He's my favorite favorite favorite.
Cookie, of course. But also Christmas, and (if you spell it right) Chanukkah.
The holiday season is here, and while we’ve dug out the seasonal music, strung up some garland, and started holiday shopping, it doesn’t feel real until I can taste it. Which means it’s time to start making delicious kitchen messes.
Last night I made toffee (eaaaaasy recipe below), which is usually the first Xmas treat of season. Fudge will follow, and gingersnaps (or gingerbread men), and very likely caramel popcorn or Chex Mix, and M & M cookies, which, according to the Dude’s family tradition, must be made with shortening, not butter. (I think “what the hell is the point, then?” but I understand the flavor is about nostalgia as much as taste). And raspberry-oat bars, I think… And sugar cookies. And biscotti.
When I go to spend time with my Mom, I’ll have delicately anise-flavored springerle, and delicious, crumbly walnut brandy balls, and buttery spritz cookies, and we will probably make a chocolate-caramel-and-nut-covered pretzel rods for the Dude, who slavers for them all year long.
Holy moly, my mouth is watering just thinking about it all. So, obviously, today’s FFT is about your winter holiday goodies, even if they’re not cookies. What do you always have? What can’t you wait to bake? Any great, easy recipes to share? Drop ‘em in comments!
Happy baking, and happier eating, friends!
PhDork’s Easy Holiday Toffee
2 sticks butter*
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
Combine in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Use a candy thermometer (or your trained eyeball) until “hard crack” stage (it will turn deep brown) and immediately poor onto a cookie sheet.
Sprinkle with 3/4 cup (6 oz) of chocolate chips/chunks. Let stand for 1 minute, then spread the melty goodness over all. Top with 1/2 cup chopped nuts (all kinds are good, I especially like pecans). Cool, break into pieces by hand, and store whatever you don’t eat right away in an airtight container. Send PhDork an email of gratitude, if you feel like it.
*You need good butter for this. Not crazy-expensive Irish butter or Plugra or whatever, but no crappy store brands, either. I used to think butter was butter was butter, until I used some sub-par generic in toffee, and both flavor and texture were seriously comprised.
So…Dorky…what time should I come over for milk and cookies? Also, shout-out to the Dude’s chocolate-caramel pretzel stick thingies.
I am more Team Cake than Team Cookie, but I am a fool for my mom’s chocolate chip cookies made with coconut and Special K cereal. And my grandmother, of extremely blessed memory, used to make wonderful ginger snaps with crunchy sugar crystals on top.
My family makes sherry cookies. It’s a sugar cookie with sherry instead of vanilla flavoring, and then there’s sherry flavored icing. It takes up so much counter space i haven’t made them since i was in high school. But my sister makes them every year for when i come to visit.
Our other tradition comes from none of us much liking turkey and my father not eating pork: Lasagna for Christmas dinner. It’s just NOT Christmas without it anymore. My totally awesome MIL has added lasagna to her Christmas spread, too.
I think my cousin makes something similar to this for Passover, uses Matzoh as a base in the cookie sheet. Now, for us Canadians, how big is each of those butter sticks?
In the past I’ve made mince pies with snowflake shaped tops. They were really nice last year, so I’ll be trying those again, though I’ve actually lost the recipe that I used last year so I’ve had to find another. I hope it’s as tasty.
This year I’ll be trying these: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cigarettes-russes
We don’t have much of a tradition for baking at Christmas, so I’m making an effort to add one thing to my repertoire every year (last year it was the mince pies).
These are my favourite savoury biscuits. I know biscuit means something else on your side of the sea, but I have no idea how they would be categorised in the US – cracker is such a spartan word!
Suitable as a snack with an early evening sharpener or, you know, anytime. I once topped them with ricotta mixed with herbs and then toasted pine nuts – very tasty, but I could feel my life flashing past me as I assembled them.
Also, they are 100% feminist approved, as in, all the feminists I know who like cheese approve of them 100%.
Cheese Biscuits
3oz flour
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 oz butter
2oz grated cheese (I like 1 1/2oz sharp cheddar and 1/2oz parmesan, but really anything will do)
Cayenne pepper to taste – atleast 1 pinch! (Could substitute chilli powder or black pepper)
Sieve the dry ingredients and rub in the butter very lightly with the fingertips. Add the cheese and mix well.
