Yeah, that seems to be the answer.
Last year on a long car ride I suddenly realized that I needed to eat caramel thumbprint cookies. I’m a genius! I thought. Nobody’s ever had this idea before!
So I found a recipe this weekend. They were mighty tasty, but if I make them again, I might make a more complicated caramel: this caramel was a little lacking in depth of flavor.
I also make Angel Slices using a recipe fairly similar to this one.
If I have time, once school gets out, I’ll make another couple of varieties. I used to make brownies flavored with orange zest and topped with melted chocolate and candied orange peel cut into confetti-sized triangles. It looked like a sparkling glass mosaic, but was a lot of work.
The wife and I made no-bake Bourbon balls tonight. They are vanilla wafer crumbs, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and chopped pecans mixed with a combination of Karo syrup and a fine bourbon. let it sit over night covered in the fridge, then ball and roll in powdered sugar. They taste amazing; have too many and you shouldn’t drive. I love spreading holiday cheer! My wife also makes a Jewish toasted sesame seed and honey candy at Christmastime; I’m not sure what it is called, but it has a toffee-like consistency and isn’t super sweet. I can post recipes if anyone is interested.
Our family favorites are:
Joulutorttuja, a Finnish cookie of puff pastry folded into a star shape with a prune and cointreau filling in the center
Diagonal cookies, also Finnish, a very rich buttery dough with a filling of clear jelly that looks like stained glass
Land o’Lakes classic butter cookies, rolled out and cut into tree and star shapes, decorated with lots and lots of cinnamon red hots.
This year I also made some low-carb cookies for myself, so I wouldn’t be tempted by the sweet ones for everyone else.
They need twice as much cinnamon and cardamom as the recipe calls for, and a little more sweetener than I used, to counteract the blah effect of the almond flour. The good thing is that no one else will be tempted to eat them.
I also found a recipe for low-carb cream cheese cookies, that I will test out. I think I’ll flavor them with peppermint.
I made some this weekend, though not specifically “Christmas” cookies. We just need goodies for the family get-together coming up.
So I made 3 batches of Special K bars and 8 dozen memory cookies. Still have to do spritz cookies, sugar cookies, more pretzel turtles, more chocolate peanut butter cookies, and then I think that’ll do it.
What’s a memory cookie?
I forget.
I’ve posted the recipe on here before somewhere. Basically, sorta-kinda, a brown-sugar cookie with coconut and rice krispies. Highly addictive. Goes like this:
Cream 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup room temp butter. Add 2 eggs.
Mix in 2 ½ cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup rice krispies, and 1 tsp vanilla.
Chill batter to prevent too much spreading. Spoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes at 350.
Good warm, but just as good or better cooled.
As for why they’re called “memory cookies”: my grandmother got the recipe from a lady at the hair salon, and she didn’t have anything to write on until she got home. And then, she couldn’t remember what they were called. So we just call them “memory cookies.”
The one my grown kids pout if I don’t make at least one double batch is mint chip cookies. Take the basic Toll House Cookie recipe and add green food coloring and peppermint flavoring.
I usually make snickerdoodles for Christmas this recipe, specifically, I do not waver from it. It is absolutely perfect, using the cream of tartar & baking soda blend (which is important to the correct flavor for snickerdoodles–they need a little bit of tartaric tang, otherwise, they’re just cinnamon sugar cookies), and a mix of half shortening, half butter (which is perfect for the texture.)
This year, though, I want to give speculaas/speculoos a shot. They’re traditionally St. Nick’s day cookies, but close enough. Kind of a gingerbread/butter cookie type of thing (though more variedly spiced with the other Christmas spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and even white pepper). I’ve gotten imported versions at the Polish grocery store, but would like to try making them myself.
Well, I just finished making a double batch of Pecan Butter Balls with my own two little feet. YUMMM! I even got to let the K9s lick the residue off my hands–I’m their best friend, now; they’ll probably eat me in my sleep!
Christmas Day will always be. Just as long as we have we.
I currently have molasses cookies, white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, and eggnog rum cookies with rum sugar glaze.
we make most of our cookies and candies using a better home and gardens book from the 60s …. I love their double peanut butter cookie and the nut brittle recipes ……. their sugar cookie recipe not so much because if you don’t eat them with in a day or two there rocks ….
My non book favorite is the no bake chocolate oatmeal ones
I talked to my husband, while ago. He’s an OTR truck driver. He has requested more M&M Cookies, and Triple Chocolate Cookies. I was going to make a batch of Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies, before his request. I may just make 'em all, and be done with it. I thought I was done with all the cookie baking for the season. I was wrong. I’m wrong a lot.
Just made a batch of these. Easy to do, and addictive to eat. Thanks!
Huh, angel wings are Polish? When we get them, they’re usually from an Italian neighbor, so I’d assumed they were Italian. But I guess, like my own grandmother, she just knows a good recipe when she finds it, wherever it comes from.
My favorite that anyone in my family makes is jam thumbprints. They came out a little different this year, though: I think they were maybe a tad overcooked before, but it seemed to be to their benefit.
My favorite Christmas cookies are the basic sugar cookies you can ice or put sprinkles on.
3 cups flour(15.5 ounces)(440g)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar(7.1 ounces)(200 g)
1 cup butter(8 ounces)(225 g)
1 teaspoon flavoring( vanillla, almond, or lemon)
I prefer almond flavoring.
Cream together the butter and sugar, then blend in eggs and flavor. Sitr in dry ingredients. Dough can be used at once, but chilling doesn’t hurt it. Roll out on a well floured surgace to thinness desired and cut out cookies. Bake on a sheet lined with parchment paper, until just browning at the edges, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, 175 Celsius. Let cool, ice and decorate as desired. If you want just colored sugar and no icing, sprinkle that on before baking, it won’t stick afterwards.
For icing I use powdered sugar with a little almond flavor, thinned down with light cream. You don’t want any fat in the icing, it needs to dry. If adding sprinkle, ice a few cookies, sprinkle, and repeat
It appears that there is an Italian version, as well, although most recipes I see refer to the Polish cookie. It’s probably one of those things that you find across cultures, like butter cookies (shortbread).
Tell us about that glaze!
Yaaaasss!! I made 20 dozen (5 pans) and after giving away 15 dozen and losing some to baking day (I’ll admit, I gave some to the dogs)…just a week later I find myself without any more. Did I really eat 4-5 dozen myself?! They’re good for breakfast…
My friend’s mom makes them and she’s Czech! I guess it’s just a good old lady cookie 