Christmas Cookies

I was only able to make a couple different kinds of Christmas cookies this year; it's been a crazy few weeks. I love making cookies throughout the year but Christmas cookies are that much more fun.


The first kind I made was gingerbread men . This is a repeat of a recipe I made a couple years ago for Christmas. The thing I love best about them is that you can poke a hole in it, string it with ribbon and hang it on your tree. Gingerbread is super durable and will last for weeks as a sweet smelling, super cute ornament.

My gingerbread army.

The only other kind I was able to make this year was my white chocolate cherry shortbread cookies. I changed up the colors to make them a bit more festive. Yum.

What cookies did you make for your holiday this year?

Festive Pinwheel Cookies!

A little while back I bought a bag of fresh cranberries. I was very excited to try to do something with them (other than decorate). This is one of my trials.

Cranberry-Orange Pinwheels
From BH&G's The Ultimate Cookie Book
1 cup cranberries
1 cup pecans
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp finely shredded orange peel
3 cups all-purpose flour

1. For filling, in a blender or food processor combine cranberries, pecans, and brown sugar. Cover and blend or process until cranberries and nuts are very finely chopped. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and orange peel until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill dough 1 hour or until easy to handle.
3. Roll half of the dough between two pieces of waxed paper into a 10-inch square. Spread half of the filling over square, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the edges. Roll up dough. Moisten edges and pinch to seal. Wrap log in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill about 4 hours or until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Using a sharp knife, cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are light brown. Let stand for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Makes about 60 cookies.

The ingredients.

The creamed sugar with eggs and orange peel. That's a lot of orange peel... and it smells good.

The chopped up cranberry mix. It's so red and pretty.

The rolled-out dough. From my previous failed attempts (or at least very difficult attempts) at rolling out cookie dough I've learned that having the dough cold enough is very important. I usually get impatient and try to rush into rolling before the dough is thoroughly chilled. That is a big mistake. It will only result in dough that sticks to everything you don't want it to. And if you have to roll up the dough like this for a pinwheel, you might as well forget it; the dough will fall apart and be completely unmanageable if it's too warm. Patience is the key.

I've mentioned my inability to divide things evenly many times before. This time I thought I'd measure things out so I'd get the two logs even. While it was a good thought, I still ended up with one of the logs having noticeably more filling. I'm not sure how it happened but I guess I'm gifted that way.

That is some very pretty filling!

Log. After getting it all rolled up, I wasn't real sure what to do with the ends that didn't have filling. I finally just decided to fold it in like a package.

Slices. If you look closely you'll notice that this sheet of cookies came from the log with less filling; the next shot shows a cookie from the other log. I guess that gives people options.

The final product: yummy, festive cookies. The dough is light and has a wonderful citrus flavor. The filling is sweet and a little nutty and completely delicious. The pairing make for a sweet and spunky holiday treat.

Chili

Food allergies have been a blessing as well as a curse. Since I've had to make more than meal for everyone in our family, I've gotten the chance to try some recipes for myself that I've had to avoid for my family as a whole... like chili. Chili was kind of a staple of my diet growing up; my mom would always make it for the very first cold snap every year (and then frequently throughout the fall and winter). I've never gotten a chance to make for myself though because my husband doesn't like it. Crazy, right? He says it's something about the beans. Whatever. I've forgiven him... especially since he's so willing to try just about anything else. I feel really behind though. People are so particular about their chili and I've never even tried one recipe let alone found the perfect one. I guess everyone's got to start somewhere.

Chili
from Better Homes & Gardens
12 oz lean ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green sweet pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 15-oz can dark red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
2-3 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried basil, crushed

1. In a large saucepan cook ground beef, onion, sweet pepper, and garlic until meat is brown and onion is tender; drain fat. Stir in kidney beans, undrained tomatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder, basil, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
   

Makes 4 servings (about 5 cups)

I forgot to take the ingredients picture so we'll just jump straight in. Here is the meat and vegetables cooking. I don't remember my mom putting peppers in her chili but they sound good. (I wasn't very attentive to my mom's cooking growing up though so I could be wrong.)