Beat the yolk with about 1 tablespoon of water and mix into the dry ingredients, to give a stiff dough.
Knead lightly, then place on a floured surface, roll out to 1/4 inch thick or less, and cut into strips or with a cutter.
Place biscuits on a greased and floured baking tray and bake in a moderately hot oven until golden and firm – about 7 – 10 minutes. Leave to cool (and crisp up!) on a wire cooling tray.
Oh, for a Harpies-and-friends potluck!
C is for corn fritters! I don’t make latkes for Chanukah, because I make potato kugel at Passover and that’s enough grating for me for the year. So we honor the fried tradition this way:
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 (12 ounce) can creamed corn
1 (12 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained, or cooked frozen corn
Heat enough vegetable oil to let fritters become partially immersed. The oil should be hot enough to spit when a drop of water is dropped in.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat egg; stir into flour mixture. Mix in the corn kernels.
Drop fritter batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil, and fry until golden. They may need to be flipped once the undersides are cooked. Drain on paper towels.
Serve with maple syrup. Nomnomnom.
Btw, Dorkie dear: “poor” onto a cookie sheet? Must be the sugar high affecting your typing.
I love love love other people’s cakes and cookies, but what I bake is pie. You name it, I make it – maple pecan, pumpkin cheesecake, lemon meringue, strawberry-rhubarb, fruit pies of all kinds, chicken pot pie, meat pies, you get the picture.
Between Oct (Canadian Thanksgiving) and New Years, I bake at least 3 dozen pies for gifts, food drive donation incentives, or just for me and mine to eat.
I am NUTS for these chocolate gingerbread cookies, from Martha Stewart of all places: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chewy-chocolate-gingerbread-cookies. My sis found the recipe a few years ago and it’s been a staple ever since.
Otherwise, I’m all about the fudge this time of year. We always make peanut butter fudge and a ridiculously easy and delicious rocky road fudge, involving melting chocolate (dark is best) with a little bit of butter, mixing in peanut butter (all-natural crunchy-style, e.g., Adams, is best), and pouring over marshmallows (cut-up full-size marshmallows are best, but mini marshmallows can be used in a pinch). Delish!
If you can find pre-made mince-meat (not actually meat!)
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Mince_pie
I used to make pepparkakor (thin, melt-in-your-mouth Swedish spice cookies), but what with the recently diagnosed wheat allergy, it’s all about the buckeye this year: peanut butter, butter, Rice Krispies, and powdered sugar mixed together, formed into balls, and dipped in melted chocolate. They’re disgustingly good, wheat-free, and perfect for a busy law student’s schedule.
mischiefmanager – I look forward to trying out that corn fritter recipe. They are my fave but I’ve never successfully made them.
My favorite are CORN TOADS – they sound weird and look worse, but they are delish! My mom got the recipe off a corn flakes box in the 60s and they are a family tradition. They are basically a no-bake cookie made from corn flakes and hot, melty peanut butter/sugar/corn syrup goo.
Combine 1 cup corn syrup and
1 cup white granulated sugar in a sauce pan, bring to rapid boil (don’t let it scorch!)
Remove from heat
Add 1 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter, mix in to sugar goo.
Pour peanut butter/sugar goo over 8 cups corn flakes, mix, drop in balls on wax paper. Try to let cool before devouring (you won’t be able to make it)
Eat until you vomit…or half the recipe and don’t make so much…but what’s the fun in that?
Also – Magic Cookie Bars! Graham cracker/butter crust (enough crushed up crackers to cover a baking sheet with raised edges mixed with a stick of butter)topped with sweetened condensed milk and whatever goodies you desire (chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coconut are standards – but we like to mix it up with butterscotch chips etc). Pop in the oven at 350 just until everything gets toasty and melty (15 min tops!). This was always a fun one as a kid because we could help layer on our favorite goodies.
C is for… Chocolate Walnut Dollars, a cookie my grandmother, mother, and now I make for the holidays. No idea how far back the recipe goes.
A harder cookie good for dipping in milk. Chocolately and cinnamony (the combo is delish!)
1/2 C butter
1 C sugar
1 egg
2 squares chocolate (I use Cocoa and oil per the on the box substitution).
