Hello again, all!
Blogging delayed, again. We've just been super duper mega busy around here. I've been turning and burning getting things decluttered around the house (I am determined to start out next year with a fresh and free type of feeling if I can), getting Christmas goodies made and all the things. I have to say I'm tired, but I feel good that the season so far has been a lot of fun for the kids, which is important to me. We have the tree up with the son's favorite candy canes on them (well...for about an hour until he eats them all...I have to do the flavored candy canes in stages or he'd make himself sick just gorging himself on those). Gingerbread houses are made (I'll share pictures of those on another post), the advent calendar has candies in it that the kids are having fun opening the drawers every day to get their Andes mint. Today I'm working on getting some Christmas gifts made as I am SO far behind on that. I am, literally, just starting home made gifts today, which yikes...not a great start. Hopefully I can get it done quickly this week as I really want to get some relaxation time in next week to just enjoy the holidays before they are here and over.
Now, onto what I did pretty much all of last week. Christmas cookies! I thought I'd share what I made in case you need some inspiration this year, so let's get to it! Links are provided for the recipes in case you want to make them :).
Butter cookies are, by far, one of my favorite holiday treats. When I saw what the price was for one thing of the blue tinned Dansk cookies, I decided to find a recipe to make my own.
Opinions? These are delicious. Mine didn't turn out very flaky, but I did roll them out and cut them instead of putting them through a cookie gun (honestly, I just didn't want to clean the cookie gun...did I mention I am tired? Lol!). I'm mainly the one eating them right now, which I might be okay with *ahem*.
This recipe made a ton. Like 53 cookies, ton. Since I made these the right way a few years ago (be sure to chill your dough overnight for the best results), these have become one of my daughter's favorite Christmas cookies.
These turned out really well. I used the espresso powder that was optional in the recipe, and it helped to probably boost up my cocoa powder, which was ancient. My husband and daughter really like these. I think they taste like a brownie cookie. Both my husband and daughter say they are better than brownies. You can make them and decide for yourself *laugh*.
I made these last year and they were a hit with the family, so I made them again this year. I took the classic peanut butter blossom recipe and just subbed out cashew butter for the peanut butter. This recipe made no where NEAR the 48 the recipe said they would. I got 23. But I think I made my cookies a lot bigger than called for (probably closer to a tablespoon as I couldn't find my melon baller, which is what I normally use to figure out a rounded teaspoon called for in recipes...I'm determined to organize my kitchen drawers next with a better system so I can find things). I'm glad I got a pic of these when I did as my daughter blew through them and they are already gone.
Technically this recipe is for a gingerbread house, but the first time I made a gingerbread house with the recipe, my family, especially Alvah, fell in love with the gingerbread. If you hate the ginger scented cardboard that a lot of gingerbread cookies end up being, you need to try this one. It reminds me of Pepparkakor (Swedish spice cookies). Let's just put it this way. One recipe of this stuff calls for one TABLESPOON of ground ginger and one TABLESPOON of ground cinnamon. Yeah, that heavily spiced. I made a double batch this year and we used 1/2 for the gingerbread houses and one half for gingerbread cookies. Alvah has already taken at least one bite out of each cookie, so I think he likes them *laugh*.
My husband's favorite Christmas cookie. I use his Grandma Molly's recipe for sugar cookies every year and these are always a hit. I did notice this year that Crisco has changed...it contains more water to pad out the weight, I think, and as a result I had to add more flour to get the right texture. I also added a bit of tallow to the frosting for the cookies as it too called for Crisco, just to make sure everything would turn out right. It did, but processed foods, yeesh. I don't buy many outside of chips for Alvah, and boy do I notice a difference in quality, quantity and price with those things. Irritating to say the least.
And yes, before some well intentioned individual pops in and says that Crisco is not good for you and such...I know. But, I only buy a little 16 oz thing of Crisco every year for Christmas baking, so I'm not too worried about it.
And there you go folks. The Christmas cookies I made this year. I'm still considering making some thumbprint cookies closer to Christmas so I can hopefully have some for my birthday (it's the week after Christmas) as I love those things, but we'll see how much I want to bake after the holidays are progressed further *laugh*.
Enjoy all!
Oh, they all look delicious! I haven't even started any Christmas baking yet, but I hope to by next week. And like you, I only buy a small thing of Crisco each year to bake with. I wish they made it even smaller because I don't even use but a very small amount. Guess that means I need to bake more! Haha!
ReplyDeleteI'll be right over and I'll bring some milk. OMG. Your cookie collection looks delish. Have a very Happy Christmas. Barb in PA
ReplyDeleteThey all look good. You are further ahead on cookies than I am! Of course it is just me and not a lot of company.
ReplyDeleteHappy crafting.
Those look so pretty and I wish I could eat one ❤️
ReplyDeleteI made the chocolate krinkle cookies too. They were good. However, a friend made them with bits of crushed candy canes in the batter, and 'dust' in the powdered sugar. Nice minty taste.
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