One had to be sugar cookies. I remember making them with my mom every year to leave out for Santa and I just don't feel that it's Christmas without them. To be quite honest, I love a lot of other cookies more than I love sugar cookies and they are rather time consuming, but I still do them every year. I thought these ones turned out particularly good this year.
Another must cookie are my pumpkin cookies with brown butter maple frosting. They might just be my very favorite holiday cookie ever. Pumpkin and maple are amazing together and are flavors you don't often see in a typical holiday cookie plate.
So I had my sugar cookies (no chocolate) and my pumpkin maple cookies (again no chocolate), so I decided to do a standard chocolate chip cookie. Except these are not your standard chocolate chip cookie, these are Jacques Torres' ("The King of Chocolate") famous chocolate chip cookies which are oh so delicious. David doesn't agree with me, but I think these are the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. (But be warned, they take a while to prepare.)
For my last cookie, I decided to try a brand-new recipe. I knew I wanted something very chocolatey and when I stumbled upon these chocolate cookies with mint chips, I knew I had a winner. Plus I liked that it added another flavor (mint) to the overall composition of the plate. Strangely, this recipe does not call for any eggs, which I liked, but it did leave the cookies a tad crumbly, so you have to be careful about that. I decided to use mint M&Ms to give my chocolate cookies a noticeable punch of green and red color. Above are all my cookies prepped and ready to be packaged.
In the past, I've piled cookies on plates or in metal tins. I prefer using tins but they are a tad pricey, especially to give to each friend (and we are kinda poor right now). Plastic/styrofoam plates just don't hold many cookies and they shift around a lot in transit. Plus, I've never found an adequate way to cover them and still have them look pretty. This year I remedied the situation by picking up these cookie boxes. I found them at Big Lots for $2 for a pack of two. (I saw them other places as well.) They held far more cookies than a plate and kept them secure and snug during transport. Plus, they provided a little window to display the goodness inside. All around a great idea, and one that I'll be using again in the future.How was your holiday baking this year? Any good new recipes? I've included my recipes for sugar cookies and pumpkin cookies with maple frosting below. :)
Tessa's Sugar Cookies
3 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. margarine
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 sour cream
Sift together dry ingredients, set aside. Combine margarine, sugar egg, and vanilla. Add 1/2 flour mixture and sour cream until well blended; add remaining flour. Roll out to 1/4" thickness (or if you're me, even thicker :) and cut out cookies using cookie cutters. Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.
Frosting:
1/2 c, unsalted butter, softened
1/4 c. milk, room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar
Pumpkin Cookies
1 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon milk
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
Dissolve baking soda in milk and set aside. In large bowl whisk together pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla, and egg.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and then. Stir in the baking soda mixture and then chocolate chips. Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until done.
Brown Butter Maple Frosting
3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp maple flavoring
Sift sugar and set aside. Melt butter over medium heat until golden brown. Watch closely so it does not burn. Add butter to sugar, scraping all the butter into the bowl. Add milk and maple flavoring. Stir until smooth.
5 comments:
Soren is sitting in my lap saying "cookie! cookie!"
I make a mean English toffee every year, but this year got crazy and I never got around to it, so we only made sugar cookies.
I love toffee but I've never made it from scratch before. I should try that sometime. What's the process to make it or do you have a recipe you could share?
I've given out the recipe a few times, but most people say it doesn't come out the same when they make it. My mom says she has the same problem. I think the equipment you use must be important--like be sure to use a very heavy nonstick saucepan (the pan my mom and I both use looks just like the one here:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-Multiclad-Stainless-2-Quart-Helper/dp/B0009W38OY/ref=pd_sim_k_10
A good candy thermometer is important, too. I use this style thermometer and also use my thermometer to stir the toffee while it cooks:
http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-1904-1200-Candy-Thermometer/dp/B001689LAK/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1325263245&sr=1-2
The only other thing I can figure is that maybe people use chocolate chips or baking chocolate. I always use a good quality chocolate bar, like Ghirardelli.
Anyway, here is the recipe:
1 lb. finely chopped walnuts
1 lb grated chocolate (I have used 12 oz. packages of both the walnuts and chocolate and it was enough)
1 lb. (2 cups) butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 cups slivered almonds
Layer half of the walnuts and chocolate in the bottom of a cookie sheet (nut layer on bottom, then the chocolate). Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan at medium heat; add the sugar, corn syrup, and water, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, on medium heat. Add the slivered almonds when the mixture reaches 280 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Cook until the candy is at 286 degrees then remove from the stove and immediately pour onto cookie sheet. Once the toffee starts to solidify, top with remaining chocolate (I give it a few minutes to melt then just spread it around) and walnuts. The chocolate adheres to the candy best if it cools for several hours or overnight at room temperature. I think some people score the toffee before it's hard to make it easier to separate, but I've always just broken it into shards once the chocolate hardened.
Yum! Sadly, I didn't quite manage my holiday cookie plates this year. Tragic.
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