Holiday Cookies

Winchester

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What are you baking this year for the holidays?

I think I have my list finished. I'll start baking cookies this weekend. I'm also baking for our neighbors.

Rick is making his own cheesecake this year! It's one of those 3-step cheesecake with a Keebler-type crust. He found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cheesecake and he wants to make it. Fine with me! I offered to make him a cheesecake, but he said he wants to try. (OK, who are you and what have you done with Dear Richard?!)

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Biscotti
Drop Sugar Cookies
Cut Sugar Cookies
Sand Tarts
Hollidoodles (Snicks with red and green sugar)
Stamped Cookies
Macadamia Cookies
Fudge Puddles
Raisin-Filled Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookies

Kolaches
Roasted Peanuts and Cashews
Almond Brittle (I like almond brittle more so than peanut brittle)
Sticky Buns for Christmas morning

That may be it, unless something trips my trigger somewhere along the line.
 

Furballsmom

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WOW
I love to bake but I won't be doing quite so much as that 😻. One of the reasons is that a few years ago I decided to try Ina Gartens shortbread cookies, and that was that. They're requested every year now 👍 and I do just a few others so that I don't have to make a bazillion shortbread cookies lol.

OK, who are you and what have you done with Dear Richard?!)
:flail:
 

susanm9006

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Holy smokes Winchester Winchester , that’s a boatload of cookies! lol

I’ll probably just stick to my basics… Gramma’s crispy buckeyes, cranberry raisin bread, and maybe some raisin spice cookies.
I used to go all out, and make decorated sugar cookies, but I’m just not that ambitious any more, lol
I have just never had the patience to decorate cookies. For those requiring frosting I just use a Pampered Chef frosting gun.
 
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Winchester

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I don't have the patience to decorate cookies, other than with decorating sugars and sprinkles. But I'm getting better since our granddaughter loves decorating. And funny enough, with her? I have the patience! I was like that with my son, too. He and I used to always make chocolate-covered pretzel cookies. I don't have the patience to make them by myself. He comes in and I'm fine. Go figure. We talk and talk and, before I know it, we're done.

Rick won't bake with me. He'll sit and watch football and come out to steal cookies. But that's it. Unless I do pressed cookies. He'll make those because....again....I don't have the patience to fiddle around with the gun!
 

Furballsmom

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LoL
I have a new request for peanut butter cookies this year WITH the little fork-tine indents on the tops :biggrin:
 

artiemom

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I have never been good at cookies, or pies.. Probably because my mom was a Kitchen Whiz, with all things kitchen..
Cannot get the hang of cookies.. either not cooked enough, or too much..

My mom would start weeks before the holiday, with a huge assortment of cookies, and she hand decorated ALL of them!
I was an adult, living on my own, before I knew that you could sprinkle the colored sugar crystals BEFORE baking!!
99% of the cookies had confectioners sugar frosting.. made with real butter, and Carnation evaporated milk.. that is what I guess my grandmother used, but all the recipes were my moms. I remember the entire kitchen table covered with cookies!! and when cooled, they were put in airtight containers-- metal containers. Some were stored down the cellar (cool down there), awaiting decorating a day later.

I remember coming home from school, smelling cookies baking, and helping decorate... and before I began school, my mom always gave me some dough to make a pie, or cookies... my poor dad, HAD to try it out!!

My aunt would always make date nut bars, and cookies.

My mom, was one of the first ones around with the Peanut Blossom Cookies. She saw these on a Pillsbury Bake off cookbook, and tried them.. They were a HIT!! Now, this is one cookie, I was able to bake..

Many others also:
Vanilla nut cookies-- decorated with a multitude of decorations.. Christmas trees, bells, angels, stars, dogs,
TollHouse cookies-- I could bake these also..
Orange Pecan soft drop cookies--decorated with said frosting and a whole pecan

My mom even went out of the way, making chocolate banana drop cookies. So delicious. She got the idea of turning them into lollipop faces! I remember my dad running around, trying to find paper straws, to place inside the cookies just before they were done baking..
She would stick the paper straw in them.. they cooled on the wire rack, One cooled, both her and myself (when older) would decorate them. We used said icing, Life Savers for either eyes, or a round mouth.. chocolate white caps for noses, or placed into a smile, or a nose... red sparkly sugar sprinkles for lips... and on and on.. Once decorated, the frosting had to air dry. Then, my mom would cut squares of plastic wrap, and small lengths of ribbon. She would cover the cookie with the plastic wrap (before the days of tiny plastic bags), tying each one, at the 'neck' with the ribbon-- kind of like a bow tie!

This was so labor intensive... but she did it for my birthday and Christmas.. Sometimes she would just make them plain, for me, during the year.

My mom, shared her cookies with the entire family, neighbors.... and my dad's workplace. and my teachers.

Looking back, I cannot believe how much work was involved in all of this.. My mom loved doing it, but it took a lot out of her. I still have all her recipes.

Several years ago, I tried the Vanilla nut cookies.. Could not get them right.. I remember my mom always having a hard time with them.. Now, I realize these cookies should have been just refrigerated and cut cookies. My mom, went the extra mile to roll them out... and decorate them.... amazing...

So many Christmas memories... of food....
never mind the cookies.. There was always a ton of food, which my mom gave away, as gifts.....
 
