TravelTalkOnline Forums People Talk Recipes Holiday Baking

What is your favorite treats to bake during the Holidays?

My body, baked on a beach on SXM... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

Good one! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

This is my kids favorite cookie, very good and easy to make:

Surprise Package Cookies


Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
65 mint Andes candies
Directions
In a bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until easy to handle.
With floured hands, shape a tablespoonful of dough around 42 candies, forming rectangular cookies. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. In a microwave or saucepan, melt the remaining candies; drizzle over cookies. Yield: 3-1/2 dozen.

If you want to see a picture of them: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Surprise-Package-Cookies

Thanks love mint so sounds good to me. Thanks for sharing.

These are the cookies my grandmother always made at Christmas. She was an immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire before WWI. As you can see, the ingredients are simple but would have been precious to peasants. The cookies are somewhat time consuming to make but very light and a big hit with everyone. This is the first time I’ve tried putting the recipe into writing, so feel free to ask questions if it’s not clear. The name is probably a combination of German and Hungarian and means “nut crescents”


Nussekipfle

Dough:
½ pound butter
6 egg yolks and 1 egg white
2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt

Filling:
5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 pound of walnuts ground finely

Cut the VERY cold butter into slices. Place flour butter and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles course meal. Stir the egg s and vanilla with a fork to combine and add the food processor. Process until just combined. Then turn out onto a well floured board and knead briefly. Divide the dough into 48 pieces, rolling each piece in the palm of your hand to forma ball. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, beat the egg whites until very stiff. Beat the sugar in gradually. Fold in the ground walnuts.

Roll out each dough ball on a well floured board as thin as possible. Place a heaping teaspoon of the filling towards the lower part of each dough circle and roll up. Gently curve into a crescent and loose close the ends. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. I roll out 6 then fill and shape them and then repeat.

Bake in a 375 oven for 13 minutes. This works in my over, since oven temperatures can vary, check carefully at first as they can go from golden to burned in an instant.

When cool, dust with powered sugar.

I'm thinking that would make a very metallic tasting cookie.. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> Thanks, I kind of needed a laugh this afternoon. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

The recipe does seem like a lot of work for a cookie..

Funny, Carol!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> Yeah, I agree - way tooo much work. But I bet they are yummy.

This is my Dad's recipe. My kids always want some at Christmas.

Scottish Short Bread

Oven at 325 degrees.

1 lb. sifted flour
1/2 lb. very soft butter
1/4 lb. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt

With your hands, work all ingredients together. Press tightly into
mini muffin tins. Pierce each with fork a couple of times. Bake about 25 min. or until edges are slightly golden. Cool completely and then invert muffin tin to remove short bread.

These actually taste best after a couple of days. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />