Visions of sugarplums . . .

 Cookies

Orchestra Seattle & Seattle Chamber Singers

 Handel's Messiah

Pacific Northwest Ballet 

The Nutcracker

 Lights outside

Olympic View Manor, every house in this neighborhood is decorated with lights and displays.  Buses were creeping long the streets taking groups of people on tours to see the outdoor lights.

Lights inside

 "For unto you a child is born"

 Candlelight

Snow

It snowed during the night and covered the yard with just a about an inch of white frosting.  It is warming up now, though, and raining so it will all be gone in a few hours or at least by evening.  Very pretty while it lasts.

 

'Tis the season, cookies, 9

 

Gingersnaps—a crisp cookie with a burst of molasses, ginger, cinnamon and clove flavors.   These cookies are easy to make and are one of the few cookies where I use shortening instead of butter and the mixer instead of a wooden spoon or my hands.  The shortening makes the cookies crisp and the “snap” in Gingersnap, I think, is supposed to mean super crisp.  Makes 5 to 6 dozen small to medium sized cookies that keep well. 

Gingersnaps

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
¾ cup shortening
¼ cup molasses  [the original recipe called for light molasses but I use dark molasses for more flavor]
1 egg

Use an electric mixer to cream 1 cup of the sugar and the shortening until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg.  When well blended slowly add the flour, flavorings, baking soda and salt.  If the dough is too sticky to handle put it in the refrigerator for about one hour.  When ready to bake, pinch off small amounts and form into 1 to 1 ½ inch balls.  Roll the balls of dough in the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and place on greased cookie sheets.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 10 minutes.  

During the baking the cookies will flatten out and get cracks or crinkles on the surface.  This is supposed to happen!  I was worried the first time I made them as they looked so different when they came out of the oven.  One problem when using the dark molasses is that it is hard to tell when the cookies are done because they are dark colored to begin with so you will have to test one out after it has cooled to see if it is crisp enough.  My oven is “slow” so I often have to add a minute to two to the suggested baking times.  



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From:  McCall's Cook Book, page 186

'Tis the season, cookies, 8

These cookies are for my European cousins and friends who have asked for a typical American cookie.  I make chocolate chip cookies at other times of the year but not necessarily at Christmas, however, they are about American as apple pie so here it is.  The recipe comes conveniently printed right on the bag of Nestle’s chips.

Chocolate Chip Cookies  (Toll House Cookies)

2 ¼ cups of flour
1-teaspoon baking soda
1-teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1-teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12 oz. package) chocolate chips

Since many people have nut allergies I omit the nuts but if you like them and can eat nuts feel free to add:

1 cup chopped nuts (optional—recommended nuts are walnuts or pecans)

Cream the butter, sugars and vanilla.  Add the eggs, one at a time mixing well.  Next add the flour, salt, and soda (sifting together before adding to the butter mixture is also optional).   The final thing to add is the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (& nuts).  Stir together.  The dough should be fairly stiff.

Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 9 to 12 minutes or until crispy and brown.  This cookie is good as a soft cookie (bake less time) or a crisp cookie (bake longer).  I prefer the crispy cookie but some people really like them soft and the chocolate gooey (the chips melt a little during the baking).  Makes between 5 and 6 dozen medium sized cookies.


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Last minute tip from a friend--try dusting the chips and/or nuts with flour before adding the flour to the wet mixture.  This is supposed to help keep the chips and nuts more evenly distributed in the dough. 

'Tis the season cookies, 7

These cookies are a little more trouble to make than the ones I put up last year.  It has been several years since I made them and I noticed this time that the chocolate didn’t taste as strong or as flavorful as I would like.   If you want a stronger chocolate bite I would recommend 1 ½ cubes of melted unsweetened chocolate instead of just one cube or perhaps even some chocolate extract.  The cookies look festive and that is a plus.   The downside is you have to roll the two pieces of dough carefully so that you get two layers of colors and not a mix that looks all one color like well used play dough .   A variation of this type of cookie is to use peppermint flavoring and red flood coloring in place of the chocolate.  Roll the two colors separately into multiple small “snakelike” tubes, twist pieces together to form candy cane shapes.   Definitely more work and as I have said before I am basically lazy so the pinwheels are just fine. 

