It’s a Butter-full Life: Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

Now is the winter of our discontent made bearable with delicious cookies!  I’m getting ready for a holiday “cookie party” with colleagues at school next week, which always brings up the age old question: What cookies should I bring?

If you’ve never been to a cookie party before, the premise is simple: everyone who comes brings a batch of cookies (and copies of the recipe!), the host provides drinks (milk, tea, coffee, wine) and maybe some other snacks.  Guests taste cookies and drink drinks and basically have fun, but one of the best parts of a cookie party is the takeaway: everyone splits up the leftover cookies, taking home new things that they liked, and also scores new recipes so they can recreate the cookies themselves!

In honor of the beloved Christmas cookie, here are five of my favorite recipes for the holiday time.  They feature my favorite tastes of the season: spices, chocolate,peppermint, and nuts!

Butterballs

Why my family calls these “butterballs” instead of wedding cookies, like most the world, I have no idea. I just know they are delicious. The traditional cookie is made with walnuts, but my mom and her sisters started substituting macadamia nuts when I was little, and that is the way I make them now. These are a bit more labor-intensive than some other cookies, so we really only make these at Christmas, to keep them special.

Clove Cookies

Clove cookies are one of my family’s favorites for this time of year, and I love to share this recipe with people for a couple of reasons – spice cookies are perfect for holidays, and the cookies are easy. Easier than almost any recipe I will ever post to this blog, you just mix em together and drop em onto cookie sheets. Done.

If making this recipe to share or give as gifts, you will want to double or triple it.

Meringue Drops

Meringue drops are not, perhaps, precisely cookies, but they can make a fun and different bite-sized sweet. With only two ingredients (aside from flavorings), they also provide a good go-to for those following low fat or gluten free diets. Don’t let that fool you, though – these little beauties are crispy, sweet, and versatile. My favorite flavors are peppermint (sometimes dipped in chocolate!) and rosewater. If you’ve never tried baking with floral flavors (rosewater, lavender, orange blossom), this might be a good chance to open up new worlds! Plan to make these the day before serving, as they need to set in a low over for 6 hours or overnight.

Soft Gingerbread

I love gingerbread, but I don’t really care for the crunchier gingerbread cut-out cookies you see this time of year. They just don’t seem to contain the same depth of flavor you get from chewier varieties. This gingerbread, by contrast, is just right – and spicy enough that you welcome the simply sweet note from the glaze. Bake some up this holiday season – I’ve included a simpler set of instructions that call for pressing the dough into a cake or jelly roll pan, as well as more complicated instructions that want the dough rolled out and pressed into molds.

The Bundt for Red October: Pumpkin Walnut Cake

Ok, so October is over, but that doesn’t mean that pumpkin-eating season is done! Don’t jump the gun with pumpkin pie yet, though; save that treat for Thanksgiving, and give this wonderful afternoon cake a try! Moist and spicy, this cake can be studded with any nuts of your choosing, but I prefer walnuts. Like so many recipes, this becomes a “bread” when made in loaf pans, muffins when made in muffin tins, and cake or cupcakes when frosted! Feel free to consider this breakfast – pumpkins are a squash, which makes them a vegetable, right?

For the adventurous baker, I’ve included instructions for baking and pureeing your own pumpkin – perfect for this recipe, and a great technique to add to your repertoire this time of year! It’s actually incredibly simple and easy, no need for adventure at all.

While we puree pumpkins and toast walnuts, let’s enjoy a Cold War spy thriller (because who doesn’t love a Cold War spy thriller?) with Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October – either the original novel or the film version (gotta love Sean Connery)!

Trick ‘R Treat!: Fall Roll-Out Cookies

This time of year always makes me think of certain flavors – apples, pumpkins, spices, and chocolate being some of the best! I need to bring some cookies to a Halloween party tomorrow, so I thought I’d whip up some Roll-Out Cookies. Roll-Out Cookies are the best basic cookie – buttery and sweet, lightly scented with vanilla and almond, they make a wonderful base for all sorts of flavorful additions and decorations. I re-imagine them every season, changing icings, frostings, and other toppings to suit my moods. Today, I did them in three variations: apple shaped cookies with apple cider glaze, acorn shaped cookies with chocolate sprinkle “caps”, and pumpkin shaped cookies with spiced pumpkin frosting and chocolate “faces”. You’ll want to frost/ice these the day before you plan to serve or transport them.

