Gourmet Cookie Bouquets Recipe Blog

Archive for the ‘Christmas’ Category

I know what you are thinking - date balls for Christmas - yuck.  Well maybe that is just what I thought.  At any rate, these classic Christmas cookies are now one of my favorites.  The melted dates are blended with butter to create a scrumptious almost caramel like texture that is infused with rice krispies for a bit of crunch.  My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 lb. pitted dates, cut fine
1 beaten egg
1 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 cups Rice Krispies®
extra fine flake coconut

In a medium-size heavy saucepan, melt the dates, sugar and butter together over medium heat (stirring constantly) until it is smooth (almost like caramel).  Remove from the heat. Then add the eggs, milk, vanilla and salt stirring well.  Be sure to cool the date mixture slightly before adding the eggs so they don't get scrambled.

Put the mixture back on the stove over low heat stirring until thickened.  Again remove from heat and mix in the nuts and the rice krispies until well distributed.  Cool completely.  Place the coconut in a small bowl. Butter your hands to keep the mixture from sticking and form the mixture into 1" diameter size balls and then roll the balls of cookies in coconut.

Place on wax paper until the cookie balls are set.  Store in an airtight container.

If you're a big fan of coconut, then you have to try this recipe for Coconut Macadamia Nut Brownies.

Milk chocolate & peanut butter cookies are one of my favorites because I just love the smooth melty texture and taste of this sweet combination.  These cookies are a childhood favorite and my kids love them too! In my house we usually end up doubling or tripling this recipe because they disappear so fast.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cup peanut butter
• 1 ¼ cups flour
• ¾ tsp. baking soda
• 1 bag of miniature peanut butter cups (unwrapped)
• Christmas themed miniature paper baking cups

To make the cookie batter, cream together the sugars and the butter until fluffy.  Then mix in the egg and peanut butter stirring well.  Finally add the baking so and then the flour mixing until you get a well-blended dough.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for an hour.

Meanwhile, line a mini-muffin pan with the mini paper baking cups. Remove and form into about 24 - 3/4" round dough balls.  Place each dough ball in a mini baking cup. Bake dough balls in the oven at 375 degF for about 9 minutes.

Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie pressing down until the top of the peanut butter cup lines up with the top of the cookie.

Leave the cookies sit in the muffin tins for 10 minutes and then remove them cooling the rest of the way on a cooling rack.

In my family, we pop these little bite size morsels in the microwave for maybe 10 seconds so the chocolate gets a little melty when we want to have a real Christmas cookie treat!

Did you see my previous Christmas recipes? They're delicious! You can find them below:

• Christmas Peanut Brittle
• Date Balls Covered in Coconut Flakes

Spritz cookies have been a Christmas staple in our family for at least 30 years.  My Mom has a really old-fashioned cookie press that you have to twist to extract the cookies....personally I like the trigger version, but mine has been replaced several times (because the plastic broke) while her old one just keeps going and going.  On the plate below, you can see some snowflake design cookies that we made and then just added green and red sugar.  You can also color the dough with food coloring (this is what we do to make green Christmas tree shaped cookies).

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

In a large mixing bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid Mixer with the white paddle), cream butter and sugar together. Then add the egg, milk, vanilla, almond extract beating well. Stir together flour and baking powder in a separate bowl or on a piece of wax paper (to make it easy to add to wet ingredients). Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture, mixing to a smooth dough. If you are going to add food coloring to the dough, I recommend doing it when you have about half of the flour mixture added so that it is easier to mix in.  Do NOT chill the dough! Shape dough in small logs and place in a cookie press (see the video below for great tips). Choose the press die to create the cookie shape that you want.  Then press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degF for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on a rack. Makes 7 to 8 dozen Spritz cookies.

My Tips - If you are making Christmas trees or wreaths, you will likely want to color the dough green. I recommend using the paste type food coloring so that it doesn't change the consistency of the dough. No matter what the cookie shape, you can decorate them with colored sugars prior to baking in the oven.

Here is a great video that I found at YouTube.  It shows how to load and use a cookie press to make Christmas designs.  It also details how you can take those shapes and arrange them to create a Christmas cookie wreath.

Are you a little lost when it comes to these spritz cookies? That's okay! Here are some Tips for Buying a Cookie Press.

When it comes to baking and decorating sugar cookies for Christmas in my family, we do it assembly line style.  Each person in the family is in charge of a certain aspect of the baking and decorating process. That way we can make A LOT of cookies in a short amount of time.  My favorite job is decorating and each decorator is tasked with one shape so that you can get creative and try all kinds of fun decorations.  I personally like doing the Christmas trees, but my sister likes during the star and holiday ornament shapes.  We actually use a couple different recipes for sugar cookies depending on whether we want crisp cookies that are decorated with colored sugars or egg washes (shared in this post) or thicker more chewy cookies that can hold up to iced decorations.  If you are planning to make thousands of cookies like we do, I would recommend going with the easy-to-decorate cookies that are decorated with small candies and colored sugars.  Icing takes too much time when you are doing that many cookies.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda

Using a large stand mixer or glass bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Add egg, vanilla and almond flavoring; mixing thoroughly. Sift flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together and stir in to the wet ingredients. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Prior to removing the dough from the refrigerator, preheat oven to 375°F. Divide dough in half and roll out on lightly floured pastry board. Roll thin (1/4" to 3/8" thick), but thick enough to cut with a holiday shaped cookie cutter. Dip cutter in flour before each cutting. Use care so that you can cut as many cookies from each rolling as possible. Use a spatula to move cookies from pastry board to a lightly greased cookie sheet. Remaining dough can be rolled again to make more cookies.  Add cookie decorations such as red hot candies, jimmies, colored sugars, confetti candy, M&M's, and nuts. Bake in 375° F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or until delicately golden. Remove from baking sheet and cool on a rack.  Store cookies in an airtight container.

My Tips - These sugar cookies are light and crisp in texture so I recommend decorating them with colored sugars and confetti candies rather than a heavy icing.  I found this EXCELLENT video with fun tips and ideas for decorating holiday Christmas cookies with candies, colored sugars, gourmet nuts and more.

Find more Christmas cookie recipes!

Another family favorite are these peanut blossom cookies...they are best served with a cup of coffee as the cookies are crisp and crunchy (as opposed to soft and chewy).  I prefer to use Chocolate Hershey Kisses in the center of each cookie because I like the combination of milk chocolate and peanut butter.  Another tip is to heat them up in the microwave for maybe 10 seconds so that the chocolate gets a little melty.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Hershey's chocolate kisses or dark chocolate baking stars

Cream together the shortening, peanut butter, and sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well (I use a kitchen aid mixer for this process). On a large piece of waxed paper or in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, soda, salt) and then add them a bit at a time to the creamed mixture. Mix well between each dry ingredient addition.

Shape by rounded teaspoonful into balls (I prefer to use a #80 cookie scoop to achieve a consistent size). Roll each cookie ball in sugar and place them on ungreased cookie sheet. Be sure to leave a couple inches between the balls so that they don't run into each other. Bake at 375°F for 8 minutes. Remove cookies from the oven and place a solid Hershey's Kiss or Chocolate Star on the top of each one pushing down slightly (so that cookie cracks around the edge). Return the cookies to the oven and bake an additional 2 to 4 minutes. Remove cookies from the baking sheet and cool on a rack.

If you enjoyed this recipe, be sure to try these Peanut Butter Cup Christmas Cookies.