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Christmas Cookies


Cosmos
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I didn't see a thread about Christmas cookies yet, so I started one.

 

I know lots of people like to bake cookies this time of year. What cookies do you make? Do you make the same ones each year or try new recipes?

 

The last couple of years I haven't done much baking, but I'm in the mood to do more this year. Traditionally, we have made many of these types:

 

Melting Moments (aka Snowballs)

Buckeyes

Pecan Tassies (mini pecan pies)

Decorated sugar cookies

Chocolate covered toffee

ETA: also hedgehogs (coconut/date cookies)

 

My dad always makes lebkuchen from a very old family recipe and sends them around. He mixes it in a big crock, and it's so stiff he has broken several spoons in stirring it. I'm dreading the year he tells me it's my turn to take over this tradition! My mother's mother always used to make fudge. It might be fun to revive that tradition.

 

I feel sure there are more, but I haven't looked through my recipe files yet.

 

What are your family favorites?

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I love to bake.  I love to bake cookies.  All sorts of beautiful cookies with lots of yummy ingredients.  But after years of tasting many many really wonderful cookie recipes, my family has admitted that there are only two that they actually like. :cursing:

 

Gingerbread cookies - the recipe is from the old Betty Crocker cookbook.  A light layer of frosting is allowed.

Sugar Cookies (thin and crispy) with sprinkles and no frosting.  Recipe is from The Joy of Cooking.

 

Bah Humbug.  They will also eat chocolate chip if they are warm from the oven but those aren't a favorite.  Guess I will be whipping up the gingerbread and sugar cookie dough this week to put into the freezer.  I store it in freezer bags and we just hauk out what we need for that day's warm cookies.

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I was just thinking I need to make a list so I can start gathering ingredients so here goes.  I may have to come back and edit as I remember more.  I always make them as gifts for my family so there is quite a few that are specifically requested so I have to make sure to remember all those.  These aren't all Christmas cookies but since no one in my family bakes except me, they all look forward to homemade cookies and these are the ones they want.

 

Mint chocolate chip (regular chocolate chip cookie recipe but substitute mint chips.

Chocolate Chip cookies

Monster cookies

Sour cream cutout cookies

Molasses Cookies

Peppermint bark

Chocolate covered cornflakes (with and without nuts)

Fudge Meltaways

Soda Cracker Bars

Thumbprint Cookies

I can't remember the name but it's pretzels with a Rolo and a pecan half (or an m&M) baked until the Rolo starts to melt

 

 

 

I think there was a post last year.  I will have to go look because I know I have more but I'm drawing a blank.

 

Oh yeah, I make Chocolate Crinkles and Lemon Bars too.

 

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I like to make these cardamom cookies.

 

 

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour (white or wheat)

1 tsp cinnamon

 

1 tsp cardamom

2-3 tablespoons sugar

 

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat the eggs in one at a time, then slowly add the flour and cinnamon.  Cover and put in the fridge for at least 30-60 minutes, or overnight. Preheat the oven to 175/350. Combine the cardamom and sugar in a small bowl.  Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll around in the cardamom and sugar, then put on a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.  Bake for 8-12 minutes.

 

Ground cardamom works fine, but if you have cardamom seeds, open them up and bruise about 1 tsp and mix that with your sugar.

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Look at all these yummy cookie ideas! Now, why on earth wouldn't the forum software give me notifications about replies on a thread I started myself? It gives me red flags all the time for stuff I have no interest in, and here are all these lovely cookies in my thread and not a whisper. Hmph.

 

 

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I usually make: 

 

a type of buckeye which has dates and walnuts in it

cardamom butter cookies

lemon cookies

a ginger cookie (sometimes)

Krumkake (sometimes)

Julekage or Stollen & strawberry butter

 

This year I may try:

 

rugelach or kifli

sandbakkel

St. Lucia buns

Smorkage

linzer cookies

a Bredla cookie

Nutella Mexican wedding cookies

rainbow Venetians

Melomakarona

homemade peanut butter cups

 

Not all of them (I'm not crazy), but they're on my to-try shortlist. 

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Peanut Blossoms (but I don't use the original recipe as it has milk and they come out harder, so I just use a peanut butter cookie recipe)

Press cookies in various shapes--camels, Christmas trees

sugar cookies cut out

 

My husband thinks chocolate chip and oatmeal are Christmas cookies. Pffft.  :001_rolleyes:

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Ok this might sound stupid but I need a recipe for the soft cut out Christmas cookies and frosting. I keep forgetting what they are called.

 

Do you mean sugar cookies?

You can also make molasses gingerbread cookies. We usually make both.  I have iced the sugar cookies (although I often prefer to just let the kids sprinkle colored sugar on them).  Molasses cookies get a few raisins (so the gingerbread bear has an eye or the gingerbread person has eyes and buttons) but no icing.

