The result:
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| Back row: Chocolate-topped surprise cookie, Peanut butter cut-out cookie, Filled Chocolate Spritz, Cranberry nut swirls Middle Row: Pecan Meltaways, Frosted Gingerbread Nut cookie, Two-tone Christmas cookie, Minty Meringue drops Front Row: Peppermint Candy Cookie, Cherry Macaroons |
First weekend:
#176 Two-tone Christmas Cookies
I mentioned these in the last post (the disaster cookie). It turned out okay. As you can see, the green half does look a little bit like fruit cake, but I think they taste the way they're supposed to; they just don't look all that appetizing in my opinion.
#177 Cherry Macaroons
One of my favorites this season - I think an more appropriate name would be Cherry Coconut Macaroons. A big hit so far with people this season.
1 1/3 cup shortening 2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup sugar 2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs 1 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract 1 1/2 cup flaked coconut
3 1/2 cups flour 1 cup maraschino cherries, chopped
In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and extract; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the coconut and cherries.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks.
#178 Peppermint Candy Cookies
These were actually fun to make and not that hard, though they look impressive. A co-worker thought they were store bought. To make a pinwheel effect, make your dough, then divide it in half and color one of the halves (i.e. green) then take each of the halves and divide it into thirds. Roll each into a log (all the same length) and alternate colors. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge. When it is chilled (at least an hour) you can slice and back these cookies.
2nd Weekend
I wasn't planning on making many cookies this weekend as we had a lot going on (Mike's birthday, cousins Christmas party, neighbor breakfast) - so I had some other baking to do. I tried to convince Mike that we could just get a dessert from wherever we ate out for his birthday - but he really wanted this peanut butter chocolate truffle pie that I had a recipe for. So I ended up baking a pie. Then my friend (Tanell - you know her - I've mentioned her before) thought we should get together with the boys (her 4 year old, my Joey) and bake cookies - so we did that too; that's where that extra batch came in to make 9 to 10 batches this season.
So #179
Filled Chocolate Spritz - we made this batch with the boys while we waited for #180 to chill enough for us to work with. Ironically, I was looking through my book for a good batch for the little ones to "help" and found this one. I thought I was going to end up with 11 batches - but a few days later when consulting my list of cookies for this month - I realized I had planned to make this one anyways. This one was fun but you need hand strength. I'm so glad I had help from my friend. The dough was stiff to mix and the cookie press was hard to press - we took turns. Plus, it turns out, Tanell is excellent at drizzling chocolate on top of cookies. It's certainly not my favorite when a cookie never seems to end (finicky cookies) and then have to be topped with a drizzle. I always use a sandwich bag with a small hole cut in the corner, but other holes always seem to pop open and I get chocolate everywhere.
#180 Peanut Butter Cutout Cookies
Imagine a sugar cookie that you frost and decorate, but instead, it's peanut butter flavored. That's what this is. The boys loved using the cookie cutters and they loved eating the frosting. Joey was a very meticulous decorater putting one sprinkle on at a time. Then when he finished, I started to take it away to give him another to work on. He had a different idea - eat the one he worked so hard on. Then he was done. He and Kole I think decorated 5 cookies between them. Tanell and I did the rest.
#181 Cranberry Nut Swirls
I was planning on preparing this batch the same day as the above happened - but I was too exhausted - so I did it the next day - Sunday - the day of the cousins Christmas party - the event I wanted to share these cookies with. I knew the dough had to refrigerate for an hour, I should've read further. The dough had to refrigerate for an hour - then the dough needs to be rolled out, filled with the filling, rolled up and refrigerated for "several hours" or "overnight". Luckily I woke up early, prepared the dough, refrigerated it, and then did the filling and rolling by 9 am - just in time to go to our neighbor's Christmas breakfast. So I was still able to pull it off.
This batch was the only time this month that Mike questioned my sanity and whether I was pushing myself too much.
(I also had a fruit salad to make for the Christmas breakfast).
Final Weekend (okay, extended into the week of Christmas break)
#182 Pecan Meltaways
Mike loves them - I hate them. I think this is a first where our ratings drastically differed (5 from him, 1 from me). This is dough with chopped pecans all rolled into a ball and then rolled in powdered sugar.
#183 Frosted Gingerbread Nut Cookies
Not bad for gingerbread - a 3 from each of us. Considering how many gingerbread cookies there are in this book and how associated it is with Christmas; I really haven't found anyone who likes gingerbread.
#184 Chocolate Topped Surprise Cookie
The most anticipated cookie (at least by me). As I told Mike - it's a chocolate chip, stuffed inside a maraschino cherry, stuffed inside dough and covered in chocolate. I knew I would like this - Mike says "I give it a 3" Wha!!??? It's amazing.
#185 Minty Meringue Drops
Meringue cookies are fun to make...and eat. But they don't store well. Made them just today so that they'd be okay for Christmas Eve and Christmas. My big problem that needs solving - you want to make the meringue and immediately bake the cookie. Though I can only fit so many on a cookie sheet - so the batter sits for a 1/2 hour while they bake. Then the next batch is a little more droopy. Don't know what to do about that.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Looking towards the New Year - I'm going to try and experiment with video taping the cookie baking and then doing the whole fast forward thing so that it looks like I'm baking really fast. Though I don't have an iphone 6, so not sure how I'm going to do that yet. I'm always looking for ways to make this more interesting.
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