We’re having a caroling party tomorrow with maybe 25-30 people coming over. So far I’ve baked a bunch of hazelnut biscotti with bittersweet chocolate ganache, but I want to do a batch of something else. I was thinking lemon bars, but maybe they don’t go so well with the eggnog and glogg we are also planning to serve.
Any other ideas? I’d prefer something that’s pretty quick to put together because I won’t have a lot of time, which was why I was thinking of lemon bars rather than something that needs to be rolled out or shaped individually. Ideas/recipes? I was thinking of maybe a date/spice bar cookie of some sort, but haven’t been able to find anything that’s quite what I’m looking for. What are your favorites?
P.S. Sunday I will be baking cookies for office gifts, so I am also accepting nominations for those. I usually do a batch of ginger cookies with crystallized ginger chunks, but I want to do at least another type or two.
Most of the Christmas cookies I make will be the type that are formed or shaped individually. You can never go wrong with chocolate chips! I think gingersnaps would be good of you have a little time to roll them in balls. I like to put my children to work doing that, don’t know if that’s an option for you.
Bourbon Butter Cookies
I made these recently- the bourbon taste is very subtle and although they were refridgerated dough, it took me no time at all to knead and roll it, then stick it in fridge until they firmed up enough to cut. The icing took five minutes.
We are now at T- 4 hours, and it’s me and Tom Scud, and we both just woke up, and my recipe calls for chilling the dough first for at least a couple of hours, and we still have to straighten up and do a few other prep things. So if those happen, it won’t be until tomorrow.
There is no shame in buying some cookies from the bakery! Trying to do to much will just stress you out and ruin the whole party for ya. Enjoy yourself.
Sugar cookies are traditional at Christmas, and you can make drop sugar cookies instead of roll out. A little frosting or glaze, some sprinkles, and you’re there!
Eh, that’s cheating Plus buying decent bakery cookies in the quantity I would need would be very expensive. I ended up doing the lemon bars after all, which was a good thing, because all but maybe three 2" squares are gone from a lazagna pan-sized batch. This was partly because some of the people I was counting on for help eating the hazelnut biscotti can no longer eat nuts (one friend’s daughter ended up in the ER with a newly diagnosed nut allergy a few months ago, and the friend is still nursing her youngest, who is allergic not only to nuts, but to eggs and dairy, so she is basically vegan for now).
And friends brought things too (chocolate truffles, and the friend with allergic kids brought homemade vegan chocolate cupcakes, among other things), and the eggnog went like hotcakes, which I think kind of damped people’s appetite for desserts, too. So I have most of the hazelnut biscotti with dark chocolate ganache left, and I wll do ginger cookies tomorrow for office gifts this coming week, and maybe one other kind, still to be determined.
I’m thinking maybe something fruity. Anyone have a favorite recipe for date bars? I think those would be nice with cardamom and orange zest, but I need some kind of base recipe to start with. Or something with dried apricots might be nice.
I see ginger cookies mentioned above, and agree completely. These (the winner, of course) sound lie the ones in the OP, and without the ginger chunks are just like the ones I grew up on. The grocery store that co-sponsored the contest sells them, and they are wonderful.
Yeah, those (minus the icing) are very similar to the ones I do - mine are basically the Martha Stewart gingersnap recipe, but with crystallized ginger chunks. Dough will go in the fridge tomorrow morning.
The ginger sparklers I make are very similar to the ginger burst cookies, except mine don’t have crystallized ginger in them - at least, they didn’t until now.
Since I typed up the recipe for my mom yesterday, I figured I might as well post it if anyone is interested -
Ginger Sparklers
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ginger
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Beat well. Stir in dry ingredients. Roll in balls and coat with white sugar. Place on greased baking sheet and flatten with thumb. Leave lots of room between cookies. Bake at 350ºF for 10 minutes.
The one Christmas cookie that my grown kids wouldn’t let me stop baking were the mint chocolate chip cookies. It’s the toll house recipe plus a teaspoon or two of mint flavoring and more green food coloring than you’d expect. Warning: you can’t completely brown the cookies or the green will be overwhelmed. Also sometime you have to use medium eggs or less vanilla to keep the dough from being too wet.
Okay, for the first time ever, I have made snicker doodles! Those are pretty tasty. After making a couple of pans of cookies, I had a bit of dough leftover, and I made a snicker doodle square out of it and just poured the rest of the cinnamon sugar over it - that is also very tasty.
Plus buying decent bakery cookies in the quantity I would need would be very expensive. I ended up doing the lemon bars after all, which was a good thing, because all but maybe three 2" squares are gone from a lazagna pan-sized batch. This was partly because some of the people I was counting on for help eating the hazelnut biscotti can no longer eat nuts (one friend’s daughter ended up in the ER with a newly diagnosed nut allergy a few months ago, and the friend is still nursing her youngest, who is allergic not only to nuts, but to eggs and dairy, so she is basically vegan for now).