2 T. milk
2 1/2 C flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
1/2 C chopped walnuts
Mix in the usual way for cookies. Then make in one of two ways: either drop by spoonsfuls onto cookie sheets (the quick way) OR (the traditional way) shape into a long roll about the size / shape of a small rolling pin, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate. When chilled, slice thin slices off and bake.
For either way, bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 375 degrees for about 5 minutes or more, depending on thickness of cookies.
Oh dear, “poor.” Partly too much sugar, partly too little sleep.
Thank you for the corn fritter recipe. I might not get to them this season, but they sound amazing any time of year.
Jessica: Duh, I typed then deleted it. A standard stick of butter in the US is a quarter-pound, or 1/2 C, so a total of 1 C of butter.
And AmBam, although I don’t want to eat them (too much sweet for me; I love the savory, spicy, or salt-sweet combos best, so those cheese biscuits of Plum-Pie are making me drooooool), I want to say the words “Corn Toads” approximately 1000 times.
Corn toads. Corn toads. Corn toads. Corn toads. Corn toads.
Hot fudge sauce:
2 cups of powdered sugar
4-5 tablespoons of coco powder (to taste)
1 cup of milk (or, if you’re me, half&half or heavy cream)
1 tablespoon of butter (or more)
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (the good stuff)
couple pinches of salt
Combine sugar and coco in a medium pot. Mix it well so that there aren’t any clumps of coco. Add cup of milk/cream, bring to boil. Add butter to mixture as soon as it will melt (I always use more butter than is technically necessary). Heat to a boil, then simmer for a little bit. I was originally told to do this for as long as you can stand it before you have to eat a sundae, but I’ve found that basically just heating it up and simmering it for a while works–enough so that all the solids are totally blended, basically.
Add the vanilla and the pinch of sugar at the end. I’ve used high quality and low quality vanilla extract in this, and I can really tell the difference, but my partner can’t at all. So I suppose it depends on how intense your relationship with hot fudge it (mine is very, very serious).
Keep in a jar in the fridge. It doesn’t freeze well. I have no idea how long it keeps, though it does keep for a long time. It’s always been gone awfully quick in my experience. Reheat it in the microwave, but be careful because it will burn quickly.
My partner eats this with a spoon because he doesn’t care for ice cream, and it’s basically fudge. The best (EVER) is to get a frozen waffle, toast it, put a couple scoops of ice cream on top, smother that shit in hot fudge, and put some whipped cream on top. SERIOUSLY.
This isn’t actually a holiday recipe–I made this fudge on Thanksgiving this year, but I cannot stand my family’s holiday BS so there are no fun traditions. Well, except for the monumentally delicious pierogies that my grandmother makes for Christmas eve, but I can’t give you that recipe because she’s like, “Put some flour in a bowl. A good amount but not too too much. I use my green bowl. Then add some water and a couple of eggs until it gets to the right consistency.” Apparently old Polish ladies don’t use measurements.
But the fudge would work for basically any holiday gathering, really.
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I make mini donuts all the time, but i just make them more over the holidays:
http://veganyumyum.com/2007/02/mini-donut-test-kitchen/
They’re baked as opposed to fried, mostly for the so, because he’s health-conscious.
I also do the obligatory cookies and cupcakes, especially the chocolate mint ones from “vegan cupcakes take over the world.”
This year my goal is really to find desserts that my SO likes – and there are not many great desserts for the Middle Eastern Israeli set. I’m still looking in that regard.
@drahill: I feel your pain regarding Israeli desserts. I mostly think of Arab-style pastries, which involve sugar syrup and phyllo dough. Not easy to pull off in a home kitchen without a lot of experience. Have you tried semolina cake? It’s one of my favorites from Israel. Here’s a recipe for one scented with orange. I’ve had it with rosewater, too, but I don’t like desserts made with rosewater (they just taste like perfume to me).
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/orange-semolina-cake-recipe/index.html
To clarify again Dorky – does 2 sticks of butter equal about 500 grammes? (or 1/2 kilo?)
Less than half that. It’s 1 pound to 2.2 kg, right? Although I am somewhat metric-impaired, the internet saves the day! According to the BUTTER CONVERTER, 1 Cup of butter in the US = 226.8 grams.