Sneaky Chocolate Cherry Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 C sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/3 C flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 C finely chopped white chocolate, melted
1/2 C cherry jam

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In the large bowl of an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. On low speed, beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Roll the dough between sheets of waxed paper to a 1/4-inch thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes, until firm.

3. With a small cookie cutter, cut out rounds; the scraps should be re-rolled.. Bake the cookies 6-8 minutes until just set. Cool completely on a wire rack.

4. Spread a small amount of the white chocolate on the bottoms of the half the cookies. Set aside.

5. In a medium bowl, beat the cherry jam until smooth. Spread a small amount of the jam on the bottoms of the remaining 1/2 of the cookies and top with the white-chocolate covered cookies, top side up.

Makes about 2 dozen.

it's Christmas Cookie Season!!

It's Christmas cookie season!!

2 years ago, I promised to post all my Christmas cookie recipes on here. That was in November, 2007. (See post below - I've re-dated it to November, 2009. It's the one called "Ginger Creams.") I never did post more than that one recipe.

Well, tonight I've finally gotten around to posting a bunch of my recipes. These are not all that I have, reference or use.... but they are my favorites, or my family's favorites from over the years.

Well, my favorites are really these:

Chow Mein Noodle Candy, Cathedral Windows, Ginger Creams, Choco-Mint Fudge, and the green ones (which I only make because they are SO Christmassy.)

All other recipes I sort of rotate due to my schedule & preference that season... for my own variety & use.

I'm so excited to finally have these on here!!

You can thank my sister-in-law, Deb, if you see her. She complimented my Christmas cookies that I made (the green ones & the Chow Mein Noodle candy - they are all I could do the week before Thanksgiving... and fit into the tiny tins I bought....). I promised her recipes, and I thought "let's put them on the blog!!!"

Long live Christmas Cookie Season!!!

Please find on this blog the reason why my family (which is not German) has a long-standing tradition of Christmas Cookie baking season. It's basically a story of love between my grandparents.

PS: You can tell which recipes I use most / which are the REAL Christmas cookies that I make - based on the fact that I have made them have colors. Primarily red & green, but also with dark blue & purple for comments & such. Any other Christmas like recipes I've found more recently are on here too - but haven't entered my home as "tradition" yet. Maybe at some point.

Choco-Mint Fudge

Ingredients:
2 sticks butter or margarine / "oleo" as my grandmother called it
4 C sugar
Few grains of salt
1 can (1 2/3 C) evaporated milk
2 pkgs (12 oz. total) chocolate chips
1 jar marshmallow cream (7 1/2 oz.)
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 C chopped pecans

Mix sugar, salt, oleo, and evaporated milk in a large sauce pan. Cook and stir over low heat until dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook 7 minutes over medium heat – stirring continuously.

Remove from heat – add chocolate chips, marshmallow, and peppermint. Beat until smooth. Add pecans. Pour into a greased 9x12 pan.

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Notes by Jodi:

Pour into the greased 9x12 pan. Let it sit out in the kitchen by the window where the cold air is coming in even though the window is closed. Let it sit overnight.

Cut into bars or squares depending on how big you want the pieces of fudge.

Peppermint Candy Cookies

Ingredients:
Cookie dough:
1 cup soft butter (or margarine)
1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 c all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup walnuts (or other nuts) finely chopped

Peppermint Fudge Filling
1/2 C crushed peppermint stick candy
1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 T cream cheese
1 teaspoon milk
1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar
red food coloring

For the cookie dough, cream the butter. Add the 1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, creaming well. Blend-in the sifted flour and 1/2 C walnuts. Mix thoroughly. Cover.

Prepare Peppermint Fudge Filling. For the filling, combine the crushed peppermint stick candy and the 1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar. Set aside.

Blend the cream cheese with the milk until smooth and creamy. Add another 1/2 C sifted confectioner’s sugar gradually; add the peppermint candy and confectioner’s sugar mixture (already combined), as well as one drop of red food coloring. Mix well.