You’ll notice that my cookies aren’t brightly colored – I made these for a Halloween party for small children, and I don’t use food coloring in things I’m going to give to kids. You’re welcome to add any colors you’d like though. I’d suggest red for the apples, and orange for the pumpkins, with green for stems and leaves.

The week leading up to Halloween is the perfect time for scary movies, whether new ones or cult classics like 1986’s Trick ‘R Treat. I, myself, have watch about twelve more horror movies than I should have this week!

Love in the Time of Caramel: Fleur de Sel Caramels

One of my cousins is getting married this winter, and today was her bridal shower. I wasn’t able to be there, but the aunt that was throwing the shower asked me to send these caramels for her to give out as favors. Since I was making them for the party, I thought I’d share them with you! Candy-making is something not everyone attempts, but even if you’ve never made candies before in your life, you MUST try these. Ever since I started making them, they have been a huge favorite of, well, pretty much everybody I know. I even made these as favors for another cousin’s wedding – that was a lot of caramel, let me tell you.

There’s a reason everyone keeps requesting these – they are one of the most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth. The sweet, buttery, brown sugar flavor is enhanced by a sprinkling of fleur de del on top. Fleur de sel is a French sea salt – literally “flower of salt”. It is flaky and powdery, making it the perfect texture to sit on top of warm caramel without sinking in and dissolving. This recipe is for the original caramel, but I have also included some variations at the bottom, including chocolate caramels, chocolate green-chili, lavender vanilla, and scotch whisky.

You will want to make sure you have at least an hour and half, from start to finish, to cook the caramels.  They will then need several hours to set before you can cut them.  While you’re waiting, why not grab a copy of Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera to keep you company?

Game of Scones, Part 1: Traditional Buttermilk Scones

Scones are one of those treats that has taken radically different form in the US from its origins in the UK. There, a scone might have fruit or spices inside it, but rarely is it glazed, and it is never as sweet as the ones we see in coffee shops here. I am a big fan of ALL types of scones, but this basic version – from the Park Hotel, in County Kerry, Ireland – is my very favorite: fluffy, moist, just a tad sweet. I eat these plain and as a base for strawberry shortcake, but their true calling is to be paired with spreads. I’m a sucker for the traditional – clotted cream and raspberry or strawberry jam – but these will go with anything, from butter, to jelly, to apple butter, to marmalade, to preserves, to nutella, to peanut butter, to, well, just about anything. Over the next few weeks we will see different types of scones join the game and compete to be “king of scones”, but these will always be the place to start.

I don’t think I need to tell you what book we’re punning today – if you can’t make it through George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, at LEAST give the HBO show a go. It’s not quite the same (obv.), but it’s pretty darn awesome anyway.

Northanger Apples: Spiced Applesauce

Fall has hit New England in full force, and with it comes apple picking season! I spent a lovely Saturday a couple of weeks ago in the apple orchards, and I now have bags full of apples that need processing. There is no “wrong” type of apples to use in this recipe (or any apple recipes really), but the kind of apples you choose will affect the texture of the finished product. Soft apples like Macintosh will cook down smooth, while firm apples like Granny Smith will keep their shape. For a combination of soft apple goo and toothsome pieces, use a mixture of different types of apples! This is a great use for “windfall apples” or “seconds”, as they may be called at the orchard, both of which are apples that have some small bruises and imperfections. They aren’t the prettiest, and if bruised won’t store for long, but they are perfect for mashing up! My kitchen smelled SO fantastic while this was cooking, and I almost burned my mouth a couple of times sneaking a taste while it was cooking (cooking sugar gets really hot!). It was worth it.

My title pun this week was a bit of a stretch, but it lets us shine a light on a lesser known work of Jane Austen – Northanger Abbey. There aren’t any major film adaptations of this one, so you may be stuck reading it instead! (The horror!)