RECIPES: Holiday Cookies

Happy Holidays from Feeding Hannibal!

Thanks to Tattle Crime for putting my recipe cards in her Hannibal Holiday Cookie mailer and The Tuxedoes for adding her fabulous sticker and card art to the fun! 

We ran a limited number of recipe cards, so for those of you unable to get a set, here are the recipes in time for holiday baking and sharing.

If you have any baking questions or suggestions, just go to the Baking page here >>>>

(click on "Bake-Along: Holiday Cookies" under "Make Stuff from the Show" in the column to the right)

and plug them into the comments. 

Have fun!

Mini Chocolate Macarons with Red Velvet    Gluten-free!

1 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup toasted almond slivers
3 Tbsp best quality cocoa
3 egg whites, room temperature 
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

1 In a food processor, pulse 1 cup sugar, almonds and cocoa until powdered.

2 In a glass or metal bowl, beat egg whites with an electric beater until frothy. Add vanilla. Gradually add 1/3 cup sugar, beating constantly until mixture stands in very stiff peaks.

3 Gently fold in cocoa-sugar mixture with a rubber spatula, one-third at a time. Do not over-mix but scrape down sides to ensure complete incorporation.

4 Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with baking parchment.

5 Using a piping bag, drop batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets in 1-inch drops, leaving 1 inch between each drop. Tap sheets on counter to flatten drops.

6 Put in oven at 350F and immediately reduce heat to 250F. Bake for 15 to 20 min. Do a test batch first. If the baked macarons do not have a crinkly “shoulder” just below a smooth shiny dome, let the formed drops of dough sit in a cool dry place for an 1 hour before baking. If the baked macarons are not slightly chewy in the centre, take them out of the oven sooner.

7 When cool, sandwich together in pairs with Red Velvet Ganache. Store in fridge.
For Ganache, melt 4 oz good quality milk chocolate in a mixing bowl over hot water. Slowly stir in red food coloring until the chocolate turns rich red. In another small bowl, beat 1/3 cup whipping cream until soft peak. Fold whipped cream into cooled chocolate. Fill macarons while mixture is soft. If you have left-over filling, you can make it into chocolate truffles. Put it in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up so you can roll it into 1- inch balls, then dust them with icing sugar or cocoa or chocolate flakes. Store in a cool place.

Gingerdead Friends

1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Brown Sugar 
2/3 cup Fancy Molasses 
1 egg
3 1/2 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda 
2 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon 

1 Mix Butter with Sugar. Stir in Molasses and Egg. Beat well. If you can't find Fancy molasses, use half blackstrap or treacle molasses and half corn syrup.

2 Sift Flour, Baking Soda, Spices together and add to Butter mixture. Stir until combined. Turn out onto counter and knead a few times until dough is smooth and soft. Add flour if sticky. Refrigerate at least 1 hr.

3 Roll out and cut in shapes. Bake at 350F for 8 - 10 minutes.

4 When cool, decorate with Royal Icing (below)

WendigOreos      No Baking!
Oreo cookies

Pretzels, broken in half to resemble antlers Compound chocolate
Royal Icing
Red M&Ms 


1 Separate Oreo to reveal white filling.

2 Attach two chocolate-dipped pretzel halves at the top. Close Oreo.

3 Add 2 dots of icing for eyes and a red M+M for nose 

Royal Icing
1 egg white
1 1/4 cup icing sugar 

1 Beat egg white until frothy. Add Sugar, a half-cup at a time and beat until icing is smooth and fluffy and holds a stiff peak. Transfer to piping bag with a small round piping tube and decorate cookies. (Icing should come out of piping bag in a thin thread when you squeeze the piping bag. If icing is too stiff, add water a few drops at a time.)

