Christmas Cookie time!

-

My mother loves to make cookies. She often creates a cookie platter with a half-dozen or more DIFFERENT cookies. She spends a day or two making them, then she delivers them to all her neighbors and friends. So Christmas cookies are some of my favorite childhood memories. I listed three of my favorite. One I couldn't find my family recipe for, so I just found one online that looked pretty similar.


Peppermint Pinwheels or Candy Cane Twists is my favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe. it's versatile, it's pretty. It looks GREAT on a plate of assorted cookies! I thought I'd share it with you! Years ago I stopped using shortening. I replace it with either unsalted butter or coconut oil, depending on the recipe. In this one, using butter will make the cookie crunchier. 


Basic Refrigerator dough:

½ c. shortening
½ c. margarine or butter
3 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 egg
2 Tbls. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt

Cream shortening and margarine with sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and mix into sugar mixture to make a soft dough.
Divide dough into two portions. In one, mix in ¾ tsp peppermint extract and ½ tsp red food coloring. Roll each portions of dough into a 12 X 11 rectangle, between sheets of wax paper. Remove wax paper from top side of each portion and stack one portion on top of the other with the wax paper on the outside. Remove the wax paper from top and roll together jelly roll style, removing the wax paper from bottom as you roll up. Refrigerate for 4-24 hours. Cut the roll with thread or floss into1/2 inch slices and bake at 375 on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.

Variations:
Follow as above except instead of rolling into a rectangle, roll each dough into ½ inch ropes. Cut ropes at 6 inches. Twist a red dough and white dough together and bend to make "candy canes." Bake as above.

For those who like chocolate:
Use basic recipe above except in one portion, use ¼ c. unsweetened cocoa and make as above for "black and white" pinwheels.

For chocolate lovers:
Make basic dough and add ½ c. unsweetened cocoa. Refrigerate as stated. Roll into balls and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Before cookies cool, indent the top with Hershey's kisses, mini Reeces Peanut Butter cups or your favorite chocolate candy.

Three layer cookies:
Mix basic dough and divide into three portions. In first third add 1 oz of melted semi-sweet chocolate block and 2 Tbls. milk. In second portion add 1/3 c. chopped cherries and a few drops of red food coloring. In the third portion add ½ c. chopped pistachios, 2 Tbls. milk, ¼ tsp. rum flavoring and 2 Tbs. milk.


Peanut Butter Blossoms

1/2 c of sugar, peanut butter, shortening (I use unsalted butter or coconut oil) and brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs. Milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 t. salt

Bag of Hershey kisses.


Mix all ingredients. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

While still warm from the oven, press with a Hershey's kiss (unwrapped). Enjoy!


And Stained Glass Cookies

https://preppykitchen.com/window-pane-cookies/


What are your Christmas favorites?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

At what point do you call yourself a writer?

-
When I was nine years old, I took a piece of blue construction paper and stapled it around some blank computer paper. I titled the book, Young Author. I didn't know what I was going to write in there, but I knew it was going to be good! I wanted to write mysteries. I read a whole lot of Nancy Drew at the time, everything in the local library and bought a few dozen more with my own money. (My daughter has them on her bookshelf as I write this--no way was I getting rid of those.) I attended a few workshops, dreamed, scribbled in notebooks, started a dozen stories, wrote a play (in fourth grade) and a scene I took to drama competition, took some Creative Writing classes in college. But it wasn't until nine years ago that I decided I was going to do it. I had read a book that contradicted the thought that I had to be wildly talented to get published (a popular belief that I held or held me back), I only had to work hard, gain experience, and learn skills. In roughly ten years, ...
Read more

Top Ten Tips for Fighting Discouragement

-
I asked my most ardent fans (my daughter and my husband) what I should write about on my blog and my daughter said I should write about encouraging others to keep writing. I feel like I've learned a lot in writing for the past ten years, and I'd love to share. Writing, and almost any other creative endeavor is a long process. From the spiritual creation or idea of it until its execution and finished product can take months if not years. Keeping going during that time can become a challenge. Here are my tips to stay motivated. 1. Remember why you started in the first place. I am a storyteller. I always have been. I'm horrid at asking questions but learning. But I think of funny scenarios. I'm the dreamer. Someone tells me a detail and I create a story. I don't write for the royalty check. I don't write to be famous-- although that would be nice. I write because I believe fiction can heal. I write because I believe we all need to safely escape. I write becaus...
Read more

Cover Reveal!!

-
Image
And here it is! Thanks to Debbie Taylor for cover design What do you think? I love that it has the St. Louis skyline and Andy's red bag. Hugh looks like he's ready for a fight. Backcover blurb: Twenty-three year-old investigative journalist, Andy Miller is armed with her many disguises and creativity to take down the riff-raff of Saint Louis. When her stepbrother is murdered by the mob, Andy soon discovers she’s out of her depth. Enter Hugh Donaldson who has reasons of his own for discovering the murderer. He’ll use everything in his power to achieve that, including lying to Andy about his past. Dangerous as he is attractive, his martial arts skills and his quirky ways raise Andy’s suspicions. Although Andy balks at his lies, Hugh’s charms, twenty-inch biceps, and electrifying blue eyes are difficult to resist. Striking out on their own, Hugh and Andy try to outwit each other as they traverse North America tracking down people connected to the case. As clues dis...
Read more