans with the 2 T butter and place in the oven at 325 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes (stir every 2 minutes or so).    Set aside to cool.   Beat egg white until foamy.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and then roll in toasted and chopped pecans pressing the pecans into the cookie dough balls.   Place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.   Dip a pecan half into egg white and press into the cookie dough ball.   Bake at 350 for 11 minutes.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

3/4 C butter
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2 T water
2 C semisweet cholocate chips
2 eggs
2 1/2  C flour
1 1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 packages Andes mints

• Microwave butter, brown sugar, water and chocolate chips until the butter and chocolate chips are completely melted.    Cool for a few minutes.
• Place chocolate mixutre into a mixing bowl and beat in eggs.    Mix in baking soda and salt and then mix in the flour.   Refridgerate the dough for a couple of hours until you can roll it into balls.
• Roll dough into balls about 1 inch in size.   Bake on parchment lined baking sheets at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  
• Break each mint into two pieces.  As soon as your remove cookies from the oven place a mint piece on top of each cookie.  Once mint begins to melt spread over the top of the cookie with a knife.   Remove to wire racks to cool.

Cranberry Lemon Sandwich Cookies
COOKIES
1 C margarine, softened
1 C butter flavored shortening
1 C sugar
1 C powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
4 C flour
1 t cream of tartar

1 t lemon extract

1/2 t salt

1 C dried cranberries

• Cream margarine, shortening, and sugars.   Beat in eggs, vanilla, lemon extract, cream of tartar and salt.   Mix in flour.  Stir in dried cranberries.
• Refridgerate dough for a couple of hours or unti it is easy to handle.
• Roll into 1 inch balls and place onto parchment lined paper.   Flatten slightly with a glass dipped in sugar and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
• Cool on wire racks

FILLING

2/3 C margarine

2 3/4 C powdered sugar

1/4 C milk

1 t lemon extract

Combine filling ingredients and beat until smooth.   Spread on bottom half of cookies and top with the remaining cookies.

And for good measure and your entertainment, a few pictures from the cookie making ....

Cherry Cookies and Sickerdoodles waiting to be wrapped 

Caleb doing some post-production taste testing

Kitchen table is filling up!

Foster is helping!

Round 1 of the Christmas Season

After an afternoon of grocery shopping (yes, with a 5-month old strapped into the baby bjorn it takes a full afternoon!) and a few days of on-again off-again mixing, baking and wrapping the first round of cookie baskets were delivered this week.   I had so much fun making them!   I am curious to see what the favorites from the baskets are this year.    In our house the number one cookie is different for all three of us .... mine is the rich buttery Butter Pecan Cookie, Mark's new number one is the candy coated Dipped Cherry Cookies and Caleb's favorite remains the crispy, cholocaty, minty Chocolate Mint Cookies.  

Here are a few pictures of our favorites:

The baskets also included a few mini loaves of bread.   Today with one Cranberry-Orange loaf that was leftover I discovered that it tastes wonderful with a bit of cranberry butter spread on top.   We had the leftover maple cranberry butter from some pumpkin waffles I made a while back.  Here's the recipe for butter:

1/2 C fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 C maple syrup
1 C butter, softened

In a small saucepan combine the cranberries and syrup.   Cook over medium heat until the berries pop.   Transfer to a small mixing bowl and cool a bit.   Beat in butter until blended.

The Cookie Book

In 2005 I started baking my way through a cookie cookbook with the intention of baking all of the recipes in the book.   I'm not sure the exact number of recipes included in the book although the cover of the book says that there are over 250 of them.  I didn't set a timeline for my project, however, I've now been working on it for 5 years.   Each time I make a recipe for the first time I make a note of the month and year and the first recipes marked were in December of 2005.   Sometimes I make a note next to the recipe like "mmm..." or "icing too stiff" or even "yuck!" and sometimes I make a note about any modifications that I've made to the recipe.   Some of the recipes have been just so-so and have only been made once.  Some have become favorite recipes.    Some call for too many strange ingredients that I don't have on hand normally, thus requiring a special trip to the grocery store, so those haven't been made yet, but I'll get around to them.   Some have complicated steps so they also haven't been attempted yet.  Some are too gooey or have gooey frosting making impractical for packing, so since many of the cookies I make are for giving away these also haven't been attempted.    But all of them are on the list and will be done sometime.   And now you'll get to read about my adventures on this blog and have a chance to comment, see some pictures and if you are so inclined even order some of these cookies for yourself!

December, however, has not been a month for making new cookie recipes for many years.   Instead it is at this time of year that my cookies become part of cookie Christmas gifts and I go with favorites.   I am beginning round 1 of cookie give-aways this week.   This first round of cookie containers will have chocolate mint cookies, cranberry lemon sandwich cookies, white chocolate cherry cookies, eggnogg snickerdoodles, chocolate peanut butter marble cookies and butter pecan cookies.    Pictures will be posted soon to whet your appetites!   Stay tuned ...

Day 1

I am unemployed.   It is by choice and not a result of this recession or economic downturn or whatever we are in right now.    I haven't been unemployed since I went away to school in the fall of 1994.   This feels much different than that.   Today felt kind of like I was playing hooky again.   Since I'm not that far removed from maternity leave and I took a week of vacation at the beginning of the month, it didn't feel very foreign to me.    What feels uncomfortable about this is not knowing the timeline.    When I started maternity leave I knew that I was going back to work in 12 weeks.    When I was unemployed when I started college I knew that even if I didn't get a job during the school year I would have one once classes were out for the summer.   But right now my job is to take care of my family - to be a mom and a wife, or maybe to be a wife and a mom. 

And so Day 1 was uneventful and there was no ceremony to it.   I made a menu for the week's meals and a grocery list.   I walked the dog.  I paid bills.   I went grocery shopping.   I went to the bank.   I made dinner.   And in the meantime I changed a few diapers, and fed Foster a few times.   We took Caleb to tennis, we all had dinner, Caleb did his homework and now the boys are all headed to bed.   And I am content.

Tomorrow I hope to begin some cookie posts and cookie pictures!