Christmas Cookies: Butter Tarts
These are particularly easy if you can buy ready-made pie crust. If you can’t, use the Never Fail Pie Crust published earlier in this blog. You can freeze what you don’t use for later. Easy easy easy.
Butter Tarts
Preheat oven to 375 F/190 C.
Cream together:
1 Tablespoon butter
1 cup brown sugar
Add:
2 beaten eggs
1 large cup currants, sultanas or raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Line patty or tart tins with pie crust (cut with cookie cutter to fit) and drop in enough mixture to nearly fill. Small tart tins work fine, and make a great one-bite sized tart.
Bake 10 – 12 minutes,
Santa’s Wish List: Cookbooks
You might think I love to cook. You would be very wrong.
I had a great friend for many years, one of those Southern gals with a last name first name, and when one day I told her of my secret guilt – that cooking wasn’t FUN for me, she said “what we do, every day, is SURVIVAL cooking. We just meet the expectation of getting a meal on the table. That doesn’t have to be fun, it just has to be done.”
That’s pretty much what I do, and why I have been giving you all these great recipes. The truth about the recipes I am giving you is that most of them are EASY and they taste good. A few require special equipment and mastering a new skill, but it’s like swimming – once you’ve done it, it’s easy. There is nothing complicated about the recipes I am sharing with you – they are ones I use, too!
Books About Food and Eating
First I will share with you two books available through third party vendors at Amazon. The first is Food Lover’s Companion (A Comprehensive Definition of Over 4000 Food, Wine and Culinary Terms) by Sharon Tyler Herbst, which is available starting at $14.93, and the second is M.F.K Fisher’s The Art of Eating, also available through Amazon at $11.53. The Companion is invaluable when someone uses a term for a cooking technique or ingredient you don’t know; it has words for everything! My husband reads this book sometimes just for fun and is always sharing new information he has learned. The MFK Fisher book is just plain fun reading about food, full of information and anecdotes and stories, written in an enormously readable way.
Beginner Cookbooks
The first cookbook I used was the McCalls Cookbook – no longer in print. It had photos of how do do the things I found so intimidating, and that is where I got my earliers Christmas cookie recipes – the Russian Tea Cakes and the Candy Cane Cookies. The second was The Joy of Cooking, which I mentioned in an earlier blog entry. What is good about these books is that they keep it really simple. In Joy, they give you a long theoretical section, which you can read if you have the time, and which helps, but at the beginning it isn’t always easy to even understand the basics. That takes time. Then you can go back and read later and go “Aha! Now I understand!”
Cookbook Secrets
Actually, I love reading cookbooks. I have a huge collection. And almost all of them are Junior League Cookbooks. So here’s the secret – when you are looking for cookbooks, look for ones where women who contribute have to put their names. If their name is on the recipe, you can trust that the recipe will work, and that it will be one of their best recipes – they don’t want to be embarrassed!
The majority my cookbooks are from the South. And narrowing it down even further, most of my favorites come from Louisiana or Georgia.
The first one I ever bought was Talk About Good! And oh, it WAS good!
These recipes use ingredients like real cream and real butter and lots of salt. Southern people have some of the lowest life-expectancy rates in the United States – I suspect their eating habits have a lot to do with it. But if it isn’t a habit to eat so richly, every now and then it just tastes SO GOOD to use these ingredients. You will also notice that it has what they call a “plastic comb” binding. That means when you open it up to follow a recipe, it will lie flat. That’s a really good thing!
My second favorite is Quail Country, by the Junior League of Albany, Georgia. You would really have to scour the book stores to find this out-of-print classic, because so few people would ever want to part with it. Another gem is The Fort Leavenworth Collection, if you can get your hands on it – again, yard sales, used book stores would be your best bet.
There is a wonderful group of stores in the USA called Half Price Books. If books are not being bought as gifts, if you plan to just read a book and pass it along, or if you like to have a few on hand to pass along because you think they are so great, Half Price Books is a great place. They have the most obscure books, books you never thought you would see again. Many of their books are new, but remaindered (left over from book stores that couldn’t sell the, or from publishers who published too many copies) so they are sold at half price. They will also buy used books from you, but to me, they offer so little that I would just as soon give them away. (No, I don’t own stock in Half Price Books.)
There are some other fabulous Junior League cookbooks – the California Heritage Cookbook, the Seattle Classics, and there are other cookbooks produced by churches and charities that also have “real people” recipes that are drop-dead good. I remember once sharing a recipe for Chocolate Cheesecake from Seattle Classics. My friend told me she made it for Christmas dinner, but everyone was too full to eat dessert. But she said all night she heard doors opening and closing, as people snuck down to the kitchen to slice a little of the cheesecake and eat it, and in the morning, only a fragment was left!
