Sugarplums

I have to admit that I'd never had a sugar plum before today. I've heard of them many times at Christmas but I honestly had no idea what they were. These are "easy" sugarplums, so I'm unsure how authentic they are but they were easy to make, tasty to eat and fairly healthy, too.

I don't know if you'll have visions of them dancing in your head, but you should give them a try... ;)

Here's all you do:

Throw some dried fruits and nuts (in about a 5:1 ratio of fruits to nuts) of your choice into your food processor.

I used a mixture of dates, figs, mixed raisins, prunes, apricots, cherry-flavored dried cranberries and almonds. You can use whatever fruits or nuts you like.

Pulse in food processor until it is very finely chopped.

Put into a bowl.

Heat a small amount of honey and mix with spices. I used cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. But you can also use fennel, cardamom, anise...

Mix into fruit and nut mixture until it is slightly more sticky.

Form into small balls, about walnut-sized. I used a small scoop, firmly packed.

Let sit on counter about 1 hour.

Then roll in granulated sugar.

Place on parchment paper and let sit out 12-24 hours before placing in container to store.  Should be eaten within a day or two.

Better Than Fruitcake

I am one of those crazy people that actually like fruitcake. I don’t like it enough to take the time to make one but if you brought one to my house I’d eat it. :o)

This recipe is a bit more cake-like than traditional fruitcake but still has the flavor I like.

You can bake it in a ring-pan, loaf pans or muffin pans. All you need to do is adjust the baking time.

2 eggs

1 28oz jar of mincemeat

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used both)

2 cups chopped candied fruit (toss the fruit with about 1/4 cup of rum or brandy and let sit for a couple of hours before making cake, stir occasionally)

1/2 can condensed milk (I poured out about half the can and filled it back up with the molasses)

1/2 can molasses

1 teaspoon rum extract

Mix these ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Add:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix well.

Pour into greased and sugared baking pan of your choice.

Bake at 300 for 25 minutes to 2 hours depending on size of pan. It is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Let cool before removing from pan.

Frozen Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Bites

This is a variation on my mud pie recipe that can be cut into bite-sized bars and served on a cookie plate. I also added a bit of peppermint for a more festive taste.

Crust:

1 pkg Oreo cookies, finely crushed

1/2 cup butter, melted

Mix thoroughly and press into a 9”square cake pan lined with parchment.

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/3 cup sour cream

1 30z box chocolate pudding

1 1/2 cups milk

Beat pudding mix and milk together until thick.
In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, and extract until smooth. Stir in sour cream.

Add to pudding.

Spread over crust and sprinkle with Andes peppermint baking chips.

Freeze until firm. Cut into bite-sized squares. Keep frozen until ready to serve. Let sit for about 5 minutes before eating.

Must Have Christmas Treats

The week before Thanksgiving is a frantic rush of trying to get all of the Christmas baking done and in the freezer before Black Friday! All the cookies have to be ready to eat by Saturday, so we can read the Christmas story by candlelight and enjoy hot cocoa and Christmas cookies. The tradition just doesn’t work without the cookies… Not to mention the ease of holiday entertaining with a freezer full of treats ready to pull out in a moment’s notice!

Some are yearly traditions, every year we try a couple of new recipes; some stay and some go. Here is a list of this year’s stash of Christmas treats. Just click on their name to go to the recipe.

From left to right:

Chocolate-dipped chocolate chip: These are my hubby’s all-time favorite dessert! We HAVE to make these!

Cookie Stamp Cookies: I made the stamp by hand while pregnant with our middle son and are fun to make with the kids. This is a fun and sentimental must-have!

  Mint Meltaway Brownies: These chocolate-mint brownies are making their first Christmas appearance but may become a regular… Just make the recipe for my brownies using peppermint extract in place of the vanilla, stir in about 3/4 cup of Ande’s mint baking chips, and top with a swirl of green candy melts. Super easy!

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread: Every cookie tray should have an old family recipe and this one is it! It is my Great-Grandma Miller’s recipe and is the ideal blend of cranberry and orange!

Top tier:

See’s Fudge: Easiest best fudge ever! ‘Nuff said!

Petticoat Tails: I haven’t made these for Christmas in a few years. This year I divided the dough into thirds, dyed two red and green. Rolled them flat, stacked them up, rolled them again before chilling and slicing. I like the way they look on a Christmas plate!

Mexican Wedding Cakes:Also known as Russian Teacakes, these were a yearly tradition growing up and will be for my kids, too!

Bottom tier:

Gingerbread: Because it just isn’t Christmas without gingerbread!

Orange biscotti: Dip these in hot cocoa and you’ll know why we make them every year! Chocolate and orange, FANTASTIC!

