'T is the season...

Candy Cane Cookies


Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Blend together:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

In a mixer bowl or by hand, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in egg, almond extract, vanilla, and salt. Blend flour into mixture in several additions, beat until just combined.

Remove half the dough from the bowl. Blend red food coloring into the half remaining in the bowl until the coloring is even. Cover dough with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out as you work. Use a floured teaspoon to measure 1 teaspoon each of white and red dough for each cookie. Roll into 4-inch ropes on a lightly floured surface. Place a red and white rope side-by-side, press together lightly and twist to form a spiral.

Place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Curve top down to form handle of a candy cane. Bake until set, about 9 minutes. Sprinkle with crushed candy canes or white sugar if desired.

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Caramel filled Apple Cider cookies
Mmmmmm these are goooooood, wish I had come up with this recipe:D


scrambledhenfruit.blogspot.com . . .

I love, love molasses cookies, so I am making these for our Winter Recital Cookie Social:

Chewy Spice Cookies - I love that they have black pepper in them!

www.realsimple.com . . .

Evolution biscuits!

I'm calling these biscuits because I tend to think of cookies as chewy and bendable, whereas a biscuit is crunchy and breakable.

Evolution because you can do what you want with them; the picture is my most recent and most successful attempt.

The basic recipe is:

225g butter
110g caster sugar
275g plain flour

You cream the butter and sugar together, sift in the flour, mix. Scoop up walnut sized balls of dough, place on greaseproof paper and flatten out with a fork (leave room, they expand!) Bake at 170c for around 20 minutes or until they're starting to go golden brown around the edges.

I've done various incarnations including white chocolate and cranberry, hazelnut and chocolate chip etc but by far the best are the citrus cookies. All you do is grate the zest of a couple of oranges and one or two lemons and add to the batter - I find it mixes in best if you add it before the flour.

This time I also decided to melt a few bars of Cadbury's Bournville chocolate and drizzle it over the top. What a glorios mess I made! But they were AWESOME!

Edit - sorry for the huge photo. This was taken before the chocolate set - you'll notice I've already eaten one or two. Partly because you have to (cook's perks), partly because a HUGE drip of chocolate fell onto them and looked very messy so I felt I had best eat it quickly. While the chocolate was still hot. Nom.

^Oh yes, all mistakes go to the cook. It's a firm rule.

ANOTHER * * *N E W S * F L A S H ***

I just looked over the recipe for the Apple Carmel cookies and found a rather odd ingredient.



It seems to be available at K-Mart, of all places,here in the States, so I suspect it is more common than I imagined. It never occurred to me to drink instant cider.

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That's confusing, why not just buy a bottle of cider? I would wholeheartedly recommend Kopparberg and Rekorderlig.

I discovered Alpine spiced apple cider mix when I used to do a lot of camping. It's quite drinkable and very portable. Sitting around the campfire with a cup is very pleasant! I probably still have some up in the cupboard, lol.

kk~

For the purposes of the cookies, I can see that you might want the concentrated apple cider flavor without all the liquid. The recipe calls for all 10 packages.

I tried to imagine why anyone would want a product like this and all I can come up with is skiers might not want to schlep gallons of cider but might enjoy a hot one after some time on the slopes.

This seems like one of those ingredients you have in the cupboard until you move and then toss it out. However, the cookies look like they are worth a try so I guess I buy a box. I wonder if there is a way to substitute it. Is there such a thing as an apple cider reduction? If it works for wine, why not?

WHERE'S PANIC?

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edit...I was posting the same time as kk...and SHE HAS SOME IN THE CUPBOARD!
HA,HA.

Lol, yup. I just checked and I do!! My son got his Eagle Scout in '04 so that would have been the last time we went backpack camping. And yeah, the cider mix is from then, lol. No expiration date. I guess I should toss it in the emergency box with the Spam, ramen noodles and instant mac n cheese.

kk~

^^^^^LOL it certainly is interseting stuff...I actaually haven't tried making apple cider with it yet. Just a warning, try not to accidently inhaile the stuff when you add it to the dough. IT BURNS!!!!!

Ok, I know this is more of a Christmas-y thread, and it is past Christmas, but I'm actually making these right now, AND THEY ARE SO AMAZING!

CHOCOLATE CHIP-PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES!!!!!

You need-

- One batch of chocolate chip cookie dough (I'm using a tub of the pre-make Toll House stuff

- 1 bag of mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups with the wrappers removed (you may have extas, depending on how much cookie dough you have

- A mini muffin pan

- Mini cupcake wrappers

Preheat the oven according to the directions in your chocolate chip cookie recipe. Place the mini cupcake wrappers in the pan. Fill the wrappers about 2/3 of the way full of cookie dough, and bake for the time directed in you recipe. As soon as they come out of the oven, place a unwraped peanut butter cup in the center of each cookie. Let set for 5 minutes, than take the cookies out of the pan and on to a plate.

I was looking for something else tonight and came across this picture of "Conversation Heart Cookies".

If I stop laughing I may hunt for a kinder, gentler, cookie but for now....



I wonder if there's much of a market for these?

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