Now, shape the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Make a deep hole in the center of each and fill with about 1/4th teaspoon of the filler. Reshape and seal. Place on un-greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Do not brown.

While warm, roll in remainder of peppermint candy and confectioner’s sugar mixture. Cool; re-roll in candy mixture.

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Jodi thoughts:

I have found that these are a much yummier version of a traditional looking Christmas cookie that many folks make. Many folks call the more traditional ones "Mexican Wedding Cookies" but I don't make those. I think Gran did make those. But I always thought they were so boring. They look like snowballs. It's basically a blah dough in powdered sugar. This cookie is similar, except it tastes like peppermint! At least it tastes like a holiday cookie flavor!

Chocolate Cherry Bars ("Yummy!" – Gran)

Ingredients:
1 package fudge cake mix
1 can 21-oz cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using solid shortening or margarine, grease and flour 15x10 or 9x13 jelly roll pan. In large bowl, combine the first four ingredients. By hand, stir until well mixed. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20-30 minutes.
While bars cool, prepare frosting.

Frosting:
1 cup sugar
5T butter or margarine
1/3 cup milk
1 package (6-oz) semi-sweet chocolate pieces

In small saucepan, combine sugar, butter and milk. Boil, stirring constantly, one minute. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate pieces until smooth. Pour over partially cooled bars.

Makes 3 dozen bars.

Chow Mein Noodle Candy

Ingredients:
1 (12-ounce) package of chocolate chips
1 (12-ounce) package of butterscotch chips
1 cup salted nuts
2 (3 ounce) cans Chow Mein noodles

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in top of double-boiler until creamy. Mix nuts and chow mein noodles in large bowl. Add to candy mixture. Stir carefully (noodles can break) until all are coated. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper covered surface. Cool until hard.

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Jodi modifications:
2 (12 ounce) packages of chocolate chips
2 (12 ounce) packages of butterscotch chips
1 can of salted mixed nuts + a sprinkling of extra salt
1 12-ounce bag of Chow Mein noodles

Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in crock pot set on “low.” Stir every few minutes. It doesn’t take that long. Mix in the nuts and stir well. Add the chow mein noodles and stir carefully until all are dark with the chocolate. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper covering the dining room table. Cool until hard. This makes approximately 80 cookies.

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These are my all-time favorite Christmas cookie. I love the Cathedral Windows because they are beautiful. But these I could practically eat by the fistful when I was the most pregnant with my first son... and for years afterwards! These may not look like much on the plate, but once you pop one in your mouth, you're hooked for life & want to eat the whole batch.

The nuts are, of course, optional, but I like the flavor & texture they add. You can use any nuts that you like. I tend to cut them with my Santuko knife - only because I don't have a nut chopper. I like having partial nuts as well as the nut shavings mixed into the chocolate. Yummmmeeee!!!

Holly Berry Drops

Ingredients:
1 stick butter or margarine
32 large marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring
3 cups corn flakes
Red cinnamon candies

Melt together the butter, marshmallows and the food color in a large pan. Remove from heat and add the corn flakes and then stir. Drop immediately by spoonful onto waxed paper. Shape with fingers and add 2 or 3 candies to each drop.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

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Jodi Notes:

Melt the butter & marshmallows into a crock pot & set it either on "Medium" (if you have that setting) or "High." Then watch it & stir it, watch it & stir it. 5 minutes - 20 minutes - and it will all be melty. Add in the cereal at that point. It keeps it warm as you drop the cookies onto the waxed paper.

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My mom says these are the prettiest on the Christmas plate. She also makes sure that if she's giving out plates of cookies (as she does every year) that these are on there. She does not, however, make the Cathedral Window cookies. I make both.

You can make a variation on these cookies by using red food coloring instead of the green. Sometimes I sprinkle on some green sugar sprinkles if I can find them. You can also substitute Rice Krispies cereal instead of Corn Flakes. But you knew that already.

Traditionally, these used to be shaped into wreaths. I saw them once a year or two ago. I think, honestly, that takes TOO much time. Is TOO much a "labor of love." I just drop them by the spoonful onto either a cookie cooling rack or onto waxed paper on my dining room table. It's so much faster that way!

