Peppermint & Chocolate Chip Celebration Cookies

Peppermint & Chocolate Chip 

Celebration Cookies

My mother used to make these when I was little.  I would remember them every holiday and beg her to make some for my sister and I.  She used to pretend that she didn't know which peppermint chocolate chip cookie I was talking about and then somehow they would magically appear in the kitchen the next day or so.  This cookie recipe has been around for years.  Those of you who have celebrated many holiday seasons will remember these cookies which are sometimes referred to as a "celebration" cookie.  They are so special they ought to accompany any celebration, including Christmas. 

Peppermint Celebration cookies are light as a feather.  They are made from meringue with peppermint extract and chocolate chips.  Meringue is achieved by whipping egg whites and sugar.  My mother used mint chocolate chips, but you can use either regular or mint.  If these cookies were not special and celebratory enough, my mother would add red or green food coloring to the batter which made them a delicate and beautiful seasonal color, light pink or light green.  These are very special cookies.  Make them for special people in your life. 

Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/2 t cream of tartar
1 t. peppermint extract
1 dash salt
3 drops red or green food coloring
3/4 C. sugar
6 oz. mint chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a stand mixer with a very clean mixing bowl and whip attachment, add the egg whites, cream of tartar, peppermint extract, salt and food coloring.  Whip mixture until soft peaks form.  While the mixer is still whipping the egg mixture, slowly add the sugar until stiff peaks form.  Remove whip attachment and using a rubber spatula, carefully fold in the chocolate chips.  Using two spoons, drop cookies onto cookie sheet that is lined with brown paper.  You can use mailing paper or grocery bag paper cut to size.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.  Enjoy!

Hazelnut and Ginger Biscotti with Chocolate Icing

Hazelnut and Ginger Biscotti with Chocolate Icing

I make biscotti around this time every year.  It is great to have on hand when you have company and it's fun to give away.  Maybe you borrowed something from a friend, or they left their casserole dish at your house, or you are leaving dinner on your friends front porch; tuck these inside to let your friends know that you are thinking of them and how thankful you are for their friendship.  At Thanksgiving or Christmas, you can wrap them in cellophane, tie them with a bright ribbon and put them in a basket with a bag of  your favorite coffee and give as a gift.  They're even fun to make!  You will be surprised how easy they are!

Hazelnut and Ginger Biscotti with Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

2 C. flour

1 C. sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

3 eggs

2 t. vanilla extract

1 C. chopped, toasted hazelnuts

1/3 C. finely chopped crystallized ginger

1 1/2 C. chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.  Sift flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together.  Set aside.  In a mixer, combine eggs and vanilla and beat until blended.  Add dry mixture, hazelnuts, and ginger.  Mix until just combined.  Turn dough out onto floured work surface and work dough into a ball.  Split the ball in half.  Roll each half into a log shape and place each lengthwise on baking sheet.  Press rolls slighty using flat fingers.  Place in over and cook for 35 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Using a knife, cut biscotti crosswise into 1 inch sections.  Turn each on side and place cookie sheet back in oven for another 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and transfer biscotti to cooling rack.

When biscotti is completely cooled, they will be ready for their chocolate coating.  Take a sheet of wax paper and place it on a cookie sheet*. In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips, stirring frequently with heat-safe rubber spatula.  Take each piece of biscotti and dip flat side into chocolate using left hand.  In your right hand, lightly run your spatula down the new chocolate coating and place biscotti chocolate side down on the sheet of wax paper to cool.  To store, put them in the refrigerator in airtight containers or freeze for up to one month.

*The reason you place them on a cookie sheet is so you are able to move them to a place to continue to cool. 

Best Breakfast Cookies

The best Breakfast Cookie has arrived.  This recipe has everything good in it.  Oats, wheat flour, honey, brown sugar, almonds, and dried fruit.  There is very little sugar and very little fat.  They are high in fiber and potassium and heart healthy.  I did a lot of research about breakfast cookies prior to putting one out here for all of you because it was important to me to load them up with the good stuff and minimize the junk while maintaining great texture and moistness.  They are an excellent way to start your day.  I encourage you to make them and see for yourself.  The proof is in the.....cookie.