Chocolate Pinwheels*

½ cup soft butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together.  Add:

1 ½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Mix until the dough is stiff and pulls from the side of the bowl.  [I use a wooden spoon and my hands to mix the dough many people prefer to use a heavy-duty mixer like a Kitchen Aid.]

Melt in a double boiler or in a single pan at very low heat
1 oz (1 square) unsweetened baking chocolate

Divide the dough into two equal parts.  Add the cooled, melted chocolate to one section.  Chill both parts until firm enough to roll out.

Roll between waxed paper or plastic wrap.  I roll both pieces together at once rather than trying to make equal sized rectangles and pressing together afterwards but that is a personal preference.  Once the light and dark pieces are rolled out and pressed together form into a jellyroll shape.  Wrap in plastic wrap and foil. Chill over night.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, cut the roll into approximately 1/8 inch slices and bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes.  Makes about 3 to 4 dozen cookies.  These cookies can be frozen and keep well in a container. 

 

 
PS  I make a lot of cookies and my cookie sheets are old, well used, well loved and look the part!    I’m not apologizing.

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* From:  Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, volume 3, page 434

'Tis the season, Cookies, 6

Kitchen Aid with paddle

Here is another true Norwegian cookie I make called Hjortebakkels. I think they may be region specific to Os the area just south of Bergen. They take a whole crew of people to make and are a wonderful family activity during the holidays. This year we did manage to get enough people together to make them. It really is too much work for one person, although it can be done by one. We had four of us this year some years we have had six or more people helping. The cookies look a little like the better-known Fattigmann but Hjortebakkels are more like a donut and do not have powdered sugar on them. Just plain little brown twisted cookies that have that same cardamom bite. I could never figure out why Fattigmann is called Poor Man when it takes so much butter, many eggs, and expensive spices. Maybe the baker is poor after making them!

As a side note, I once offered Hjortebakkels to a young man I didn’t know very well. He wouldn’t even taste it because he thought it was fish (I made the tactical error of telling him they were Norwegian cookies). Go figure….

This recipe is from Maggie Landaas Lorig and may have come originally from her mother, Karen Landaas or even her grandmother, Kristi mor. There were no mixing instructions just a list of ingredients but my mother told me to just mix it up as you would normally do for a cake or cookies, i.e, cream the butter, sugar, eggs and add the dry ingredients so I am providing those instructions with the list. I do make most of my cookies by hand with a wooden spoon and not a mixer but I cannot imagine making these without a heavy-duty mixer with a paddle or dough hook. The dough is just too thick and sticky to work by hand.

Hjortebakkels

6 eggs (at room temperature)
6 Tablespoons butter (at room temperature, softened)
6 Tablespoons cream (in a pinch you can used canned milk)
[it calls for ½ cup Brandy here but since my family does not use alcohol we substitute 1/3 cup orange juice and it seems to work fine]
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups of sugar
2 teaspoons freshly ground cardamom
1 teaspoon mace
Enough flour to roll out (5 or 6 cups)

Equipment:

Deep fryer
Plenty of paper towels
Ruffled edged cutter like a pasta cutter
Slotted tool to turn and lift out the cookies from the fryer
Large bowl or pan to put the finished cookies in
Some sort of pastry board for rolling and cutting the dough
A “Gonzo” mixer helps (like a Kitchen Aid with a dough hook or paddle blade)
Sharp paring knife for cutting the slits
Metal spatula for lifting dough off the cutting board

1 Use a heavy-duty mixer to cream the butter, add the sugar and eggs then the cream.
2. When these are well creamed together add some of the flour (I usually put in about 2 cups of flour with the spices and baking powder), then the extra liquid (orange juice or brandy)
3. Gradually add more flour until the dough is very thick (pulls away from the side of the bowl).
4. Put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight. (This will help when rolling it out.)

Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight before rolling

The dough can be quite sticky so you may have to add more flour as you begin to roll out. Warning: the more flour you add the harder the cookie so if you want a soft donut like cookie use less and deal with the stickies.

5. Roll to make a rectangle and choose how thick you want your cookies to be. Thin cookies will be crunchier thick ones will be more donut-like.
6. Cut into roughly diamond shapes by cutting long strips two directions.
7. Cut a slit in the center of the diamond and draw one pointed corner through to make a buckle shape. (You may need to use a metal spatula to get the dough off the cutting surface.)