Adding the tomatoes, sauce, and spices.

Almost ready for simmering.

It only simmers for 20 minutes. That speed probably comes in handy sometimes but it seems like of quick to me.

The final product: good? The jury is still out on this one. The basil and garlic gives this chili a bit of an Italian flare and I haven't decided how I feel about that. I definitely liked the peppers and the overall chunkiness of it was good. And like most soups and stews the flavors meshed together to make this even better the next day. I'm wondering if you could achieve some of that effect by simmering this a bit longer. Overall, it definitely was a unique take on chili and I wouldn't say I didn't like it. It may just take another trial of it for me to straighten this out.

So what are your chili likes and dislikes? Do you have any recipes (or even just good key ingredients) that you'd be willing to share with this chili novice?

Coffee Companion

My in-laws like coffee... a lot. So I thought I'd bring something to our Thanksgiving celebration that goes well with coffee. And since I love all things sweet and most things toffee this version seemed like a good candidate.

Chocolate-Toffee Biscotti
From The Ultimate Cookie Book by Better Homes and Gardens

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond toffee pieces
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate pieces
6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Almond toffee pieces (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in the 1/2 cup toffee pieces and the chocolate pieces.
2. Divide dough in half (dough will be sticky). Using floured hands, on a lightly floured surface, shape each half of dough into an 8-inch-long loaf. Place loaves about 5 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake about 25 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch in the center. Transfer to a wire rack and let stand for 1 hour.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 325F. Transfer loaves to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut loaves diagonally into 1/2-inch slices. (Or cool completely; wrap and store overnight at room temperature before slicing.) Place slices, cut side down, on the cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. Turn slices over. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes more or until dry. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
5. In a small saucepan heat and stir the chocolate and shortening over low heat until smooth. Dip one end of each cookie into melted chocolate mixture. Place on a sheet of waxed paper. If desired, sprinkle with additional almond toffee pieces. Let stand until chocolate is set.

Makes about 30 cookies.

The ingredients.

The completed dough.

The loaves of dough ready to go in the oven.

As you can tell I didn't get the dough split evenly so one loaf baked up larger than the other. I found this kind of annoying because I really strived for equality this time. Looking on the bright side though, this resulting in a wide variety of sizes in the cookies so people had lots of options to choose from. And who doesn't like options?

I let the loaves cool completely before I cut. I'd like to think it helped to keep the cookies from crumbling during the cutting process but I don't have a lot of evidence to support this theory. I know the one other time I've made biscotti I didn't wait and I had a lot of trouble keeping the slices together.

Aren't the slices so pretty?! Here they are all lined up to cool after the second baking.

Dipping anything in chocolate makes it better in my book. The biscotti is no exception. On a related note, playing with melted chocolate is very fun; the world would be a much better place if everyone worked with this liquid wonder more often!

Sprinkling with toffee pieces. I didn't really find a stellar technique for this. I dropped the toffee pieces on the chocolate right after dunking and since the chocolate was still pretty runny, the toffee would sometimes just slide right off. I guess I could have waited a few minutes and sprinkled the toffee on after the chocolate had set up a little but this seemed dangerous to me. What if I had waited too long and the chocolate was already set enough that the pieces just fell off? And then I'd end up wasting more toffee because I wouldn't be able to catch the run off pieces in a bowl. Any suggestions on the best way to sprinkle?

The final product: gold star! Crunchy and chewy and delicious. They are definitely dunkable but not so dry that they need to be. The chocolate and toffee combination is always great and the different incantations between the pieces in the dough and coating kept things interesting. The chocolate and toffee coating was very impressive and while not all that difficult, really made them look professional. This would be great for a coffee night or even a gift for a coffee-lover.