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Winchester

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artiemom artiemom Your mom was amazing! That was my grandmother, too. Always tons and tons of cookies. She didn't decorate, though, other than colored sugars. She made the absolute best sugar cookies I've ever had in my life. Her sand tarts were simply wonderful and I cannot replicate them; for the life of me, I cannot roll them that thin.

She also made sugared popcorn, tins and tins of the stuff. Enough for all the grandkids. Maybe that's where I got my taste for caramel corn. After she passed, Mom and I would make sugared popcorn, in both red and green colors. After Mom passed, I stopped making it. I'm sure Rick would help me (I always needed somebody to stir the popcorn while I was pouring the syrup over it), but then I'd just eat it all. And I don't need it, that's for sure.

She made popcorn balls for us, too.
 

Pywacket21

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I was a school baker for 7 years. I made a chocolate cookie the kids liked so much they’d steal them. Have that recipe cut down to 35. Have made Pavolas, forgotten cookies. Currently looking for a good peffernuse? recipe and a fruitcake that is more fruit than cake. My mom always made a pork cake. With ground pork and then soaked it in wine. Don’t do much else in the cookie department now. Oldest grand always wants chocolate cheesecake. He gets it.
 

Furballsmom

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So, we just finished off a batch of soft cookies that I specifically made to use up my leftover rhubarb, -- taste of home rhubarb-filled cookies. Kinda shoulda given them a couple more minutes in the oven but nonetheless, these were tasty enough that a suggestion was made to try them again with a different fruit like blackberries.

a fruitcake that is more fruit than cake.
I'm probably late, but would this one by another member fit the bill? I could have sworn I just came across that sort of recipe (more fruit than cake) but I'm not remembering where ...
Butter, Eggs, and Holiday Baking

or maybe this one;
How to Make the Most Amazing Fruit Cake
 

catapault

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Furballsmom Furballsmom I think it was my message you are thinking of. The recipe I have been baking forever is basically a white pound cake: 6 eggs, 3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, 6 eggs, 2 cups sugar, 3 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup brandy.

Which is poured over 3/4 to 1 cup each candied diced lemon peel, orange peel, citron, pineapple and red cherries cut in half. Also 1 cup each macerated dark raisins, yellow raisins, and currants (which are really just dried little raisins.) I don't use the candied fruit in little plastic containers at the supermarket but buy from a specialty store. It's been suggested I look for a Spanish grocery store. When I have the time . . .

Stir well together (a strong arm is helpful) and spoon into wax paper lined small loaf pans. Recipe makes six. Bake in slow open for 2 plus hours until lightly golden on top an a cake tester comes out clean.

They get baptized with brandy, a tablespoon for each small loaf, as soon as they come out of the oven, still warm. Again the next day. Then once a week for the month before Christmas.
 
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catapault

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Winchester Winchester I had a thought this morning . . . You know peanut butter blossom cookies where the cookie is baked and an unwrapped Hershey's kiss is mashed onto each one as they come out of the oven.

What if I baked chocolate cookies, smaller than the peanut butter blossoms, and used a half candied cherry to decorate as they came out of the oven.

How does that sound to you?
 
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Winchester

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C catapault Frankly, that sounds decadent! I'd like them more so than the peanut butter ones.

I do something similar with a vanilla cookie batter, rolled into balls, then into coconut. Baked with a maraschino cherry half. Really good.
 
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Winchester

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Other than the roasted peanuts and cashews, I'm pretty much done.

I'm going to bake sugar cookies again on Wednesday. Rick's bowling league is doing a cookie/snack kind of thing on Wednesday night while they're bowling. Rick put me down for sugar cookies and, if I do them on Wednesday afternoon, they'll be nice and fresh. Next Saturday (day before Christmas), I'll be making sticky buns for us and for my sister and BIL. They'll be good for Christmas morning. That's it!

And I never want to see another cookie again for at least a month!
 

Furballsmom

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Mmmm, yummy!
I've done a little, but one of the extra requests is to have milk with the shortbread cookies for dunking, and that whole experience is considered a Christmas gift so I haven't made these yet.
 

catapault

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So very, totally absurd! An online news piece that supposedly had links to 45 holiday cookie recipes from grandmother. O.K. I know all of them would not be to my liking, but really . . . One recipe's ingredient list calls for a package of refrigerated cookie dough. Another wants two packages of pistachio pudding mix. One Norwegian cookie recipe needs a special mold. Let's get real, people.
 

catapault

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Now, Winchester Winchester - about snickerdoodles. I have a question and you are, as we all know, the snickerdoodle queen. Or at least you are the expert person who we know of, who bakes them.

I was looking up cream of tartar and the article included this statement:

" Why is cream of tartar in snickerdoodle cookies?

"It's what separates a tangy, chewy snickerdoodle from an ordinary cinnamon-coated sugar cookie. The acid in cream of tartar gives snickerdoodles their distinctive tangy flavor, and the chew happens because cream of tartar prevents sugar in the cookie dough from crystalizing into crunchiness."

The recipe has butter AND shortening, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, cream of tartar AND baking soda. Plus sugar and cinnamon to roll the dough balls in before baking.

Sound about right?
 

Furballsmom

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An online news piece that supposedly had links to 45 holiday cookie recipes from grandmother.
The only thing I can think of is that they were attempting to "speak" to bakers of all skill levels, including those who don't know a lot (didn't have a grandma to teach them, or an innate ability, but are still willing to try) :)

LOL I have a pistachio lover in the house, I may have to look that one up :thumbsup:
 
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