Roll, cut into strips to make diamond shapes, cut a slit and pull one corner through

Ruffled pasta cutter used to cut the strips of dough

Bee preheating and melting the shortening in the fryer

8. Drop raw cookies carefully into preheated, melted shortening in the fryer.

(I have never tried using cooking oil but I suppose it would work, we always just use Fluffo or Crisco brands of vegetable shortening.)

Oh boy, these are ready to turn! See the slotted utensil used to turn and lift the cookies out of the fryer?

9. Watch the cookies carefully as they cook, turning as soon as you see the brown from the underside edging around the sides. Once they are turned it will not take too long for the other side to cook.

Mrs. Gimlet and Curly cooking and cutting. Chinook are you hoping for a treat to fall on the floor?

10. Lift out and place on paper towels to drain.

Oooh, don’t they look pretty? Yummy

Warning: Makes a TON of cookies but it is never enough for those of us who have acquired the taste for them.

'Tis the season, Cookies, 5

Krumkake

These are Norwegian cookies that are baked in a special Krumkake Iron or Krumkake Baker. I have used both. The Iron was old and heavy, fit on the small size burner on the stove and only allowed for making one cookie at a time. Since my Dad gave me the Iron it had sentimental value and I valiantly struggled on well past time to replace it. Making the cookies took forever! A few years ago I caved in and got the more modern Baker. It is electric and cooks two cookies at once. The entire batch of cookies is completed in an hour instead of taking almost all day. It is a little tricky getting both cookies out and rolled up before they get too brown or set up and crumble (as the name suggests). This recipe has been passed down from my great-great grandmother and is different from the recipes that come with either the Iron or the Baker.

Krumkake

3 well beaten eggs
½ cup sugar
½ cup melted butter
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla [alternative flavoring almond or lemon]
1 teaspoon freshly grated cardamom

Makes 2 dozen cookies or maybe a couple more than that.

I use a wire whisk but you could use an electric mixer to
1. beat the eggs until foamy
2. then add the sugar, melted butter,
3. and last the flour and flavorings.

It should make a thick, sticky, slightly runny batter.

Krumkake baker

4. Scoop out a spoonful of batter and put it on the preheated Iron or Baker. The Baker has a convenient light that tells you when it is hot enough and when the cookies are done. You will just have to guess with the Iron (much turning back and forth and peeking inside to see if it is ready to come out).
5. Use a spatula to lift the finished cookies out of the Baker or Iron.
6. Roll the flat cookies immediately (hot, hot, hot, watch your fingers!).

Roll the Krumkake into cones

The Baker came with a cone shaped roller device. I used to just roll the flat cookie into a tube with my fingers when I used the Iron.

Cardamom, whole seeds

I know it is a lot of work to get the whole cardamom seeds, break them open, and then chop them up finely but you really do want the freshest cardamom—strong enough to make your eyes water when the little seeds are ground up. After I get enough loose seeds out of the pod I use a Krups grinder to finely chop them up.

As long as the cookies are kept in an airtight container (so they don’t get soft) they will keep for a very long time but usually they get eaten up before too much times goes by. The cookies can be eaten as they are or just before serving the cones can also be filled with whipped cream and fruit sort of like an ice cream cone.

'Tis the season, Cookies, 4

Icebox cookies are great because you can make the dough a day or two in advance of the actual baking. That means you can make another cookie like the Spritz cookies that bake at the same temperature and when you are through baking those leave the oven on and bake the icebox cookies.

These were one of Bopa’s favorite cookies. They have finely chopped walnuts in them but otherwise are small and plain—no sprinkles or sugary frostings. The recipe comes from the 1963 McCall’s Cook Book, p. 180.

Vanilla Icebox Cookies

Bake in preheated oven 375℉
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes

2 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. In a large bowl beat the butter until light with a wooden spoon
2. Add sugar, then egg and flavoring continue beating until light and fluffy
3. Add the dry ingredients in two portions and mix with hands to form stiff dough
4. Add the chopped nuts and combine well.
5. Form dough into a large ball, cut in half.


6. Roll the portions into two long rolls.
7. Wrap in plastic wrap and foil. Refrigerate overnight.
8. When ready to bake use a sharp knife to cut penny slices and bake on ungreased cookie sheets for approximately 9 min.



