OK, here's mine. I had to find it again and type all of this. Ugh. I don't make these very often because we usually travel for Christmas, but this year we are staying home and I WILL make them. They are "bad" on the calories scale, though. Only can have them for once in a blue moon Christmas and in small quantities.
LEMON CURD
(for scones, tea breads, cake fillings and ***shortbread***)
1 c. fresh lemon juice (4 to 6 lemons)
¼ c. finely shredded lemon peel
1-1/4 c. sugar
6 tablespoons of butter
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1. In a medium saucepan, combine lemon juice, lemon peel and sugar. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir until it has melted. Remove the mixture from the stove and cool to room temperature.
2. Beat the eggs into the lemon sugar mixture until well blended and place back on the stove over low heat. Bring to just below the simmering point, stirring constantly for about 7 to 10 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon.
3. Remove from the heat and pour into one 2-cup or two 1 cup sterilized jars. Cool, cover and refrigerate.
I love this with shortbread cookies.
Now, the cookies:
SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD COOKIES
3/4 cup flour, sifted
1/4 cup superfine sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup room temperature Land 'O Lakes unsalted butter
No butter substitutes or you don’t get real shortbread.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Work in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough has the consistency of short crust.
Pulsing in a food processor will work also.
Sprinkle a board or your counter top lightly with flour. Turn the dough onto the board and knead until it's smooth. Refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours or overnight.
You should have approximately 8 ounces of dough. Divide the dough into four equal portions for large cookies or eight equal portions for small cookies and shape into rounds.
Place each round on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and flatten them with the bottom of a glass to about 1/4 inch thickness. Prick with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown slightly. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet.
Top your shortbreads with lemon curd.
Marry Christmas!! And enjoy!!
A virtual Holiday Cookie exchange.
foxnfirefly, can I come over? That's my kinda bickie.
LOL!! Another Lorna Doones fan?? Really, you get stuck on shortbread.
When I lived in Scotland I was in pure heaven with the "Millionaire's Shortbread" that was in every confectioner's case that I passed. YUMM
I have the (100 calorie pack) Lorna Doone's in the house as I type... lol
HollyAnn, have you found a ginger cookie recipe yet? I have one that I used to love, when I could find the nice fat juicy crystallized ginger in a health food store back home in CT. I can't find it down here, where we've moved in SC, so I haven't made them for a while. See if this appeals to you. Note: I always used more than 1 Tablespoon of the candied ginger, probably double that!!
Ginger Crinkles
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup stick margarine or butter, softened
¼ cup molasses
1 large egg white
1 Tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
¾ cup toasted wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cooking spray
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Beat brown sugar and margarine at medium speed of a mixer until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg white; beat well. Stir in crystallized ginger.
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, wheat germ, baking soda, ground ginger, and cinnamon. Stir into molasses mixture. Cover; freeze 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Shape the dough into 30 balls, about 1 tablespoon each. Roll the balls in the granulated sugar. Place the balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cook cookies on pans for 3 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool the cookies completely on wire racks.
Thanks Thea, I'll give them a try, sounds very good.
Did you see the cookie section in today's Washington Post? Some look delicious. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/features/2007/holiday-guide/entertaining/cookies/gallery.html
I saw it HM - the coconut-lime balls made me long for a trip to the tropics.
You know I did pull out a recipe for those old-fashioned jam -thumb-print cookies - in all my years, I don't think I ever made them myself -- just enjoyed them at other folk's parties -- this year, I have extra jam - so am thinking why not try this oldie-but-goodie.
I think I prefer reading recipes for cookies and imagining them to actually eating cookies! Not that I don't like to eat cookies.
I thought I put 8 cookies on the plate of star cookies! Happy, did you do some cookie sampling when I was off line???? LOL
Getting ready to mail box to B andSIL but made the rum balls and no-bake CPBoatmeals first so I could include some. Two easy recipes. no endless sheets in and out of the oven. I have no place to put cookie sheets and cooling cookies right now. Also, got a cookie scoop which decreases my 'are they the same/right size' fret time.
Chris -- You caught me with my hand in the cookie jar! And they were terrific!
two hours to chorus concert and you need cookies? No problem, another batch of "Oh are those the chocolate peanut butter thingies? I LOVE them!!!"
I need more oats.
Sally, Those look yummy! And did you make the little tree? I went searching in the internet for a pipe cleaner tree and found this, thought I'd share, isn't this a beauty too. http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=07bc12bfc22b4110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD
Happy, control yourself : ^ )
rubyw, made your nobake cookies today......they were so good and everyone loved them. i will probably have to make more before Christmas!! thanks for the recipe
I didn't make the tree. That Martha one is dang cute.! My tree was a wedding present, 18 years and 363 days ago, I believe it was locally crafted.
My no bake cookies were among the very few home made last night and they went well.
Random cookie tip- use all brown sugar to help oatmeal cookies be softer- Alton Brown.
Sally: Which are the chocolate peanut butter thingies? I must have missed the recipe.
Ruby's no bake chocolate oatmeal, have cocoa and peanut butter in them
Thanks!
Sally -- does the cookie scoop work well? I would have thought the cookie dough would just stick to the scoop.
