Holiday Cookie Baking

In elementary school I would each invite all the girls in my class over for a Gingerbread House and Cookie Decorating party every December. Mom made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers using a melted sugar mixture as glue and sugar cookies in different holiday shapes in advance. Each child would get their own house to ice and decorate with colored hard candies, gum drops, and candy canes. We would also ice and decorate sugar cookies with different colors of icing and sprinkles. This was a holiday tradition in our house for years that not only I participated in, but also Jessica and Will and there classmates. After elementary school we no longer had the individual parties or decorated gingerbread houses. However, my Mother would still make her holiday sugar cookies along with her fudge and my Dad would make his famous peanut brittle and Aunt Bill’s (a candy similar to blonde fudge). As the years passed and we all went to college and moved out of the house many of these traditions became a thing of the past. A couple years ago Jessica and I decided to begin a new family tradition of having a Saturday in December dedicated to holiday baking. For the past few years we collect different cookie recipes and narrow it down to a select few to try. The past two years Dad has joined us to help make his famous holiday candies. It has become a day that Jess and I both look forward to and enjoy spending together. From what we hear it sounds like our family and friends who are recipients of some of the goods enjoy it too!

This year we decided on three cookie recipes and two candy recipes. Apparently we were being a little overzealous as we didn’t end up having time to make one of the candies. In order to have plenty to share we tripled one cookie recipe and doubled all the others. We really put Jess’ Kitchen Aid mixer to the test this year, so next year we plan to use both our mixers to accommodate the larger quantities. The selections this year were Linzer Cookies, Chocolate Butter Cookies, Nut Crescents, and Dad’s Peanut Brittle.

Russ gave me an early Christmas gift of a Christmas Linzer Cookie set. It had a recipe that came with it that looked really yummy with only four ingredients including orange extract. The dough did require lots of chilling in the fridge at different stages, so despite the few ingredients it took a while to have it ready to roll out. Once they were baked we decided that we probably should have rolled it a little thinner. The flavor with the hint of orange and the buttery texture were wonderful. We used apricot (homemade by Elizabeth) and raspberry jam in between the two cookies which added both great color and fantastic flavor that worked with the hint of orange. I love the beautiful look of linzer cookies with their window effect and the color of the jam contrasting with the dusting of powder sugar – picture perfect!

Both the Chocolate Butter Cookies and the Nut Crescents came from the holiday baking issue of Cooks’ Illustrated. The Chocolate Butter Cookies started out well with the dark dough coming together and forming easily into smaller portions to chill in the fridge. When the dough came out we rolled it out attempting to get it to be 3/16 of an inch thick. The problem is that the dough is very difficult to work with and has to stay cool in order for you to cut the cookies out and move them to the baking tray. As you roll it out in order to get it that thin the dough warms up too much and becomes very sticky and soft. It was quite an ordeal, but in the end we rolled them slightly thicker, cut them out, put them back in the fridge to chill again and then removed them and placed them on the baking sheet. Once they were baking we had two trays with silpats and two with parchment paper (the recipe calls for parchment paper). Well, the cookies on the parchment paper burned on the bottom making them inedible…. So, we only baked them on the silpats from then on and were thankful we had doubled the recipe since we had to throw out the burned ones. The next night we go to decorate these with melted white chocolate. Let’s just say that turned into a sticky mess, so we opted for undecorated cookies. The flavor was delicious with a distinct chocolate and espresso flavors and the texture was perfect from the butter. All in all these cookies were a huge hassle and consequently we won’t be making them again which is a shame as they were quite tasty. On the other hand the Nut Crescents (usually called Mexican Wedding Cookies) came together without any trouble. We used pecans in our batter and then formed the dough into rings instead of crescent shapes. They baked up perfectly and looked pretty with their powder sugar dusting. If I don’t say so myself I think this may be the best Nut Crescent style cookie I have ever tasted. They were not dry at all as I sometimes find this kind of cookie. They had a wonderful somewhat crumbly texture that was still moist and full of flavor from the pecans. These are definitely a recipe to be repeated! So, Cooks’ Illustrated is currently 1 for 1 which means we’ll probably still seek out their holiday baking issue next year, but we’ll keep an eye out for pesky recipes!

Dad has been our guest chef for two years in a row now and we love having him join us. This year he came and made his homemade Peanut Brittle which is his Dad’s recipe. It is a fairly simple recipe with only a few ingredients, but it comes out with a great crunchy texture and tons of yummy peanuts! He hasn’t made it in several years now, but it tasted just as we remembered it.

Russ gives the Peanut Brittle a 10, the Nut Crescents and Chocolate Butter Cookies 8s and the Linzer cookies a 9. It was a very fun afternoon and a tradition that I look forward to each holiday season.

Linzer Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter
2 cups sifted Cake Flour
1 tsp. Orange Extract
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1 jar Raspberry or Apricot Jam

Mix butter, orange extract and sugar. Stir in 1 cup of flour at a time, mixing well. Chill the dough at least 2 hours. Roll out 1/2 the dough on cookie sheet to 1/4 inch thick and chill 30 more minutes. Cut with the Linzer Cutter without an insert. Remove excess dough and bake immediately at 350F for 12 minutes. Roll out the other half of dough on a second cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes. Cut with the Linzer Cutter with your choice of the 6 inserts in place. Remove excess dough and bake immediately at 350F for 12 minutes. Cool completely. Dust tops with powdered sugar. Spread 2 teaspoons jam on each cookie bottom. Place tops over bottoms to create the sandwich effect. Makes 10 - 12 cookies.

Other recipes and more pictures are coming soon. The pictures above are not great since my regular photographer was out of town duck hunting. The good news is he brought home duck... so stay tuned for my first attempt at cooking duck!