Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Christmas Cooking

I made my annual Christmas Food Gifts for Jory's office yesterday and it went really well. I used three new recipes and was really pleased with each. They were easy, fairly mess-free and tasted really good. Here they are:


Snickerdoodles
Category: Desserts
Sub Category: Cookies
Source: Southern Living

1 c butter, softened
2 c sugar
2 large eggs
¼ c milk
1 t vanilla
3 ¾ c flour
1 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
3 T sugar
1 ½ T cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add 2 c sugar, beating well. Add eggs, milk and vanilla beating well.
2. Combine flower, baking powder and 2 tsp cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended.
3. Combine 3 T sugar and 1 ½ T cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough into 1 ¼ inch balls and roll into sugar mixture. Place on un-greased baking sheets and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass.
4. Bake at 375 for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely (about 30 minutes).


Gingerbread Cookies
Category: Desserts
Sub Category: Cookies
Source: O Magazine

2 c plus 2 T flour
2 t baking soda
2 t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1 t allspice
1 t cloves
½ t fine salt
12 T butter, room temp
¾ c sugar
1 egg
¼ c molasses

1. In large bowl, whisk together flour and next six ingredients.
2. Beat butter and sugar on low until pale and fluffy, 1-2 min.
3. Add egg, vanilla and molasses beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and beat until smooth.
4. Divide dough between two large sheets of parchment paper and roll up snugly to make two 8-inch logs. Refrigerate until firm, about two hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place about ¼ c sugar in shallow dish. Cut dough logs into ¼ in slices. Dip the top of each slice in sugar and place 1 in apart on baking sheets. Bake until just firm around the edges, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely.

Note: I cut each dough log in half and sliced the cookies from the center. When I got to the ends of the logs (which were smaller than the center), I took all of the leftover dough and rolled them into balls, dipped the balls in sugar and flattened them with a glass. They came out exactly the same as the ones that had been sliced.

Puppy Chow
Category: Desserts
Sub Category:
Source:

½ c Peanut butter
¼ c butter
1 c chocolate chips
½ t vanilla
9 c Crispix cereal, any flavor
1 ½ c powdered sugar

1. Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in microwave safe bowl
2. Microwave for one minute. Stir to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Add vanilla and stir well.
3. Put Crispix in very large bowl
4. Pour chocolate over cereal tossing evenly and making sure all cereal is coated.
5. Sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar tossing to cover each piece of cereal.

Note: I recommend doing this recipe in batches - make 1/2 or 1/3 of the recipe at a time. I did a full recipe the first time and had a hard time mixing all of the cereal and toppings. I did a third the second time and it was very easy and much neater. Also, I used Chex cereal and it worked fine.







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