Ingredients

1 C whole wheat flour

1/4 C all purpose flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t ground nutmeg

2 T butter

1/4 C canola oil

1/2 C brown sugar

2 T honey

1 egg

1 small jar banana baby food

1 t. vanilla extract

1/4 C flax seed

3/4 C rolled oats

3/4 C dried fruit (raisins, craisins, plums, pineapple)

1/4 C. sliced almonds

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together the flours, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl with attachment, cream together butter, oil, sugar and honey.  Add egg, banana baby food and vanilla and mix thoroughly until batter is smooth.  Add flour mixture until combined.  At this time, you will need to add the healthy stuff; flax seed, oats, dried fruit and nuts and fold them into batter using a rubber spatula and scraping down sides of the bowl until thoroughly combined. 

You will need to resist the urge to add more flour.  This dough is going to be sticky.  Try wetting your hands before handling dough.  Prepare your baking sheets (I use two).  Roll dough into balls of desired shape, place on cookie sheet and flatten them with your hand.  Mine are usually 3 inches across and a 1/2 inch thick.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Depending on size, bigger cookies should bake for 14 and smaller for 10 minutes and should make 8 to 12 cookies.  I like to sprinkle some oats or dried fruit on the top prior to baking.  When cookies are done, remove from oven, let them cool and after about five minutes, transfer them to wire rack until completely cooled.  Store in an airtight container in the fridgerator until ready to use.  They are excellent with coffee or tea.  My two year old loves them with milk!

You can easily change the last few ingredients of this recipe and add some others if you are looking to change the flavor.  For example, make them Hawaiian by removing the flax seed, raisins and almonds and adding coconut, dried pineapple and macadamia nuts.  You can use any combination and any kind of dried fruit or nuts you can come up with.

Holiday Spritz Cookies

My mother made Spritz cookies for as long as I can remember.  She and her girlfriends would exchange cookie recipes and this one is tradition.  It has been used in my family every Christmas for at least thirty years.  When I was a little girl, I remember her talking about this recipe and telling me with a bit of shock in her voice that there is "Five cups of flour in it!"  I think I was seven or eight and I wasn't sure if five cups of flour in a cookie recipe was good or bad, but soon after this recipe emerged from the friendship circle's recipe card catalog and was introduced to my father, she suddenly had in her possession a brand new Kitchen Aid Mixer because the motor was supposed to be able to handle all the flour in this recipe.  Looking back on it now, it all makes sense.  My mother is no longer with us, but I suppose you can say that indirectly she taught me that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach or that the way to get a Kitchen Aid Mixer was to bribe him with something he couldn't imagine living without!

My mother never colored her spritz cookies and the thought hadn't occurred to me until this year.  My daughter's favorite color is orange and she relentlessly begged me to make orange spritz cookie Christmas trees.  Orange cookies at the holidays for me was simply going against everything "Christmas".  After much discussion, we agreed on green.  You can make spritz cookies any time of the year and make them any color you can conjure up, in any shape that suits you.

If this recipe has been in business for over thirty years, it has to be a keeper and I know that if I miss making pink or red spritz cookies for Valentine's Day, there are sure to be orange spritz cookies in my future sometime next fall.

Spritz Cookies 

by Carole Turner

1 lb Butter

1 1/2 C. Sugar
1 t. Vanilla or Almond extract

2 Egg yolks and one egg white

5 C. Flour!
1 t. Salt

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add egg yolks and white, mixing well.  Add extract.  While mixer is on low, gradually add flour and salt until incorporated.  Load your cookie press with dough.  Press out cookie shapes onto jelly roll baking sheet.  Cook at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Tips:  I use a little cinnamon (aka red hot) to top each Christmas tree cookie.  Use fun seasonal sprinkles and get the kids involved.

Merry Christmas.