Egg nog logs: These became a new tradition last year. A truly spectacular cookie with a cup of coffee (or without)!

This Butter Almond Toffee will probably become yet another Christmas staple!

I don’t have a picture, but no cup of Christmas hot cocoa should be without a homemade peppermint marshmallow!!!    It’s like eating a fluffy minty cloud! They aren’t as hard as they seem… give ‘em a try. You won’t be sorry!

Well, that wraps up our Christmas line-up. What’s on your Christmas must-have treat list???

Almond Butter Toffee

After my first failed attempt at making toffee, I was certain that my candy-making skills ended at the soft-ball stage. But I tossed the candy thermometer, flew by the seat of my pants and everything turned out hunky-dory!!!

First thing to do is line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and butter it.

Then mix the following ingredients into a 2-quart saucepan.

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter or margarine (I used half butter & half margarine)

1/4 cup water

Cook on high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is completely dissolved, smooth and golden brown. Don’t forget to keep stirring!!! You have this on high heat!

Immediately remove from the heat and pour onto the cookie sheet. Spread out to about 1/4” thickness. Let stand about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle with 1/2-1 cup chocolate chips. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until all the chips are shiny. Then spread over toffee. Immediately sprinkle with almonds, or other chopped nuts of your choice.

Let cool on counter or in fridge until firm. Break into bite-sized pieces. Store in cool place or fridge in airtight container.

I guess I can make it to the hard-crack stage after all… ;o)

Pretzel Kisses

This is a super quick and easy treat to make when you need to bring something to a get-together or when you have a salty-sweet craving…

Here’s all you do:

Preheat oven to 350.

Place pretzels on baking tray.

Unwrap any flavor Hershey’s kisses (except almond) and place on top of each pretzel.

Place in oven for 2-3 minutes. They should be shiny and an M&M should easily be pressed into the melted Kiss. If not, place back in oven for another 30 seconds.

Quickly press one M&M into the center of each kiss.

     Place in fridge until set.

Remove from tray and serve immediately or store in airtight container in fridge.

Easy Truffles

A friend inquired about a truffle recipe yesterday hoping that I had one that used cream cheese, powdered sugar and chocolate chips. Unfortunately I did not have a recipe. But I did a bit of searching, made a batch this afternoon with a few minor tweaks, and now I do…

6oz softened cream cheese

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

4 oz bittersweet baking chocolate

1 square of unsweetened baking chocolate (optional)

2 Tbsp heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar. Melt chocolate in microwave until smooth and glossy. Stir in vanilla. Stir in heavy cream (chocolate will thicken). Mix chocolate into sugar/cream cheese using electric mixer.

Chill at least 1 hour until firm. Quickly roll into balls and then roll in desired coatings. Coconut, chopped nuts, cocoa powder, crushed candy canes all make good coatings. Y0u can also experiment with different extracts and stir-ins.

Store in fridge.

Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

I got this recipe last year from my friend Maria on Facebook but finally made them this year. They are super easy and super rich and even yummier when frozen. Nuts! Now how am I supposed to make them last???

A friend and I made these this week with peppermint and peanut butter Oreos. The mint ones were not quite minty enough, I would probably throw in some peppermint extract. The peanut butter ones were really good all on their own!!!

Here’s all you need to make ‘em…

First crush one package of Oreos (not Double Stuf) in your food processor into fine crumbs.

Then add all the crumbs to one softened package of cream cheese. Mix until completely combined.

Chill the dough for at least an hour. Remove and roll into small 1” balls. Place back in fridge for at least an hour.

Dip balls into melted chocolate (or white chocolate). Chill until firm. Keep in fridge or freeze for longer storage.

Egg Nog Logs

Every year I make a new Christmas cookie along with all the oldies. This year I had to try my friend Annalise’s recipe for egg nog cookies. The past few shaped cookies I have made have turned out to be quite labor intensive and/or difficult. This one was perfect because I have always been good at making snakes, worms and ropes with clay! Actually, it is the only thing I can make out of clay… :o)

Unfortunately we were snowed in without any egg nog. Fortunately, one can always improvise. So I am going to share my tweaked version since I don’t know how the original ones turn out. But I do know that these were FANTASTIC! They may become a new “oldie”!

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 teaspoons rum flavoring

Mix flour, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and flavorings. Slowly mix in the flour until smooth.

Roll into 1/2” diameter ropes and cut into 3” pieces.

Bake on greased or parchment paper lined baking sheets at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until barely a golden brown.

Remove and let cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting:

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon rum extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon allspice

2-3 tablespoons milk (or use egg nog and omit the spices and rum extract)

nutmeg, for sprinkling (optional)

Mix butter, vanilla, rum extract, powdered sugar,spices and milk in mixing bowl with electric mixer until very smooth. This icing will be thick.