Makes about 120 small cookies.

'Tis the season, Cookies, 3

Everybody loves these—Spritz cookies. The trick is to bake them first if you are going to make more than one batch in a day. The cookie sheets need to be cold and grease free. My daughter even puts her sheets in the freezer before making these so that the dough will adhere to the sheet and not slip around and make a big mess. You use a cookie press, like a “Cookie King” but any brand cookie press will work, so if the baking sheets are not cold and grease free you will get a clogged up mess in the press and no cookies to eat!

I use the recipe that came with the press with the following changes, I always use butter never shortening or margarine, never sift the dry ingredients and I decorate the cookies with sprinkles. Butter just makes the cookies taste better. I never said these were healthy cookies just that they are yummy. As far as the sifting goes, I am basically lazy but I want the finished product to look pretty hence no sifting and the colored sprinkles on top.

Spritz Cookies

Preheat oven to 375℉
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
½ teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
2 ¼ cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
multi-colored sprinkles

1. Cream the butter, add sugar, then beaten egg.
2. Add the dry ingredients and flavoring.
3. Pack into the cookie press and press through the design plate on to ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Decorate with multi-colored sprinkles
5. Bake for about 9 minutes Makes approximately 100 small cookies.

'Tis the season, Cookies, 2

These cookies are really plain looking (but melt in your mouth good) so I dress them up a bit with red (and sometimes green) sugary sprinkles. They are “stamp cookies” and our family name for them comes from the design on my cookie stamp.

“Birdie Cookies” (aka Almond Butter Cookies)

Preheat oven to 350℉
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until crispy and slightly brown on edges.

1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
Some additional sugar in a bowl
Red sprinkles

1. Cream butter and sugar (I use a wooden spoon).
2. Add the flour, salt, and almond flavoring.
3. If the dough seems too sticky it can be chilled but I usually don't have to do that.
4. Pinch off pieces of dough, not more than 1” in size and roll in the extra sugar.
5. Place little balls on ungreased cookie sheets
5. Stamp with the cookie stamp. (The dough does not have a leavening agent so the cookies will not get much bigger in size, as long as they are not touching you can fill up the sheet. I often get 24 cookies on one sheet.)
6. Decorate flattened cookies with red sprinkles.
7. Bake for about 14 minutes. The cookies should be crispy and brown around the edges but still light in the centers.

Makes about 3 or 4 dozen cookies depending on the size of the original balls of dough.




There is a funny story about Birdie Cookies. They are so easy to make that I quite often use them as a backup cookie if I need to take a treat someplace. One year I was on jury duty and it was a long trial, about 6 weeks. Those of us on the jury spent a lot of time in the break room and began volunteering to bring in goodies. One person brought donuts, another some fruit, another something else. When it was my turn I took these cookies. They just sat there on the table looking plain and nobody was trying them. Then one man finally got hungry enough to reach over to the plate and take one looking at it like he wondered what kind of a bland cookie he was going to be biting into. He sort of shrugged and took a bite. The rest of the cookie quickly disappeared. A few moments later he looked around the table checking everybody out and then reached over and grabbed a big handful of the cookies with a little smile on his face. Needless to say there were no cookies left on the plate by the end of the day.

'Tis the season, Cookies, 1

Every year I bake several different cookies so these cookie posts are mostly for my children if they want the recipes to the cookies they like to eat at this time of year. Most of my cookies don’t look very fancy but they taste scrumptious (even if I do say so myself). These cookie posts are my gift to you. The first one I am sharing is a modified version of a recipe that is found in the McCall’s Cook Book from 1963, p 177. I changed a couple of things so here is my version—

Brown Sugar Shortbread Stars

Preheat oven to 300℉
Makes about 5 dozen cookies

1 cup soft butter (2 sticks)
½ cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
2 ½ cups flour
Chocolate chips

1. Beat the sugar and butter with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy
2. Using the wooden spoon stir in the flour to get it started then use your hands to work the dough into a ball
3. Break the dough into smaller workable pieces and on a lightly floured surface roll out the dough




4. Cut with star shaped cookie cutter



5. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and put a chocolate chip in the center of each star. You should be able to get 12 or 15 cookies on each sheet.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until crisp and toasty brown color