Cookies

If your kitchen and pantry look anything like mine, there are pecans, chocolate morsels, bags of powdered sugar and flour, bottles of corn syrup, food color bottles of every conceivable shade, and about a million other “building blocks” everywhere you look. Mine are even spilling over onto the countertop.

Serious baking going on here, man!

Below are a few links to even more amazing-sounding recipes that you might want to try out. Each year, I make all of our favorites (peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge, sugar cookies, pecan sandies, custard, almond Scandinavian bars, cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, etc..) and I also try out recipes I’ve never tried before. Keeps thing interesting and greatly amuses my family full of sweet teeth. There are about 6 recipes I want to try out over the next few weeks - and see if any make it into the “favorites” category in the coming years! The candy pictured above is one I’m CERTAIN will make the cut!

Give these links a good look - I know you’ll find lots of great tempting recipes.

Favorite Holiday Cookies

Christmas Candy Recipes

Hope your Christmas season is going beautifully!!!
Joi

Chocolate Passion Art Print

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I use Crisco)
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cream the first three ingredients together. Now add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Drop by teaspooons onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Good with chocolate icing….but perfectly delectable without it as well.

These make very good, highly original Christmas cookies. And did I mention they were choco-licious.

Joi

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You can purchase the Chocolate Passion art print at the top of the post atAllPosters.com

1 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup coconut
1 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbs. vanilla
3 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 cup Rice Crispies
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix in order given, then drop by teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, between 8 - 12 minutes. Don’t overbake.

I love “busy” cookies, and these are just about as “busy” as they could be. I’ve never thought “Everything Cookies” seemed like a cool enough name for these guys, but if you try to come up with an alternative - it sounds ridiculous. I mean Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Crispies doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

So, Everything Cookies they are and Everything Cookies they’ll remain.

By the way, they’re delicious - they’d be perfect to keep in mind when doing your Christmas cookie baking. The recipe’s ridiculously fast and easy and the cookie is different from the typical Christmas cookies.

Joi

The Chocolate Chip Cookie and Milk Photographic Print above
can be found at AllPosters.com

I’ve been on a mad search for Biscotti recipes and came across this one in an old (Nov. 2003) issue of Woman’s Day. I’m not surprised, really, some of the best recipes I’ve ever found have been from Woman’s Day Magazine - as well as Cooking Light and Taste of Home.

JEWELED BISCOTTI

1 cup each blanched whole almonds and shelled pistachios
1/3 cup each candied cherries, candied pineapple, dried apricots and dried papaya
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs, plus white from 1 large egg
1-1/2 Tbs light corn syrup
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a large baking sheet with cooking spray.

2. Spread almonds in a baking pan. Bake, stirring occasionally, for 8 - 10 minutes. Remove and add pistachios, let cool. Coarsely chop nuts.

3. Coarsely chop fruits. Add to nuts, set aside.

4. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, beating well after each additon. Beat in corn syrup. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder and salt until blended. Stir in nuts and fruits.

5. Divide dough in thirds. Roll each portion into a log - 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. Place 2 inches apart on sprayed baking sheet.

6. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or just until firm. Place sheet on a wire rack. When logs are cool enough to handle, carefully remove to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut each log diagonally crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Lay the slices on baking sheet(s).

7. Return to oven; bake 15 minutes longer or until golden and firm. Remove to wire rack to cool.

I’ll probably monkey around with the dried fruit choices. I don’t see me using apricot for anything in this or any other lifetime - so I’ll probably double up on the cherries or pineapples. I can’t wait to give this one a try.

I’ve been looking for a similar biscotti recipe to one I always get at Beyond the Brim - it has chocolate chips and nuts in it and I pretty much savor every nibble!

Have a delicious weekend,
Joi

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter

Cream butter. Add vanilla and sugar gradually. Beat in eggs and peanut butter, mixing well.

Sift flour and baking powder together, then stir into the mixture. Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten with fork that has been dipped in water. (Don’t get the dough too wet, though!)

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes.

Yield: 50 peanut buttery cookies!

1 cup Graham Cracker crumbs
16 oz. package chocolate chips
1 can coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened condensed Milk

Melt 3/4 stick butter in a 13 x 9 inch pan. Place ingredients in the pan - in order listed - in layers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Chill and cut.

These crazily delicious bars sometimes go by other names - but I prefer “Hello Dollies.” This is one of the few recipes that combine my culinary passions chocolate, nuts, sweetened condensed milk, and coconut. It’s a good thing buttermilk and coffee aren’t included in the recipe, I’d never live past the first bite.

But what a way to go!

Joi

1-1/2 sticks margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg, separated
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped nuts

Mix butter and sugar together with a spoon. Add egg yolk and stir well. Sift flour, cinnamon and salt together. Add to creamed mixture.

Mix well and knead. Pat out on a cookie sheet. Beat egg white lightly and spread over dough. Sprinkle nuts over the top and press them lightly into the dough. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes. While still warm, cut into oblong strips (or squares).

Great with Chai tea or coffee. Or both if you want to go all out….

Joi, who loves to go all out

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1-1/2 sticks margarine
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
About 48 milk chocolate kisses

Beat peanut butter, margarine, and sugar. Add eggs. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to mixture. Beat at low speed until well blended. Roll dough into a ball; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until easy to handle (about 1 hour). Shape dough into balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Press top and flatten with fork. Bake at 375 degreees for 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and quickly press a candy into center of each.

Yumalicious!

Joi

2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs and sugar, blending well. Add remaining ingredients. Again, blend well.

Spread batter in an 8 x 8 inch square baking pan. Bake 25 minutes - or until sides begin to pull away from the edge of the pan. Cut into squares. Allow to cool in the pan.

Freakin’ good! They’re what would happen if chocolate chip cookies bumped into brownies in the middle of the night.

Joi

1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
4 cups flour
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda

Cream the shortening and sugar well. Add eggs one at a time. Add buttermilk.

Sift flour, nutmeg and baking soda several times. Add flour to other mixture in small amounts.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes.

I have to thank a visitor to Buttermilk Press for the above recipe. She was looking for a Buttermilk Sugar Cookie recipe - and I never even knew one existed….and me, the queen of buttermilk!!!

I dug deep into my cookbook collection and voila, found the gem above.

I’ll be taking these for a test drive this weekend.