Day 7: Cookies

Do I have your attention?  COOKIES!!  The greatest invention ever.  Little bites of deliciousness and perfect for gift giving.

We have lots of favorites that we rotate through each year.  Most of them come from this cookbook:

These are the cookies that made this year's cut:

click for recipe

 These couldn't be any easier: Lay pretzels on cookie sheet (I used a mix of plain round ones and peanut butter sandwich ones), top with kiss, pop in 200 deg oven for 3-5 minutes (just enough to get the kiss soft, remove from oven and press M&M's into kisses.  As you can probably tell from my photo, I botched this one this year.  I set the oven to 350 and put them in for 5 minutes--totally overheated the chocolate (which makes it dry out and get hard).  They still tasted good, though!

1c sugar
1c butter, softened
1 egg
1t peppermint extract
2 1/3c flour
1/4t baking powder
red food coloring
green food coloring

Cream butter and sugar 1-2 minutes.  Add egg and extract; beat 1-2 minutes.  Combine flour and powder separately then gradually add into butter mixture.  Divide dough into thirds.  Color one green and one red.  Wrap each in plastic wrap and chill (I do it for overnight).  Divide each dough into thirds again and roll them into ropes approx 1/2" thick. Layer one of each color and slice into 1/4"slices. Place on cookie sheet and bake at350 for 9 to 12 minutes.

click for recipe

 

1/2c butter, softened
1/4c shortening
1c sugar
2 eggs
1t lemon extract
2 1/2c flour
1t baking powder
1t salt

Cream butter, shortening and sugar.  Add eggs and extract and blend 1-2 minutes.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt separately.  Gradually add to butter mixture and mix until dough forms.  Chill overnight.
Divide dough and keep one chilled while you roll out the other.  Roll to 1/4" thick and cut with cutters.  Bake at 400 for 6-8 minutes until golden. Do not over bake.

click for recipe

The cookie recipe linked above is identical to the one in the Land-O-Lakes book I have except for the glaze.  I thought mine was a bit too sweet, so the recipe above will probably be perfect.

I have an idea figured out for next Christmas from this pin:

Source: deliacreates.blogspot.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I'm going to test out some of our favorite cookie recipes to see how they bake up.  I'll keep you posted.