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My kids look forward to making cookies each year.  We usually take the week off before Christmas to make them.  This year we are making:

 

Spritz (my mom's cream cheese recipe)

Christmas cookies (made with graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and white chocolate chips)

Cut out sugar cookies with frosting (I use Alton Brown's recipe)

Gingerbread cookies

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What about SPRINGERLE cookies? Does anyone here make them? I never have and thought I'd be brave and but I don't have any cookie molds!

I gave up making cookies for Christmas but thought we would do it this year.

We love big soft ginger cookies. The best recipe ever.

Cardamom cookies sound good

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Vanillakipferl.  YUMMY! It's a traditional German cookie that my grandmother, whose family was Pennsylvania Dutch, made them every year.  No matter how hard any of us try, even using her EXACT recipe, we cannot make them taste as good as hers.  WHAT MAGIC DID SHE DO?

 

My  mom and I are going to make some when she gets here for the holidays.  I could eat an entire batch by myself.  <-I may know this because it has happened before.

 

 

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What about SPRINGERLE cookies? Does anyone here make them? I never have and thought I'd be brave and but I don't have any cookie molds!

I gave up making cookies for Christmas but thought we would do it this year.

We love big soft ginger cookies. The best recipe ever.

Cardamom cookies sound good

 

I've never made them, but I've had them.  The molds are so gorgeous.  I'm sad I didn't buy any while we were in Europe.

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I love to bake.  I love to bake cookies.  All sorts of beautiful cookies with lots of yummy ingredients.  But after years of tasting many many really wonderful cookie recipes, my family has admitted that there are only two that they actually like. :cursing:

 

Gingerbread cookies - the recipe is from the old Betty Crocker cookbook.  A light layer of frosting is allowed.

Sugar Cookies (thin and crispy) with sprinkles and no frosting.  Recipe is from The Joy of Cooking.

 

Bah Humbug.  They will also eat chocolate chip if they are warm from the oven but those aren't a favorite.  Guess I will be whipping up the gingerbread and sugar cookie dough this week to put into the freezer.  I store it in freezer bags and we just hauk out what we need for that day's warm cookies.

Thank you for simplifying my life!  I'm going to bake those two this year and call it good!  :)

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What about SPRINGERLE cookies? Does anyone here make them? I never have and thought I'd be brave and but I don't have any cookie molds!

I gave up making cookies for Christmas but thought we would do it this year.

We love big soft ginger cookies. The best recipe ever.

Cardamom cookies sound good

I have made springerle in the past. They are notably better when they sit for a few weeks. They flavor gets stronger. I'm never on top of my game enough to be thinking Christmas that early now that I have kids. :-)

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Vanillakipferl. YUMMY! It's a traditional German cookie that my grandmother, whose family was Pennsylvania Dutch, made them every year. No matter how hard any of us try, even using her EXACT recipe, we cannot make them taste as good as hers. WHAT MAGIC DID SHE DO?

 

My mom and I are going to make some when she gets here for the holidays. I could eat an entire batch by myself. <-I may know this because it has happened before.

 

Recipe, please :)

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Vanillakipferl.  YUMMY! It's a traditional German cookie that my grandmother, whose family was Pennsylvania Dutch, made them every year.  No matter how hard any of us try, even using her EXACT recipe, we cannot make them taste as good as hers.  WHAT MAGIC DID SHE DO?

 

My  mom and I are going to make some when she gets here for the holidays.  I could eat an entire batch by myself.  <-I may know this because it has happened before.

Recipe? Pretty please?

 

I tried Vanillakipferl last year but they were so blah!

 

I'm trying to make more German cookies because that is my heritage. It's easier to find good Scandinavian (Dh's heritage) recipes where I live. I must admit Springerle intimidates me a bit.

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  • 7 years later...

This is one Zombie thread I am delighted to see resurrected!

I would love a recipe for Chocolate Snowballs.  My mom made them when I was little but switched to chocolate crinkles and got rid of the recipe for the old fave.  So annoying.  There are never too many chocolate cookie recipes.

I like to make chocolate crinkles, and walnut balls, and cinnamon diamonds.  Those all freeze pretty well.  When I make sugar cookies I don’t ice them and I roll them out very thinly.  I use powdered sugar instead of flour as my release layer on the board and the rolling pin, and that avoids having the dough get tougher and tougher as it’s rolled out repeatedly.  Another cookie I love to make is macaroons—which are basically meringues with coconut in them.  They are fantastic right out of the oven but although they don’t freeze well, they keep for a long time in a cool place.  It’s too soon for them, though.  

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1 hour ago, Carol in Cal. said:

This is one Zombie thread I am delighted to see resurrected!

I would love a recipe for Chocolate Snowballs.  My mom made them when I was little but switched to chocolate crinkles and got rid of the recipe for the old fave.  So annoying.  There are never too many chocolate cookie recipes.

I like to make chocolate crinkles, and walnut balls, and cinnamon diamonds.  Those all freeze pretty well.  When I make sugar cookies I don’t ice them and I roll them out very thinly.  I use powdered sugar instead of flour as my release layer on the board and the rolling pin, and that avoids having the dough get tougher and tougher as it’s rolled out repeatedly.  Another cookie I love to make is macaroons—which are basically meringues with coconut in them.  They are fantastic right out of the oven but although they don’t freeze well, they keep for a long time in a cool place.  It’s too soon for them, though.  