This is a Good grips scoop with the squeeze handle and the wire that scrapes the dough out to drop it. I forget which store I got it at, one of the groceries didn't have it but I was in so many food stores last week.... I also bought a scoop at a restaurant supply place once. I wish I had bought a smaller one there, but it's easy to underestimate when you look at them. They are so deep they hold a lot. . The cookie scoop is in two sizes where I bought it and I got the smaller one, cuz I wanted small for the rum balls.
I plopped out the no bakes and flattened them slightly.
Don't know what I'd do without my cookie scoops, I have two a # 50 for a 1 inch ball, I figure close to a rounded teaspoon and a # 40 about a tablespoon, Large cookies and meatballs. Got mine at an Amish bulk food store. Cookie making really goes quick with these and uniform sized cookies.
Tonight I have dough chilling for Chocolate-orange pinwheel cookies.
Never heard of a cookie scoop until now. Chris, we have a Mennonite bulk store a few towns over that I might have to visit this coming week and see if they have a scoop there. Otherwise, I have been a customer this year to a store called The Happy Cook and I am sure they will have them, unless sold out for the season. I want one!!!!!
After making cookies a few weeks ago I did go out and invest in commercial grade cookie sheets. I haven't tried them yet, but have plans to do some baking this coming week. I finished my shopping on Friday. I still need to wrap and bag up gifts. Mostly bag up this year.
Thank you so much for starting this thread Chris. You are the very bestest!!!
Ruby
Made a batch of PIZZELLES last night...finally can get baking...finished my last final exam yesterday:))))))))) I can't wait to try the cardamom stars next!
here is the batter:
here is all you need for each pizzelle...one tablespoon of batter for each...close the lid and presto!
SEASON'S GREETINGS!
Those are so pretty!
hey wind, you have the makings of an Article there......
Happy Holidays good gardening people. This is NOT a cookie recipe but it'll titillate your taste buds:
White Christmas Fudge
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2/3 cup of milk
1/4 cup of butter
12 oz white chocolate coarsely-chopped kisses (I used Nestles)
1/2 tsp Almond extract
3/4 cup oen one or more of the following: dried cherries, cranberries, apricots, or maraschino cherries (last one doesn't have to be dried; you can use right out of the jar) drained & coarsely chopped.
3/4 cup toasted almond slices (I used 3 oz pkg of sliced almonds) toast @ 350 deg. 5-10 mins, shaking pan to brown both sides of almonds. (this releases the flavor)
Line an 8" square pan with aluminum foil. Grease foil with butter. Mix conf. sugar & milk in a heavy 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add butter, stirring constantly & bring to a boil & boil for 5 minutes. Over low heat, add white chocolate & almond extract. Stir, then whisk until white chocolate melts & mixture is smooth. Stir in fruit & toasted almonds. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or until firm. Invert pan, peel off foil, cut into 1-inch squares.
Makes 36 squares. Garnish as desired.
Ho Ho Ho~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sallyg is right, wind--those look yummy!
Dear Button - Decadent is the word that comes to mind. They sound wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing.
Wind, what a neat waffle iron. This is the second time today that I have seen something using a waffle iron, and I don't own one. Maybe there will be sales on them after Christmas.
One year we were in the mall just after Christmas and I was thinking we should have saved half the purchases for then....
Last night spent 15 min searching cookbooks for my recipe for 7-layer cookie bars, only to find it in under a minute by searching the Net. What does this say for the future of paper cookbooks?
I am not sure how wide spread Food Lion stores are but I found, by accident a bag of Chocolate Stars the other day. These were not in the usual candy aisle but were in a special display in the middle of the store. They were made by Brachs.
I bought them and am not sure I will use them for the recipe that Chris shared here, but I will definitely have fun eating them. I loved letting them sit in my mouth and melt when I was a child. I hope that they will be as good as I remember.
Here is wishing you all a joyful and blessed day.
Ruby
I wonder if those chocolate stars are available all year long? Did anybody check Michael's or A.C. Moore to see if those chocolate stars were available there? Hershey & Reeses in Hershey, PA are about 35 miles from here. Maybe I ought to check into that. I don't know where the Brach factory is. Also, there is a Wilbur Chocolate Factory in Lititz, PA maybe 50 miles from here. I do two craft shows in Lititz. Could check that one out. Then, again, there is a Wolfgang candy factory in York, PA, also 30 miles from here. With all that said, I must say that a good many of us in Central Pa are pleasantly plump. Ho Ho Ho and a very Merry Christmas to all of you.
I found my Brach's stars in a bulk candy section of, I think, Giant. Allow lots of time for the cookies and stars to cool and harden before packing/stacking.
Merry Xmas!
Last two posts were very informative. Thank you both lady's.
I have some stars left, and found a peanut butter cookie recipe to use with them, but right now I am cookied out. Maybe end of Jan I'll feel like more cookies!
Happy Holidays, every one!
I can understand the cookied out feeling Chris. Same here. I still have the ingredients for another batch of Cherry Winks, and all the supplies for a stollen. I will aim for the month of January to get these things used too.
I hope that you had a good Christmas. I think of you often.
Ruby
Well I finally got the cardamom stars made :) We had some at Christmas and I baked off more yesterday for New Year's. They really don't taste like cardamom but are good and everyone liked them. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wind , that is a lovely display, looks very New Yearist! Thank you for trying them.
Happy and healthy New Year to you too.