Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A Yankee Baker Christmas Cookie Baking Bonanza

Well, my friends, it's that time of year: the end of the year, the holiday season, when things are frantic and hectic and I attempt on THREE separate occasions to post this and don't actually get around to it till today.  I meant to put at least half this post up two weeks ago, then the whole thing a week ago, but here it is finally--better late than never.  It's also lacking pictures for now, because I am in the great wilds of the northward (aka New Jersey) and didn't bring my box of 64 with me.  I will illustrate when I'm back in the South, I promise.

So, since it is the holiday season, I did A LOT of baking to give as gifties.  Everyone loves a good cookie, so I did 6 different human cookies and a great dog cookie, which I offer here for you to try yourselves.  I made most of the doughs a week in advance and froze them, which is a genius idea if you ever have lots of cookies to make and not very much time on your hands.  Cookie dough will actually freeze for months, so feel free to plan WAY early if you must.  Also, keep a stock of frozen dough so you have a delicious friend to turn to on a bad day.

Hokay, so cookies.  I'm giving these puppies as gifts to certain loved ones, so I tried to cover an array of tastes and textures.  It was hard to whittle down my options (there are so many delicious options out there!), but I narrowed it down to Walnut Chocolate Chip, Mint Chip (which I am affectionately calling Grinch Cookies for the holidays), Sugar Sparkle, Hedgehogs, Oatmeal Craisin and Flourless Peanut Butter.

I.  First, a classic: Walnut Chocolate Chip.  You could make these just plain ol' chocolate chips, if you prefer, but I'm a big fan of nuts, so I always put them in my cookies.  This recipe is actually designed to be given as a gift to the cookie lover in your life; just layer the dry ingredients in a quart sized mason jar, top the lid with some appropriately themed fabric and ribbon and include the recipe for the final product.  These puppies were party favours at my friends' wedding shower last year and I literally got compliments for months every time someone got around to making their cookies.  It was especially good to hear the praise considering I lugged 30 of these suckers on a train from my house to the party two and a half states away.  If this doesn't seem like that big a deal, just ask the porter how much these things weigh and how long it took his back to realign after lugging my suitcase full of cookies onto the train.

Dry Ingredients: Mix 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon baking soda into 2 cups flour.  Layer flour mixture plus 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips in a jar to give as a gift--or just dump this all into the wet ingredients when it's time.

Recipe: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream 1 cup (2 sticks) butter.  Beat in 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add dry ingredients from the jar, plus 1 cup chopped walnuts.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.

II.  In my research for interesting recipes to try, I came across a delicious sounding spin on chocolate chippers: Mint Chip Cookies, which I am dubbing in celebration of the season, Grinch Cookies.  The recipe I found was fairly complicated and involved buying a lot more things than I wanted to, so basically all I took from it was the mint extract and green food dye and applied it to my chocolate chip recipe (but no nuts).  So to make grinch cookies, follow the recipe above, adding 1 teaspoon mint extract and 10 drops green food dye to the butter/egg/vanilla mixture.  Then add the same dry ingredients (minus the nuts) and bake.  They're like mint chocolate chip ice cream you can hold in your hand and not get frostbite!

III.  We have, in a previous post, discussed my hatred of raisins, so when it comes to oatmeal cookies, you know I don't make them with shrivelled grapes.  I use shrivelled cranberries instead!  Plus craisins, in addition to being more delicious, are more festive, being red.  To make yourself some Oatmeal Craisin Cookies, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Beat 3/4 cup butter.  Add in 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.  Beat until combined.  Beat in 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add 1 1/2 cups flour.  Stir in 2 cups rolled oats and 1 cup craisins (1 cup walnuts is also a good idea).  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake 8-10 minutes.  Cool on the sheet one minute, then transfer to cool on wire racks.

