Wednesday, December 14, 2011

CHRISTMAS COOKIES






You can't make too many Christmas cookies in the month of December. This week I decided to Christmas-up some of my favorite year-round cookies.  I used red and green m&m's in place of chocolate chips for these.

The colors came out a little blurry, but tis the season... after some egg nog, hot buttered rum, and/or mulled spiced wine everything's a little blurry.  And they taste great.




So, to 'Christmas-up' my oatmeal cookies I just rolled them around in coconut flakes and stuck a maraschino cherry in the middle before baking.  Yummy.  They taste like macaroons with oats.




Peanut butter cookies are generally overlooked at Christmas for no good reason.  Just put a thumbprint of jam in the center and sprinkle some granulated sugar on top and they look 'oh so' festive !!!


This idea for Linzer cookies came to me in a dream... very clever.  I used refrigerator sugar cookie dough.  It comes on a tray with little cookie cubes that you pull apart.  I sliced each cube in half then pressed each side of each half in ground almonds.  While they were baking I cooked some raspberry jam till it bubbled and eventually became thicker and stickier when cooled.  Just stick two cookies together with jam and you have very tasty linzer cookies.


Don't worry, I still have 10 days to make all the Christmas cookies that only show up once a year.  Those ones with the ground candy canes in them, the cookie cutter sugar cookies, the German ones covered in powdered sugar, gingerbread men...
Christmas cookies are such an important part of Christmas memories.  The smell of cookies in the house goes with the smell of the tree.  And you have to leave out home made cookies for Santa !  He gets hungry out there all night long, delivering presents.  And eating cookies at every house he goes to!


So get busy, make cookies, spread the cheer, sing some carols, spike some punch, enjoy !

Merry Christmas !!!

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