Recipes?  

Drooling over Christmas cookies in July.

Thanks, Zombie.  

 

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On 7/24/2021 at 1:34 PM, Carol in Cal. said:

This is one Zombie thread I am delighted to see resurrected!

I would love a recipe for Chocolate Snowballs.  My mom made them when I was little but switched to chocolate crinkles and got rid of the recipe for the old fave.  So annoying.  There are never too many chocolate cookie recipes.
 

Can you describe the chocolate snowballs, please? My mom makes some kind of chocolate cookie at Christmas. It may be chocolate crinkles, though. I don’t know the name. They’re rolled in powdered sugar before baking and come out flattened, white with chocolate showing throwing where the powdered sugar has cracked as they spread.

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18 minutes ago, Emba said:

Can you describe the chocolate snowballs, please? My mom makes some kind of chocolate cookie at Christmas. It may be chocolate crinkles, though. I don’t know the name. They’re rolled in powdered sugar before baking and come out flattened, white with chocolate showing throwing where the powdered sugar has cracked as they spread.

Those are chocolate crinkles.

Chocolate snowballs were more round I think, and a lot darker looking.  They tasted really good.

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48 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Those are chocolate crinkles.

Chocolate snowballs were more round I think, and a lot darker looking.  They tasted really good.

LOL..this is cute!

please describe the cookies:

“They tasted really good”

Ok, in the interest of helpfulness...why not use a Mexican wedding cookie or Russian tea cookie recipe, and sub about 1/4 cup of good cocoa powder for some of the flour and powdered sugar?

 

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47 minutes ago, pinball said:

LOL..this is cute!

please describe the cookies:

“They tasted really good”

Ok, in the interest of helpfulness...why not use a Mexican wedding cookie or Russian tea cookie recipe, and sub about 1/4 cup of good cocoa powder for some of the flour and powdered sugar?

 

Well, in fairness, I think the last time I had them I was about 7.

I’m not really looking to experiment, exactly—I just wish I could find the recipe that was floating around in 1962 or so called Chocolate Snowballs.

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7 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Well, in fairness, I think the last time I had them I was about 7.

I’m not really looking to experiment, exactly—I just wish I could find the recipe that was floating around in 1962 or so called Chocolate Snowballs.

I have a stack of cookbooks from that time period that are waiting to be donated.  I can take a quick look through before the truck comes next week, if you’d like. Was there any cookbook that might have been used?  Or not?  (If I can rule in or out something like Southern Living cookbooks, that might help.)

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10 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Well, in fairness, I think the last time I had them I was about 7.

I’m not really looking to experiment, exactly—I just wish I could find the recipe that was floating around in 1962 or so called Chocolate Snowballs.

Something like this?  

https://www.crazyforcrust.com/double-chocolate-snowball-cookies/

or this?

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-snowballs/
 

If I’m on the right track, I’ll flip through the cookbooks next time I’m out in the garage sorting the ILs’ stuff for donations.  

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4 minutes ago, Spryte said:

I have a stack of cookbooks from that time period that are waiting to be donated.  I can take a quick look through before the truck comes next week, if you’d like. Was there any cookbook that might have been used?  Or not?  (If I can rule in or out something like Southern Living cookbooks, that might help.)

My mom tended to use Betty Crocker or Betty Furnace cookbooks.  She got some magazines but not Southern Living.  I’m thinking McCalls and maybe Good Housekeeping.  

I’d love it if you’d check those indexes!

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2 minutes ago, Spryte said:

Something like this?  

https://www.crazyforcrust.com/double-chocolate-snowball-cookies/

or this?

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-snowballs/
 

If I’m on the right track, I’ll flip through the cookbooks next time I’m out in the garage sorting the ILs’ stuff for donations.  

I don’t remember them looking all white like that, but with a name like Snowballs, seems like they should have.  So maybe I’m just not remembering right.  

 

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Just now, Carol in Cal. said:

My mom tended to use Betty Crocker or Betty Furnace cookbooks.  She got some magazines but not Southern Living.  I’m thinking McCalls and maybe Good Housekeeping.  

I’d love it if you’d check those indexes!

I’ll be happy to check!  There’s definitely Betty Crocker and Good Housekeeping out there.  Will be fun to look!

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1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I don’t remember them looking all white like that, but with a name like Snowballs, seems like they should have.  So maybe I’m just not remembering right.  

 

I also found these: https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/chocolate-snowballs/77f65af2-61b5-415e-9f91-f4fa03d954d7

 

The ones we make here are like the traditional snowballs, but we stuff them with chocolate chips and call them Snowball Surprise Cookies.  

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5 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I don’t remember them looking all white like that, but with a name like Snowballs, seems like they should have.  So maybe I’m just not remembering right.  

 

Or maybe your mom used a similar recipe, didn’t roll them in sugar, but still called them snowballs.

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