IV.  Sugar cookies, I feel, traditionally get rolled out, cut out, and blinged out with icing and sprinkles at Christmastime.  Ain't nobody got time for that when you're doing All the Baking in one day (and yes, I did just use two internet memes in one sentence), so I did something a little simpler and somewhat elegant.  To make your Sugar Sparkle Cookies, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Beat 1 cup softened butter.  Add 1 1/2 cups sugar until combined.  Beat in 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar (or 1 teaspoon baking powder plus 1/4 teaspoon baking soda), 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Add 2 3/4 cups flour.  Cover and chill dough 2-3 hours.  Roll dough into 1" balls, then roll in sugar--I used red, green and white sugar crystals for a more festive feel.  Place sugared balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 9-12 minutes until slightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack.

V.  I am a big fan of adorable animals, and high up there on the list of precious things that make me squee are the pointy nosed, prickly backed denizens of English gardens called hedgehogs.  So when I found a cookie made to look like these dangerously cuddly little fellas, you know I had to make them.  This is a simple butter cookie shaped and dressed in delicious and looks almost too adorable to eat (but they are delicious, so you totally should).  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Cream 1 cup softened butter and 3/4 cup sugar.  Add 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and combine.  In a separate bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Add dry ingredients to the wet and combine.  Roll dough into balls about 1-1 1/2" balls.  Pinch a nose on one side of the ball and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 6-8 minutes until dough is set but not browned.  Cool cookies on a wire rack.  Once cooled, melt chocolate chips in a bowl (about 1 cup--heat at half power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between heatings till smooth).  Carefully hold the "face" of the hedgehog and roll the rounded end in the chocolate (don't coat the bottom) and then roll in finely chopped or crushed walnuts (creating the spines).  Dip a chopstick in the chocolate and dot on two eyes and a nose to complete your super cute snack!

VI.  Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies were the one cookie I had some trouble with, so it's not being included in this year's gifts (I have standards to uphold).  I'm still including the recipe in case you have better success with it that I did, and I will continue to play with it and let you know if I finally figure it out.  I'm also including it because of all these recipes, I think this one would do best with a sugar substitution (as requested by a diabetic friend of mine--you know who you are!).  I've found that using Splenda in a cookie recipe will not drastically alter the flavour, but it does affect the consistency, making the cookies poofy like pillows.  The best way to reduce the sugar in a cookie is to go halvsies--half sugar, half Splenda.  I haven't played with it yet, but I think because of the simplicity of this recipe, you could go full on Splenda and have the cookies work just fine (granted, they didn't work real well with full on sugar).  All you need for these cookies are 1 cup peanut butter (more experimenting will also be done with chunky versus creamy--I tried chunky this time around because old roommate left some behind and I don't eat it, but maybe smooth makes a better cookie),  1 cup sugar and 1 egg.  Mix well together, then roll dough into 1" balls and place on greased cookie sheets.  Flatten the balls slightly with the bottom of a glass that has been lightly greased and dipped in sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 minutes.  I might have gotten my cookies too thin, so they got too crispy and too cooked.  Nibbles for me!

VII.  Yankee Dog would have been very upset with me if I didn't make him any delicious things, so for the canines in your life, The Yankee Barkery offers Easy Peasy Dog Biscuits.  These snacks are easy to make and easy to customise: I made mine Chicken, Cheese and Parsley.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  You will need 1 cup of broth (chicken, beef or veg, depending on pup's preference--dissolve one cube of bouillon in one cup of hot water).  Add the broth to 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 egg.  This is the most basic recipe, but you can add any kind of delectable tidbits you'd like, such as bacon bits or cheese.  Knead your dough about 3 minutes, or until it forms up into a ball.  Roll it out to about 1/2" and cut it into shapes--I got festive with my mini Christmas cookie cutters.  Place the tasties on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes.  Yankee Dog loves them, and so will your pup!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!  Yankee Dog and I hope your holiday is full of family, friends, good gifts and delicious things!

2 comments:

  1. The best thing is, when you know the Yankee Baker personally, you get some of these cookies as presents.

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  2. OM NOM NOM these cookies were delicious. i ate pretty much my whole box while sitting in a restaurant, in fact. they were that good. i love you!!

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