christmas cookies 2011
December 21st, 2011
The cookie baking blizzard came and went this year already (and weirdly, left no snow). All the butter! All the cream! All the chocolate! All the nuts and dried fruit! Okay, so the last one isn’t so exciting, but there was a lot of fruit and nuts in this house for a while. Panforte, anyone?
I don’t think I made any new recipes this year, which is odd. No wait, I made one new recipe, but I can’t tell you because there are some of you out there getting it! Oh and the linzer cookies were new to me, but not terribly exciting. I’m getting ahead of myself. Here are the deets:
caramels: three kinds, all by martha, gingerbread, chocolate, and plain with sea salt on top
sugar plums: Honestly, I make these mostly because of the name. How could you pass up sugar plums at Christmas? These are spice filled, honey sweetened, date and almond laden-ed bits of christmas past. And they are vegan to boot.
hazelnut thumbprints: My daughter and I like these the best. This year I put a bit of ganache in the middle instead of the usual jam. Surprisingly, the jam is better, but no one has complained about the chocolate.
english toffee: I make this every christmas, but this year I got all fancy and cut it in squares instead of breaking it in pieces. You have to cut it when it’s not too hot and not too cool. And hey, it worked! Also, I ate all the ones that broke.
alfajores: These were a new addition to the cookie roster last year and I’ve been thinking about them since! Creamy, caramelicious dulce de leche sandwiched between two light, flaky cookies with a crunch of sugar on top. Bomb! And hey, I wrote up a recipe for you on Dana’s blog for her Sweets and Treats Christmas Countdown.
Oh and those linzers up there at the top of the page: wow, linzer cookies are kind of a pain in the butt. They just look so damn christmasy I had to make them. I used Karen DeMasco’s recipe from The Craft of Baking (a killer book by the way). It was chock full of orange peel and nutmeg and hazelnuts. The texture was perfect, but I wasn’t keen on the taste. It was almost too grown up and boring. Maybe a boozy filling would have made it grown up in a good way.
Gingerbread men too: well you have to make gingerbread men (look more instagraminess).
Merry Christmas everyone! We’re off to Grannyma’s. I’ll see you back here on Monday!
where did you get the boxes? those are adorable. you made so many! we’re finishing ours today.
I was also wondering where the boxes came from! they seem too perfect for keeping cookies corralled.
Martha Stewart, who else?
holy cookie bakin’ madness batman!
Have a good trip and a great holiday!
Wow. My mouth is watering!
Oh my goodness. I made cookies yesterday, but now I am compelled to make more! Cookie-stravaganza! You inspire me :)
You made all of those? I officially bow to your greatness!
I had alfajores for the first time when I was in Argentina and have been a convert ever since. They are amazing. Just amazing.
You have some lucky friends! This photo is going to be in my head for a while…. yum.
All of you get the pictures, but I!! ahhhhh.
They looks like fantastic and I love the packaging, very cute! Great work!
I finished mine in these days too.
My best wishes from Italy ;-)
I made these and they are super yum! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Way to go! Caramels with salt were my Christmas discovery this year. Have you seen the recipe for homemade “twix” bars at the notwithoutsalt blog? (I don’t know how to make hyperlink on comments). I think you’d really like them.
my one go at caramels was a delicious mess. they tasted awesome (they had cardamom!! we dubbed them cardamels), but i couldn’t cut them for the life of me. maybe a few degrees shy of done? how ever do you get such sweet, twee little twisties? ahhhh, try, try again…