Seeking out the best cookbooks can make every vacation an adventure. I have cookbooks from Kenya and Tunisia, Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia . . . all full of great recipes, recipes with names attatched. I wish you a grand adventure seeking out cookbooks that will thrill your heart. Happy Hunting!
Christmas Cookie Making Photos
This weekend (Thursday and Friday are the week-end in Kuwait) was the big cookie making weekend – the upcoming two weeks are busy with occasions that require plates of cookies. (See cookie recipes in early December/late November).
In military campaigns, in event planning, after scoring a major business coup, there is an event called the “after action report.” Now matter how well you have done, it helps to sit down, right after the event, and brainstorm where you did well and where you could do better.
Here is where I did really well – the cookies taste great. Making the dough ahead of time and then cooking it up when I have time is a good game plan.
Areas where I need improvement. . .
Sugar Cookies
1) When using the food processor to make cookie dough, take off the blade protectors before beginning. Fortunately, I figured out what had happened while the pieces were relatively large, and easy to pick out of the cookie dough.
2) I didn’t realize in my January move that in the two boxes that went missing was my rolling pin. The good news is that a long, smooth sided plastic glass worked just fine. Better, in fact, than any rolling pin, wooden or plastic, I have ever used before.
I forgot what a big mess cookie-making makes . . .
This is what they look like after they have been glazed and green sugar crystals added.
They don’t have to be fancy – just relatively uniform – to make a pretty cookie plate.
Swedish Rosettes
3) Where did my big transformer go? The Fry Daddy I use to keep the oil at a steady temperature for the Swedish Rosettes needs 1200 watts, and the biggest transformer I have on hand is 1000 watts. Why on earth am I still using a 110v appliance after 8 years of living in 220v countries?
I ended up using the low-tech solution:
Although I have gas burners as well as electrical burners, I am terrified of the potential for fire using so much hot oil over the course of several hours. I don’t know why, I suppose it is not rational, but it just FEELS safer using the electric burner. It is hard to maintain an even 370 F, and quality control is problematic.
This is one of the first ones, when the oil isn’t quite hot enough. The flavor, however, is awesome! That’s the good thing about the rejects.
You can see the variation in color below. Save the darker ones for the last. You can still serve them with enough powdered sugar.
Ready to serve:
Russian Tea Cakes
These were a piece of cake. SOOOOOO easy. The ones on the right, are fresh out of the oven. The ones on the left have been rolled in powdered sugar, and are ready to eat. Yummmmm.
I buy my sparkling crystal sugars at Market Spice, in the Seattle Pike Place Market, but when I checked, they no longer sell online, and refer us instead to Amazon where they have a truly astonishing variety of sugar decorations available through the mail.
Christmas Cookies: Extra Credit Chocolate Macaroons
These are so good, and go so fast, that you might consider doubling the recipe even the first time you make it . . . Easy, easy, easy.
Chocolate Macaroons
(See Meringues for hints on separating yolks from whites)
2 egg whites, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond flavoring (optional)
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut (available now in the Sultan Center)
1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
(Melt chocolate on low power in microwave, or in a pan over hot water. If you try to melt it directly over the stove, it will burn, and it will smell terrible.)
Heat oven to 275 F / 140 C.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in sugar and salt, beat again until smooth. Add vanilla, then stir in coconut and chocolate. Drop by small spoon on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet before removing.
Christmas Cookies: Extra Credit Meringue Cookies
Don’t even think of making these on a humid day – the meringue will get all rubbery. It’s worth waiting for a dry day.
In the comment section of Christmas Cookies: Get Ready Little Diamond gave two recipes for her favorite cookies, which she calls Angel Kisses. Since we are related, it is no great surprise that I like them, too, and you will want to take a look at her recipes.
I even like the name Angel Kisses, but I just think of them as Meringues. And I kinda like them plain white. Sometimes I fold chocolate chips inside, but the flavor is always vanilla:
My friends, these cookies are SO simple. The toughest part is beating the egg whites. How tough can that be? Just try it, try it, it’s EASY. And for these are relatively low sugar, for a Christmas cookie.
(Separating Egg Whites from Egg Yolks
To get egg whites to be really stiff, there can’t be any yolk at all. The very safest best way to separate the egg yolk from the white is to use your HAND. Your hand doesn’t have any sharp edges to break the yolks.
