December 15: 1-2-3 Cookies

We’re over the halfway point now. Am I sick of cookies yet? I wouldn’t say that. I’m not exactly excited by them, but I’m not dreading them. It also helps that my work told us we could work from home for awhile–since last week–and that means I can make dough at lunch, which definitely helps my motivation!

Today I did another new recipe, though I’ve seen them on Christmas cookie platters since I was an off-key kid singing at a Christmas pageant. I just didn’t know what they were called.

They are so easy, I feel dumb that I’ve never made them before!

1-2-3 Cookies

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cold butter, cubed
1/4 c. Sweetened Condensed Milk

In a mixing bowl rub the flour and butter until it resembles a wet sand like texture.
Add the condensed milk and combine to form a dough. If the dough feels sticky then feel free to add additional tbsp of flour to make it into a cookie dough.
Using a tbsp as the measurement, take out the portion of dough, shape it into a ball and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Using the back of your tsp make a well in the center of the cookie dough. Smooth any cracks if any.
Bake in a pre-heated oven of 350 for 8 to 10 mins until the bottom of the cookie is golden brown and the top is pale in color.
Once baked and still warm fill it with condensed milk or whatever filling you want
Let the cookies cool completely and then transfer to an air tight container and store for 1 week at room temperature.

I like condensed milk as much as the next person, but what I remember as a kid was that these were filled with chocolate. I melted some chocolate chips and mixed it with a little sweetened condensed milk and it’s yummy. I also did some with the sweetened condensed milk alone too.

I made these two hours ago, and I think I’m down to five. Kids say the cats like them. I think they might be telling me stories. But then I saw my 25lb cat licking his chops, so maybe they are telling the truth…

December 14: Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

I realized I haven’t added as many new cookies to my rotation this year, so I went to the Google machine to look up some more creative Christmas cookies.

I found a list of like 25 Christmas Cookies You HAVE to Make Right Now or You Will Die a Painful Slow Death at the Hands of a Marketing Assistant Whose Job Depends on You Clicking The Link.

I’m in marketing. While that may not have actually been the list’s name, it’s the subtle subtext around it.

So I clicked. (Side note: it’s a shallow life goal to be included on one of these lists someday.)

And that’s where I found today’s beauty. Well, I found it on that list, but then went to the real site.

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

1/2 c. butter softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
2/3 c. cocoa
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla extract
2 t. cherry juice (from maraschino cherry jar)
30–36 jarred maraschino cherries
1/4 c. semi sweet chocolate chips
2 T. sweetened condensed milk
1 T. cherry juice (from maraschino cherry jar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and both sugars with mixer. Add eggs one at a time and mix in.
Combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 cup dry mixture to butter mixture at a time. Blending after each addition just until combined and scraping side of mixer bowl as needed. Add vanilla and 2 teaspoons cherry juice and mix just until combined. Remove bowl from mixer and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Butter hands and roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Using thumb press small indentation in center of cookie and place maraschino cherry in hole.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Melt chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk on low. When melted add 1 tablespoon cherry juice. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

I was intrigued by the ingredient list. I like cherries. I like chocolate. I like sweetened condensed milk, and I wanted to see what a recipe was like that called for salt, baking powder, and baking soda all at once, that wasn’t me at 8 years-old “making” my own recipe.

In the interest of time, I’ll tell you. It turned out pretty darn well.

Now, as for that Marketing Assistant whose job I saved (and ultimately did not have to kill me), how about a little gratitude and include me on a cookie list?

December 10: Italian Sand Cookies

Note: Because of illness, I got behind. Now that I can at least sit upright for more than a few hours, I am catching up. But with that, these are going to be more bare-bones than in the past.

Italian Sand Cookies

(courtesy of Chef Tess Bakeresse)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour (we used AP)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar *
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 eggs
*(we also liked 3/4 c. conf sugar & 1/4 c. granulated which made them a slight bit sweeter)

Directions:

Creaming method. Put through bag with large star tip. Bake @ 375 F for 12-15 minutes or until lightly brown. Decorate with choc chips, sprinkles or leave plain and dip half in melted choc., etc.

So, in making these, I realized too late that I was out of my traditional red, white, and green sprinkles. So, the Italian Sand Cookies this year represents my vast sprinkle collection. Well, at least the ones that show up on chocolate.

These don’t last very long in my house, even with my threats to the kids.

December 17: Peanut Butter Blossoms

I woke up at an ungodly hour this morning. Actually, I’m not sure I ever fell asleep last night. Either way, I was up to see the sunrise. I wrapped presents in the dark. I organized my shoe rack. And then at 7 a.m., I decided it was a perfectly acceptable time to make cookies.

