Yes, the year is at its darkest and coldest, but there’s a lot to love about December. And in 2020, the holidays have the opportunity to be more stressful than ever! Cut back on stress and treat yourself a little more kindly with good good and good company; and I hope these recipes will offer you some comfort over the 2020 holiday season.
Christmas comes but once a year! This year is so different for us all. Some of us are trying to cut back on eating. I, for one, love to have some of these special goodies every year. It makes me think of my childhood, my mother, my family, and everything Christmas! The first ones are my family’s traditions and some are ones I have collected over the years. I hope they bring you as much joy and pleasure as they have brought my family!
Perfect Christmas Pecan Puffs
These are originally from the Joy of Cooking. My mom made two batches and colored one red and one green. These aren’t that sweet but are very buttery and smooth. They are my sister, Barbara’s very favorite cookie. Rich indeed!
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pecans
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- red or green food coloring (not the gel)
Beat butter until soft. Add sugar and blend until creamy. Add vanilla.
Grind pecans in a food processor. Sift and add flour and pecans to butter mixture and then add in food coloring to desired shade.
Roll the dough into small balls. Place on a buttered baking sheet. Bake in 300° oven for 30 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar and place on a rack to cool. When cool, roll again in the powdered sugar.
Luxuriously Smooth Milk Chocolate Cookies
This recipe makes me think fondly of my brother. I have no idea where this recipe came from, but my mom only seemed to make these at Christmas. Try them!
- 6 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 stick of butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sifted flour
- 1 beaten egg
- dash of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- whole pecans, one to top each cookie
Mix first three ingredients in a double boiler until everything is melted together. In a separate bowl, mix flour, egg, salt, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and add chocolate butter mixture. Mix well and chill thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Top with a pecan and bake at 350° for 10 minutes.
Miraculously Easy Rum Balls
The original recipe came from Satsuma-Fun for the Cook. This restaurant was a Nashville institution. My mother ate lunch there often. They only were open at night once a year at Christmas. And they gave you two plates to fill. I had avocado ice cream there in my teens. It was novel indeed, but the smoothest ice cream I ever had. The original recipe calls for bourbon. I replace that with rum.
- 1 cup vanilla wafers, finely ground
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup rum or bourbon
- 2 tbsp cocoa
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp white Karo syrup
Mix all ingredients except the powdered sugar. Roll in balls the size of large marbles. Roll in powdered sugar. Keep cool. These improve with age. I LOVE THESE!!!
Bite-Sized Nashville “Warrington” Rum Cakes
Warrington Cakes were a Nashville specialty until they weren’t. Gone, disappeared. I was lamenting this loss and Mandy Wachtler came to my aid and duplicated this magical confection to perfection. This is a HUGE MESS to make but it really is worth it.
- 1 store-bought angel food cake. I wish I could find them in a square or rectangle, but I only found the traditional round ones.
- 1 lb. of powdered sugar
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 cup rum
- 2 lbs. of pecans very finely chopped
- small muffin or cupcake cups
Mix the sugar, softened butter, and rum. Adjust ingredients if you think this is too thin for dipping the cake into.
Cut the cake into large 2″ square pieces. Using two forks or tongs dip each piece of cake into icing mixture. Do several at a time. Have the pecans in a long tray so you can roll the iced pieces of cake into the pecans. Using tongs, transfer to cupcake cups. These are from heaven!
Martha Stewart’s Peppermint Semifreddo
This is one of my favorite desserts for a small dinner party. Remember those? In step two, I reduce sugar to 2 tbsps. and in step three, I reduce the sugar to 4 tbsps. I feel like so many desserts simply use too much sugar. The hardest part is chopping up the peppermint candies. This is beautiful, decadent, and worthy!
https://www.marthastewart.com/341822/peppermint-semifreddo
Basic Sugar Cookie to make FIVE different cookies!
I found this lovely recipe in Gourmet in 1995 and have held onto this copy for 25 years now. You make the basic sugar cookie and then there are adaptations for all sorts of cookies.
This is a very buttery dough, thus I make up a batch and divide it. I use half batches for each of the following recipes. These cookies can also be frozen after the fact in case you start baking today. It is nice to make in small batches so you have a nice variety and I prefer small cookies to relieve the guilt somewhat.
https://www.caskata.com/blogs/news/new-blog
The link above includes the Rasberry Hazelnut Triangles and the Chocolate Dipped Coconut Sticks which I highly recommend.
Along with those I am going to give you three more!
Easy Peasy Almond Butter Crisps
- 2 2/3 cups blanched almonds (about 1/4 lb)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 prepared basic sugar cookie -above, recipe-at room temperature
- 2 egg whites, beaten lightly
Halve 1 cup almonds and reserve.
In a food processor grind almonds with sugar and salt until fine. In a bowl of a standing electric mixer beat almond mixture and almond extract into basic dough into a triangle. Chill dough wrapped in wax paper, at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350°
Working with one-third of dough at a time, roll out each piece of dough between two sheets of wax paper into a 12-by-9″ rectangle, slightly more than 1/8 ” thick. Cut dough into 1 1/2 to 2″ almond shapes(or any other shape) arranging cookies about 1/2″ apart on baking sheets. If dough becomes too soft to work with, freeze or chill uncut dough on baking sheet until firm.
Brush cookies lightly with egg whites and gently press a reserved almond half almond in center of each cookie.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until pale golden, about 10 minutes. Cookies may be stored between layers of wax paper in airtight containers in freezer for up to 6 weeks. Makes about 11 dozen cookies.
Mocha Butter Ball Sugar Cookies
Again, refer to the basic sugar cookie recipe above.
- 1/2 prepared basic sugar cookie dough at room temperature.
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
- 2 tsp instant espresso powder
- 1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
- about 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Preheat oven to 350°
In a bowl of a stand mixer beat together all ingredients except confectioners’ sugar until just combined well. Form dough in 1″ balls and arrange about 3/4 ” apart on baking sheets.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until just firm and beginning to brown, about 18 minutes, and cool on baking sheets 5 minutes.
Sift confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. After 5 minutes cooling, toss balls, a few at a time, into confectioners sugar, coating them well and transferring them as coated to trays to cool completely. Before balls are stored or frozen they can be coated lightly with confectioners’ sugar again. Makes about 6 dozen. Cookies may be stored between layers of wax paper in airtight containers in freezer for up to 6 weeks.
Thumbprint Jelly Bowl Cookies
- 1/2 prepared basic sugar cookie dough at room temperature
- 3/4 cup strawberry, apricot, or raspberry jam, strained fine
Preheat oven to 350°.
Form level teaspoons of dough into balls and arrange about 1 ” apart on baking sheets. With your thumb make an indention in center of each ball of dough and fill with about 1/4 tsp of jam.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are pale golden, about 12 minutes. Cook cookies on baking sheets 2 minutes and transfer to racks to cool completely. Makes about 8 dozen.
Cookies may be stored between layers of wax paper in airtight containers in freezer for up to 6 weeks.