Get two little bowls. Tap an egg on the edge of a cup, and open the shell slowly, over one of the bowls, and let the white fall into the bowl, tip the shell so that the yolk falls into your cupped hand and let the white flow through your fingers into the egg white bowl. Take the whole egg yolk and put it in the second little bowl.
Empty the egg white into the mixing bowl where you will be whipping the eggs. The reason is, while you are separating eggs, sometimes a yolk will break. If you are holding your hand over the egg white bowl, the entire bowl of whites can be ruined by a little piece of egg yolk. So always break the egg over a small bowl, and when you are finished, put the egg whites into the mixing bowl. That way, if you have a goof, it will only be one egg, not more.)
No greasing pans on these cookies, either, but you will need parchment paper, or good old brown paper bags, cut to fit the cookie pan. The secret to the success of these cookies is long, slow cooking at a very low temperature.
Meringues / Chocolate Kisses
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar (here is where you need really fine, white granulated sugar for really pretty meringues)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 325°F / 160 C.
Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer at high speed until foamy. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and salt; continue beating, add sugar slowly, slowly, beating continually until stiff. Fold in vanilla. Fold in chocolate chips, if adding.
Drop by spoonsfull on prepared baking sheet. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until cookies are firm to the touch and just beginning to brown around edges. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
Chocolate Meringues
3 egg whites at room temperature
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar
3 T. unsweetened cocoa
Preheat oven to 325 F / 160 C.
Combine egg whites and cream of tartar, beat until foamy. Slowly, slowly beat in sugar, continue beating until thick and shiny. Sprinkle cocoa in, beat just long enough to incorporate. Drop by spoonsful on prepared baking sheet, bake 30 – 40 minutes or until cookies are firm on the outside. Remove carefully to wire racks, cool thoroughly.
There is a recipe for Almond Meringue cookies for diabetics at Cooks.com.
Christmas Divinity Candy
Divinity can be tricky. You really really need a candy thermometer to get it right, and you need a dry day – a humid day will ruin your divinity.
You will need:
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light Karo corn syrup (they have this at the Sultan Center, but it is EXPENSIVE!)
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla (or peppermint, if you can get it)
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
In a heavy pan, stir together sugar, corn syrup, water and salt. Using a candy thermometer, cook and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves, carefully, so that you don’t splash this on the sides of the pan.
Once sugar has dissolved, don’t stir it any more, just keep cooking until the candy thermometer shows 260 F. Take off heat immediately.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites until they are stiff – you will need a mixer or hand mixer to do this right.
Pour the hot syrup in a thin stream over egg whites, using your mixer at a high speed. Adding the syrup slowly is the key to this recipe working.
Add vanilla, beat at high speed 4 or 5 minutes or until candy starts to hold it’s shape when you lift the beaters out. Mixture will be ribbony, and sort of hold it’s shape.
Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. If it flattens out, beat the mixture another minute, then try again. Try not to overbeat; the mixture will get hard and stiff! If this happens, stir in a couple drops of hot water until it softens just enough. Yeh, it sounds tricky, but it’s just getting the right texture. You really can do this.
When the texture seems stiff enough but not too stiff, add the nuts in quickly, then drop by teaspoon on waxed paper, allow to cool and dry. (Some people add other inclusions – candied fruit pieces, chocolate chips, peppermint candies, crushed into small pieces, etc. I’m a purist – divinity is just white with nuts!) Store tightly covered – divinity absorbs humidity! Best if served the day it is made, or very soon. It is so good it doesn’t last very long, people just gobble it up.
This photo is from AllRecipes.com.
Easy Kraft Christmas Fudge
This fudge is just so easy, it’s a sin. The only problem is finding Marshmallow Creme if you are living in a country where it is not readily available. We normally bring it with us when we come back from the US.
A plate of this fudge makes a great gift for a teacher or hostess.
3 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter
2/3 cups Carnation Evaporated milk, undiluted
1 12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 7 ounce jar Kraft Marshmallow Creme
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine sugar, butter, and milk in heavy saucepan, bring to a full boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
Take off heat, stir in chocolate chips and stir until melted.
Add Marshmallow creme, nuts and vanilla, and stir until well blended. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Cool at room temperature, then cut into squares. It’s a good idea to cut it sooner rather than later, as when it hardens, it is harder to cut into uniform squares.
This recipe doubles beautifully. If you are going to the trouble to make fudge, you might as well make a lot. 🙂
How easy is that??!!
Extra Credit Christmas Cookies: Rosettes
OK, good on ya, you’ve done your shopping and the cupboards are bulging. You’re already planning how to knock out those basic cookies, but now – now we get to think about trying something a little more challenging.
