Recipe of the Month: Christmas Edition

Growing up, my family always made a massive batch of Christmas sugar cookies and took them to our friends and neighbors. We always ate as many as we gave away, and usually I devoted too much time to too few cookies. But it was great fun--we listened to the Carpenters, drank eggnog and had a good time together.

This year, our family decided to make cookies for our friends and neighbors here, but I wanted to make a couple of different types of cookies, instead of a huge batch of sugar cookies that needed decorating. So today, we made Gingerbread men, Almond Spritz cookies and Chocolate-Orange Meringue cookies.

My Gingerbread recipe comes from the Nauvoo Bakery. The original recipe made a ton of cookies, so I've altered it a little.

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup hot water
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour

Mix sugar, molasses, butter and water; add eggs. In sifter, mix dry ingredients (start with 1 cup of each flour first, then add last 2/3) and add to wet ingredients. Refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight. You can even freeze dough. When ready to roll dough, dip a small amount in flour and work with hands until dough is barely sticky. Sprinkle flour on rolling surface, cover dough with plastic wrap and roll out to desired thickness--we like them pretty thick so they're nice and chewy. Cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Yield: approximately 100 small cookies.

I love these cookies--they are tiny enough that I don't feel bad letting Jed eat 4 or 5 of them, and they have wheat flour, so they're fairly healthy, not to mention soft and chewy. This recipe can also be made by substituting half of the butter for beans, and the cookies come out great.

Next up, the Chocolate-Orange Meringue cookies, which I found in the November Shape magazine.

2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
Pinch Cream of Tartar
1/3 cup sugar, divided
Zest of one orange
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In medium bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Add salt and cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Add half of the sugar and beat until soft and shiny peaks form. Fold in remaining sugar and orange zest until just combined. Spoon or pipe meringue onto lined cookie sheets. Meringue medallions should be about 2 inches in diameter and spaced 2 inches apart. Bake for 35 minutes at 250 degrees or until meringues are crisp. Turn off oven and cool meringues in oven with door open about 1/2 inch for about 45 minutes. In double broiler or microwave, melt chocolate chips until smooth. Spread chocolate on side or bottom of cooled meringues. Let sit until chocolate has hardened.

I tried this recipe out last week for our branch Christmas social and they were a big hit. It's best not to make the meringues on a humid day because they'll turn out soggy. I like to turn the oven off when the meringues aren't yet brown--they'll be creamer in the center.

Finally, the Almond Spritz cookies are so much fun. I had always wanted a cookie press and last summer I found one at a yard sale. It's so exciting to see the shapes come to life on the cookie sheet!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons butter, soft
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and sugar; stir in egg yolks and extracts. Blend in flour and salt. Pack dough into a cookie press and press onto ungreased cookie sheet. If you want to add colored sugar, red-hots or nonpariels, do so before baking. Bake 6 minutes. Yields 6 dozen small pressed cookies.

These cookies will change your life. They are so soft, so melt-in-your-mouth delicious that it's almost a crime. I don't think you'd want to substitute half the butter with beans in this recipe--it would mess with the texture and make the cookies hard to press. Just enjoy the buttery goodness!

I had a really hard time keeping Jed and Dave away from the cookies. Jed was very unhappy with me when I told him he'd had enough cookies for one day, and he promptly snitched as many as his little hands could hold when my back was turned. Looks like Jed takes after his mama!

Don't you wish you were our neighbor this year?

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Me too.