About 10 minutes after sunrise. This is not something I normally see.

So, as my children were starting to get up for school, I was creaming together shortening and peanut butter. Because my loathe of mornings is something to be taken quite seriously, I think I alarmed all my kids. “Mom, are you okay?” I heard about a dozen times before they left for school.

I think by now we all know the deal with Peanut Butter Blossoms. It’s a peanut butter cookie that you stick a Hershey Kiss in the middle of when they come out of the oven. I used the traditional Hershey recipe, and as always, it’s posted at the end of this entry.

However, when it came to the part where you roll it in sugar, I wanted to try something fun. I got out my red sugar and green sugar, and rolled them in that instead, just to make them more Christmas-y. I did this last year with Snickerdoodles, and that worked like gangbusters, so why not try with these?

Obviously, the pattern is for all of you. Although, I only took one picture of a tray, and I did the same alternating pattern on the next tray too, so maybe it’s not just about you.

And as I drank my morning coffee, I was unwrapping Kisses. I remember one year I was doing this while drinking spiced wine at night. It was almost the same, minus the delightful buzz.

I was almost done baking when my daughter texted me, asking if I could bring her eyedrops to school (don’t ask), so I took it as the perfect opportunity to pack up some cookies for the office staff at the middle school. For as much time as I spend there, I need my own parking space and a place on payroll.

I get asked a lot what I do with all the cookies. I do this. Teachers, neighbors, mailmen, friends…and whatever is left, I bring to my family Christmas at my dad’s house.

Officially, I was done with cookies at 8 a.m. this morning. I feel like a Marine, only way less important and with way more sprinkles at my disposal.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

(courtesy of Hershey’s)

INGREDIENTS

48 HERSHEY’S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup REESE’S Creamy Peanut Butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup additional granulated sugar for rolling

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes 48 cookies.

December 14: Chocolate Zingers

Jeanne and I have been friends since we were 10 years old. Now that we’re almost 40, that means we’ve lived nearly 3/4 of our lives being friends. Wow. That sentence made me feel old.

Anyway, Jeanne came over this afternoon to be my special guest star. She forwarded me one of her favorite recipes a few days ago and I made sure I had the right ingredients on hand.

Jeanne, my friend for nearly 30 years. She’s the keeper of the secrets and baker of the cookies with pepper in them.

Well, most of them.

Because this recipe calls for both black pepper and cayenne pepper, and I only saw the black pepper part, I had to go to the store once Jeanne got here. Eh. It happens.

Once I got back from the store, we were able to finish the recipe.

Jeanne and her husband Mike always have the most fun recipes to share (and parties to attend…and twins to play with…and…well I guess they are just fun people in general). Like I said above, this one has two kinds of pepper in it, but it works in the recipe. It’s not spicy, it’s more like a heat that you get in the back of your throat. And it’s definitely more chocolatey than other chocolate cookie recipes!

(This is the recipe as Jeanne sent it to me.)

December 7: Italian Sand Cookies

Yesterday was my last day of the semester, so now it’s just grading to get done and I’m free until January! Well, minus my other gigs and parenting and general adulting. But I’m not worrying about those things today. Today, it was sleeping in, cleaning, and making Italian Sand Cookies.

I found the recipe for this years ago on Pinterest, and ever since, they’ve been a staple in my December cookie baking. However, during the three Louisiana years, they didn’t turn out quite right. I’m not sure if it was the humidity or my own distraction (you know, leaving the mixer on too long while I write another paragraph about Elizabeth Barrett Browning), but they spread out way too much there. We still ate them, so I’m not exactly sure what I’m complaining about.

Again, the recipe amuses me. It lists all of the ingredients, and for the directions, it says, “Creaming method.” If you don’t know what that is, it’s mixing together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

Before creaming.
Sufficiently creamed.

It’s pretty simple really. Then you add the cornstarch and flour, and mix it all together. Again, I needed more flour than the recipe calls for…I used about another 1/3 of a cup. And when I was all done mixing, I looked for my beater-lickers, but alas, they were all at school.

So I guess I had to do it. It’s a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I piped them with a star tip onto my baking sheet and put them in the over. I also kinda burst the bag because I don’t know my own strength, and then had to put my finger over that part so the dough wouldn’t come out there. These are the behind the scenes things you don’t get with professional baking blogs.

They baked up wonderfully and looked the way they were supposed to look. After they cooled, I dipped them in melted chocolate (chocolate chips with a little crisco to make it thinner), and topped them with sprinkles. These take a while to dry, so I set them outside on my back step for 15 minutes. (Thanks 21 degree Illinois day!)