I will admit, this is not such a challenge to me. I grew up watching these made every year, it’s a Swedish thing. Now I make them every year, continuing the tradition. So I am going to share all the secrets with you, and you are going to do just fine.
First, a little theory. The rosettes I make every year use a sweet, lemon flavored mixture. Twice I have made savory timbales – you use a different batter. Those timbales are used to serve vegetables or something like lobster newburg when you have a lot of time and you want something to look very elegant, but the truth is, it’s a lot of work.
Meanwhile, rosette cookies for Christmas are also a lot of work, but you make a big batch at once, they last for up to six weeks in an airtight container, and they look very very cool and take up a lot of space on a cookie tray. And everyone thinks you are amazing, because they look so hard, but really, they’re not that hard.
Basic Rosette Lemon Batter
Beat 2 eggs
add 1 cup milk
Sift 1 cup flour
with a pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
Add to above and mix all together. It should look like thick cream. Add:
2 teaspoons of lemon extract, stir in.
Then you let the batter stand at least an hour. I often make it the night before and let it stand in the refrigerator overnight, then pull it out when I get up so that it warms up to room temperature. If you don’t let it stand, it doesn’t blend the right way.
You can do this in a pan on the stove . . .I did it that way for many years. But there is this wonderful machine called a deep fryer . . . if you have one, you are home free. I use something called a Fry Daddy, which is just the right size.
You will need a LOT of oil. I use a very mild vegetable oil like safflower oil or corn oil, something that doesn’t have a strong flavor on its own.
Warm the oil to 375 F/180 C.
Put out several sheets of paper towel. When the hot rosette comes out of the oil, you will pry it off the mold with the tines of a fork and let it rest upside down on the papertowel to absorb any of the excess oil.
Have a fork handy.
Choose the rosette wheel you want to use – most kits come with two or three. The most classic is a wheel shaped, but I also use a star and occasionally have used a butterfly. The timbale shape is also wheel shaped, but without all the divisions. Attach the form you choose firmly to the iron.
Get a comfortable chair, and sit by the hot oil. Have your bowl of batter right next to you, and paper towels nearby. Please, this isn’t something to do with children around, not when you are working with 3 – 4 cups of sizzling oil.
Dip the rosette iron in the hot oil, maybe five seconds, so it gets hot. (A hot iron is the secret to being able to get the rosette off easily when it is finished cooking.) Pull it out, tap it against the side of the pan to knock off excess oil.
Dip it quickly into the batter, it will hiss as the hot oil hits the cooler batter. Hissing is good, it means the iron is hot enough.
But dip into the batter only up to the top edge, not over the top edge! If the batter goes over the top edge, you will not be able to get the rosette off when it finished cooking.
So now you have a hot iron with batter on it, just right.
Plunge it into the hot oil. It will really hiss and bubble, that is what it is supposed to do, that means it is cooking. It will only hiss and bubble for maybe 30 seconds, then the hissing and bubbling will slacken. Somewhere between 45 seconds and 1 minute, pull the rosette out and see if it looks crisp and golden. Turn it upside down, tap excess oil back into the hot oil.
Over the paper toweling, use your fork to gently pry the rosette away from the mold in a couple places, and using gentle pressure, push the rosette off the mold. Place it upside down on the toweling so that it drains. One down!
At first, take it one at a time until you feel comfortable that you’ve got the hang of it. Then – you can actually do two irons at once. You let one iron heat while you are cooking the other rosette, then switch back and forth.
From time to time, maybe every ten rosettes, stir the batter again, because it can get oily and needs to be stirred.
If you do this with a pan on the stove, it is harder to maintain a steady temperature, and you will need a hot oil thermometer to keep track of it. When the oil gets too cool, the rosettes turn out too light and too floppy. If they get overcooked, they get too brown and they are hard to get off the iron. The deep fat fryer is your best bet for maintaining an even temperature.
This is also something more fun to do with a sister or a friend. My Mother and her best friend did it every year together; it was their special tradition.
OK, when you are finished with all your rosettes, and they have cooled, store them in a large tupperware container, WITHOUT CROWDING. These are so fragile, and they break easily.
Sift Powdered Sugar over Rosettes
When you want to take a tray of rosettes somewhere, you need to sift powdered sugar over the top, with the empty side up (the way they were when they were cooking) so that the powdered sugar goes down into the crevasses.
Some people use a sifter, but my preference is to use a small basket seive/strainer with a handle, put powdered sugar in it and tap it on the side with a fork. It controls where the sugar falls a little better, and gives more control over how much sugar you put on each rosette. Put them on the platter empty side up, so that they look all snowy and sugary and crisp.