2 Allow to harden overnight. 

Reba’s Cherry Pie Cookies 

                            

1/2 cup Butter              

1/4 cup Brown Sugar     

1/2 cup white Sugar         

1 Egg                       

1 tsp Vanilla

3 1/2 cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

Cherry Jam

1  Beat together Butter and Sugars. Beat in Egg and Vanilla.

2 Mix together Flour, Baking Powder and Salt then add to butter mixture, stirring until well blended. Turn out onto floured surface and knead a few times until dough is smooth and soft. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to firm dough. Shape two-thirds of the dough into a 2-inch diameter cylinder about 7 inches long and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Wrap remaining third in a ball. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3 Preheat oven to 350F. Unwrap cylinder of dough and cut in 1/8-inch slices to make rounds. Place rounds on cookie sheets, an inch apart.  

4 Using the bottom of a 1 1/2 inch diameter bottle, press the middle of each round to make a depression. The dough will squish out to make a lip around the edge. Spread a thin layer of cherry jam in each round to cover the depression but not the lip.

5  Roll the remaining dough to 1/16-inch thickness and cut into strips 1/4 inch x 2 inches. Interlace four strips into a hashtag and place over one round. Press the times of a fork all around the edge, crimping the ends of the strips into the perimeter like a pie. Repeat with the rest of the rounds and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Florentines 

                                              

1/2 cup Butter                  

1/2 cup Sugar                

1/3 cup Molasses              

1/2 cup Flour                 

1/2 cup slivered Almonds            

1/2 cup chopped Candied Fruit                   

4 oz semi-sweet Chocolate 

1 In a heavy saucepan, melt Butter, Sugar and Molasses.  Boil for 1 minute over medium heat. Remove. Stir in Flour until combined. Mix in Almonds and Fruit.

2 Preheat oven to 325F. Line baking sheets with foil. Drop rounded teaspoon of batter on each sheet leaving 3 inches between each (cookies will spread). Press dough with fingers to flatten. Bake for 7 minutes until cookies have bubbled out to 2-inch rounds and the edges have darkened.

3 Slide foil off baking tray and allow cookies to cool. Once they have hardened, peel the foil away. Repeat with remaining batter.

4 In a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, melt chocolate. Spread on the flat side of the cookies and allow to harden in a cool place. Store in the refrigerator.

Will’s Puppy Biscuits      For Doggies!                              

1 Sweet potato, cooked and peeled

1/4 cup Applesauce

2 Tbsp Peanut butter

2 Eggs

2 cups Graham (whole wheat ) Flour

1 cup Corn Meal or cracked Bulgar

1  In a bowl, mix together Sweet Potato and Peanut Butter until well blended. Mix in Applesauce then Eggs, one at a time.

2  Add Flour, Corn Meal, Bulgar and mix together to form a firm dough. Knead until dough is smooth and firm.

3  Preheat oven to 350F.  Form dough into a ball and roll 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Place on cookie sheet and bake 40 minutes.

To make bone-shaped cutter:

Open both ends of a small tuna can to make a ring.

Flatten ring to an ellipse about 1 inch by 4 inches

Using needle-nosed pliers, shape knob at each end of the ellipse to look like a bone.

Bedelia’s Acorn Cookies         VEGAN!

                                                        

1 Banana, mashed

1/4 cup Peanut Butter

1 Tbsp Apricot Jam

1  cup rolled oatmeal

3/4 cup ground Almonds

24 Almond slivers

24 large whole Dates    

                                                           

1  To make caps for acorn cookies, mix Banana, Peanut Butter and Jam together. Stir in Oatmeal and ground Almond. Roll into 1-inch diameter balls and place on baking sheet. Flatten slightly and make a small dimple in the middleof each ball by pressing with your fingertip.

2  Bake for 10 - 15 minutes at 350F or until browned. While warm, stick an almond sliver into the dimple on the top of each cookie like the stem of an acorn cap. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

3  Cut off top half of a date (stem end) and remove seed. Mash top half and press into seed hole of bottom half, filling to overflowing. Press the cut end of the date to the bottom of an oatmeal cap. Repeat with remaining caps and dates.