Cathedral Window Cookies

Note: This year (2009) - these are Jareth's favorite too!!

Ingredients:
1/4 lb - Margarine
12 oz - Chocolate Chips
1 cup - Chopped Walnuts (optional)
12 oz - Colored Mini Marshmallows
7 oz - Grated Coconut (optional)

Heat margarine and chocolate chips in the top pan of a double boiler over low heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Put marshmallows and nuts in a large bowl. Stir in chocolate. Tear five 9-inch sheets of waxed paper and sprinkle each generously with coconut. Divide dough into fifths and place each fifth on a sheet of waxed paper. Roll tightly into 2-inch diameter logs and refrigerate overnight. Before serving, unwrap from waxed paper and cut into 1/2" slices.

Makes about 60 pieces.

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Be it hereby known that every year when my grandmother came with her ENORMOUS tins FULL of Christmas cookies, these were ALWAYS the first ones I went digging for.

As years march on, I find it more & more difficult to find the colored mini-marshmallows. I either have to spend lots of money & buy them online, or else Shopper's Food Warehouse sometimes stocks them and; I can find them - but I never shop there so I have to remember & then make a special trip to buy 4 or 5 bags...

These are always the prettiest Christmas cookie on the plate. My mom is not a fan. She thinks they are bland. I think they taste like chocolate and marshmallows. Could it get anymore blissful than "beautiful" with "chocolate and marshmallows"? I mean, put it in between graham crackers & you've got a S'More.

Ginger Creams

While I don't have a memory of my grandmother making these for Christmas cookies, my step-mom does. (My grandmother's daughter.) (Gran is my step-mom's mom.) So I made these in 2006 for Christmas because they said "ginger" in the title. And I had a hankering for a ginger cookie. They were so so so good! I made them for a church function. And I told my mom "I made those over there" and she said, "I know - I recognized them." So I guess I made them just like her mom used to make them!! Very cool!! :)

They are uber-yummy also. So while the Cathedral Window cookies used to be my favorite, these Ginger Creams are my new favorite. The Cathedral Window cookies are about the prettiest thing anyone can find on a Christmas cookie plate. But my step-mom and my family say they are bland tasting. I don't really think they are bland. But they are basically marshmallows and chocolate. No complex flavor there.

Since I'm the only one who wolfs the Cathedral Window cookies, I have officially decided* not to make them this year. I lost a lot of weight in 2008, and I can't be the only one eating any of the cookies. (I want to keep the weight off!) In 2006-07 I gained about 10 lbs between Halloween and New Years. I don't want to do THAT again!)

*"decided" is subject to change as Christmas starts approaching.

Without further adieu:

Ginger Creams
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Ingredients:
1/4 C shortening
1/2 C sugar
1 egg
1/2 C molasses
2 C flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 C water

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add egg, beating well. Stir in molasses. Sift together dry ingredients; add them alternately to creamed mixture and water. Bake 8 minutes at 400 degrees. Frost with confectioners icing. Yield 3 dozen.
Compliments of Dorothy Wendt.

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Notes by Jodi:

Cream together shortening and sugar in mixer set on lowest setting. Add egg, beating well. Stir in molasses. Whisk dry ingredients together in large bowl if you don’t have a sifter (I don’t). Add them to the creamed mixture of shortening and sugar, alternating adding them with adding water to the creamed mixture. Drop by small spoonfuls onto aluminum covered baking cookie sheets. (Small, because they spread out tremendously while baking to produce very large cookies.) Bake 8 minutes at 400 degrees F. Frost with Vanilla icing – pre-packaged is fine. Otherwise, read the confectioner’s sugar box for the buttercream frosting (a standard recipe on the side of the confectioner’s sugar box.)

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

Try it with apple or pumpkin pie...

1 cup whipping cream

3 tbls sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put together in a bowl and beat w/ an electric mixer on high until the whip cream is the consistency you desire. It's DELICIOUS!!

Also great on top of egg nog!!

Recipe courtesy of Katy King McKinney