Started holiday cookie baking this weekend and the planets were aligned

B

barbara-in-va

Well-known member
so they ALL turned out well--(this doesn't happen too often, but then again I did not try the almond macaroons that fail miserably for ALMOST every year! LOL!!!) Here's what I started with:

Gilded Sesame Cookies (Gourmet 12-06)

Chocolate Crinkles (Gourmet 12-99, I make them with hazelnuts and Frangelico i/o sambuca as the recipe indicates)

Judy's Nut Balls (first time I have made these and they are amazing! Thanks to everyone who raved about them.)

Ribbon Cookies (Field Guide to Christmas Cookies?) I change the filling additives a bit, chocolate is just plain chocolate and I added nutmeg to the red stripe i/o cherries)

Cranberry Orange Cookies (Land O Lakes Cookies 2005)

Chocolate Dipped Espresso Shortbread (Martha Stewart) I traded the espresso for cocoa nibs--boy are they good!!! I used milk chocolate for dipping i/o of bittersweet chocolate, I know this is blasphemy for some of you but I LOVE milk chocolate:)

Jam Thumbprints filled with homemade blueberry lime jam-YUM!

Chocolate slices dipped in chocolate and then edged in white non-perils (Fine Cooking Cookies)

Next on my list are:

Checkerboards (Martha)

Hamentashen (Deb in MI has been encouraging me to try these!)

Marscapone Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate, Coconut, Almond Cookie from the Death by Chocolate guy

Pecan Logs (Martha)

MAYBE I'll get up the courage to try the almond macaroons again, when they turn out well they are well worth it, more often than not mine do not turn out smileys/frown.gif

What is on your list of cookies to bake?

 
I'm won't be doing much baking for the holidays, if at all, but here are some of my favorites:

Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Coconut Cookies (I use almonds)
Chocolate Espresso Chews
Cinnamon Cookies
Jam Thumbprints (Ina Garten)
Mocha Truffle Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Maximum Chocolate Cookies
Chewy Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thick and Chewy Double (or Triple) Chocolate Cookies (Cook's Illustrated)
Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies (Dorie Greenspan)

 
By the way, Traca...I haven't forgotten your recipes. However, the hazelnut mousse....wasn't.

I thought the chocolate was gianduja...but it was actually a 70% bittersweet chocolate, not milk-chocolate hazelnut. I can still post that recipe.

 
I really want to try these: REC: Brown Sugar Buttons - they are so darling!

I found these from reading a cute blog about knitting (A Friend to Knit With), and they are from By The Lakeside blog:

brown sugar buttons

1 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups white all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
icing sugar for decoration

preheat oven to 350 degrees

line cookie sheets with parchment paper

beat butter, brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy

add flour and cornstarch and mix until dough forms

roll into 3/4" (2cm) balls, place on cookie sheets and flatten slightly

bake in preheated oven 10 minutes

remove, place on wire rack, and with a skewer poke 4 holes in each cookie

cool and dust with icing sugar

http://sandy-bythelakeside.blogspot.com/2008/10/brown-sugar-buttons.html

 
REC: Judy's Nut Balls

REC: Judy's Nut Balls (Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Teacakes, whatever)

An old family favorite, my grandma called these Judy's Nut Balls for my Aunt Judy -- but my Aunt Judy hates that name! I forgot what she said she herself calls them. Most other people would call them Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes or one of the other myriad names for this type of cookie. I've had Mexican Wedding Cookie conoisseurs tell me that this was among the best they've ever tasted.

3/4 cup ground pecans
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
extra powdered sugar

Stir together pecans, butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla, mix well. Sift flour and salt, stir into nut mixture. Chill. Roll into 1-inch balls, then roll each ball 3 times in the extra powdered sugar. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 F until set but not brown.

 
Yes it does, they are very pretty. I also tried the silver luster dust but

it is not pretty on these cookies.

I read somewhere to mix some luster dust with a couple of drops of vodka and use it as paint on your cookies, I wanna try that on some cutouts. And somewhere else I read to use the dry dust and paint in on the chocolate portion of chocolate dipped cookies. Gotta try that too.

Here's a pic I posted last year. It is hard to see the gold dust tho.

https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/Finer_Kitchens/IMGP0330.jpg

 
Cheezz I pack each type separately in freezer zip lock bags then store them

in my laundry room. There is no insulation in there and it is COLD! If it gets too warm I stick them in the basement.

I don't usually get to Christmas with them, I bring a platter full everywhere we go, starting with Thanksgiving! It is so much fun to share them with everyone.

 
I bought the gold luster from JoAnns and it didn't show up much. Used the entire container

which was WAY more than the recipe calls for, so I think Barb has a better quality dust.

 
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