WARNING! Do not attempt to eat one of these wearing a black dress! They are crisp, and they crumble, and sometimes powdered sugar goes everywhere, and it is a (mess) to get off.
As the cook, you get to eat the mistakes as you go along. At the end, you won’t want to eat any more. They aren’t so sweet, but they are mostly FAT! You will get other recipes for rosettes with your iron.
Have fun.
I found this photo at About housewares and it is a good photo, but to my way of thinking, the rosettes are upside down. I serve them the other way.
2011 Update: I used a Fry Daddy this year and every single rosette turned out perfectly. 🙂
Christmas Cookies: Candy Cane Cookies
Red and white twisted together and formed into a cane – these are festive and tasty. Please, please, use real butter.
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, beaten lightly
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar together, add vanilla and beaten egg. Sift flour and salt together, add to butter and sugar mixture.
Divide the dough in half.
Add red food coloring to one half – be generous, so it will be really red – several drops. Take walnut sized pieces of each color and roll between your hands until they are about 6″ long and about the same thickness from top to bottom. When all the white and all the red dough is rolled into 6″ lengths, take one of each color – red and white – and twist them around each other – you know, like a candy cane.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bend top over to form a hook. Bake at 375 F/190 C for about 8 – 10 minutes. Check at 8 minutes – you don’t want these ones to get brown, just thoroughly cooked!
Note – these are really really good for children to make. They love the rolling part, and just need a little help with the twisting together part.
This is the only photo I could find, other than another with really awful candy canes made of red and green. I thought it was too awful. This one she is using the cookies on a wreath, but the cookies look pretty good.
Christmas Cookies: Sugar Roll Cookies
The trick I have found with these cookies is to glaze them with a sugar glaze. The cookies are cut, baked and then dipped on one side into a sugar glaze while still warm. This takes some preparation, but it’s worth it.
These cookies are a little fiddly, so you really need to do it on a more relaxed day. If you have a friend you can trust, it doesn’t hurt to have an extra pair of hands helping you. You will need a rolling pin, and some cookie cutters, powdered sugar and evaporated milk, and cookie decorations like silver balls, colored sugar sprinkles, cinnamon candies, etc.
Put down waxed paper under cookie racks to catch all the glaze that will drip off, it saves a big mess. Find three flat soup bowls, big enough to dip cookies in. Fill with powdered sugar. Put in drops of food color; be generous to get a good strong color.
Use evaporated milk, stirring in a drop at a time, until you have a glaze that is not too thick, but like cream. That way, when you dip the cookie in, and then turn it on it’s back to drain, the glaze will come down over the sides, but not too much will fall off. If it gets too thin, you need to add more sugar until it firms back up a little. Have plenty of powdered sugar on hand. It always takes a little experimenting, sometimes even just doing it on a humid day can make it trickier. But nothing you can’t handle.
Remember, this dough needs to be refrigerated, so you can make it ahead of time, and pull it out when you are ready to bake cookies.
Dough:
Cream together:
1 cup butter
1 cup fine sugar
Beat in one egg.
Sift and add to above:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Add:
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Mix all together well, and refrigerate several hours.
Roll out a little at a time, cut the cookies, put on cookie tray, bake at 350 F/180 C, 8 – 10 minutes or until slightly gold.
When they come out of the oven, cool two – three minutes, and quickly glaze while they are still warm but not hot.
Now those are the basics. Here are some hints:
When rolling out, rub flour into the rolling pin, and use as little as possible under the dough – the more flour, the tougher it gets. Try not to roll too much, and use a light touch.
If you are working with children, just relax and let whatever happens happen. If they eat the dough, oh well. They’re kids. If they want to decorate, let them decorate. Let these be the kids cookies.They won’t be beautiful, but the kids will think they are, and that is what matters. They’re kids!
If these are for your cookie-obligations, here are different hints.
Choose only three or four cookie cutters, and go for uniformity – it makes for a prettier plate. Like make a whole bunch of trees, glaze them all green, and put a silver ball on the end of each bough. It isn’t imaginative, but when the cookie trays go together, it just looks nicer. Make stars, one red cinnamon at each point. Or reverse, or whatever you think looks good, just make a whole bunch the same if you are giving these away.
Again, wait until the glaze and decorations are totally cool and dried before putting into containers to store. Store in a cool dry place, in an airtight container, and they will be good up to a month.
These cookies are from Baking 911 Ask Sarah where there is a lot more information about glazing, so if you are looking for a more advanced sugar cookie, go there!
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 