Frost cooled cookies with icing and sprinkle with nutmeg if desired.

These are amazing with a cup of coffee on a cold winter day!

Christmas Baking

I always do my Christmas baking the week before Thanksgiving. That way we can enjoy our tradition of eating Christmas cookies and reading the Christmas story from Luke in the candle/tree light the day after Thanksgiving. It also makes holiday parties and entertaining WAY less stressful and WAY more enjoyable! And they freeze up great and are always ready (even last minute)!

We have the ones we make every year and then we try to add a new one every year, too. Here’s the list along with the links to the recipes…

#1- Thumbprints: These cookies remind me of my grandma and is a great way to use that mint jelly I made.

#2- Orange Biscotti: Dipped or drizzled with dark chocolate, these are the best dunked in a cup of coffee or cocoa!

#3- Gingerbread: The boys always help decorate these and they turn out different every year.

#4- Mexican Wedding Cakes:  We called these Russian Teacakes growing up.

#5- Chocolate-dipped chocolate chip:  Chris’ favorite cookies are chocolate chip. So I make these just for him… Well, he does have to share. :o)

#6- Cookie stamp cookies:  I took a class and made these cookie stamps when I was pregnant with Andy and we’ve used them every year since.

#7- Cranberry orange nut bread: This was my great grandma’s recipe and it is delicious and a holiday must!

  #8- See’s Fudge:  This is foolproof recipe that is so good either plain or with mini marshmallows (nuts optional).

#9- Eggnog Cookie Logs:  This is the new one for this year. My friend Annalise posted it on her blog and we’re going to try it!

Marshmallows

These are possibly the very best thing I have ever made! I adore them! They are just like eating sugary, puffy clouds. And they are so easy! Thank you so much to my friend Betsy for giving me this recipe! I will NEVER buy marshmallows again…

Next time I am making orange marshmallows and dusting them with cocoa and powdered sugar!!!

Combine in stand mixer bowl:

3 packets of unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup cold water

1 1/2 tsp vanilla or other extract of your choice

It gets thick immediately

Combine in medium saucepan:

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup boiling water

1/8 tsp salt

Cook on medium high heat until candy thermometer reads 236. Stir occasionally. (It took about 10 minutes)

Remove saucepan from heat and pour into gelatin mixture in mixer bowl.

Beat with whisk attachment on medium high speed until the consistency of thick marshmallow cream. It should form peaks in bowl. (It took me about 15 minutes) Start mixer slowly after adding sugar syrup. It’s HOT and you don’t want it to splash!

 

Pour into a well-greased and powdered-sugared baking dish.

Let sit in fridge or at room temperature until set.

Remove from pan and cut into squares, or shape of your choice.

Dust well with more sifted powdered sugar until no longer sticky. (It takes quite a bit of powdered sugar)

Shake off excess sugar and store in air tight container.

See's Fudge

My parents got this recipe years ago from a little old lady that they delivered firewood to. The legend goes that she had asked See's Candies if they could send her their fudge recipe. They did, along with a bill for $350. She paid the bill and then gave the recipe to everyone she knew. I have no idea if any of it is true, but it is the best and easiest fudge recipe I have ever made.

Melt 1 12oz bag of chocolate chips with 1 stick of butter in a large bowl in the microwave for 45 to 60 seconds. Stir until smooth.

Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar into a large mixing bowl. Whisk in 2 beaten eggs (or 1/2 cup pastureized egg product) and 1 tsp vanilla until very smooth.

Pour chocolate mixture into sugar mixture and mix well.

Pour into buttered 8x8 baking pan. Score when soft. Place in fridge. Cut when firm.

Variations:

Rocky Road: stir in mini-marshmallows and chopped walnuts
Snoball: stir in mini-marshmallows
Mint: use mint flavored chocolate chips or peppermint extract instead of vanilla

Snoball Fudge: our favorite

plain fudge

Orange Biscotti

This might be my personal favorite Christmas cookie. I love the orange flavor with the dark chocolate drizzle on it. This year I even used extra dark chocolate chips. Mmmmmmm! They are perfect with a cup of hot cocoa with or without whipped cream.

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tbsp grated orange peel

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350. Beat sugar, oil, orange peel, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Turn dough on lightly floured surface; knead until smooth.

Shape half the dough at a time into rectangle, 10x3 inches, on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on cookie sheet for 15 minutes.

Cut crosswise into 1/2" slices. Turn cut sides down on cookie sheet. Bake about 15-20 minutes, turning once, until crisp and light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and cool on rack.

Drizzle or dip in melted chocolate. (1 cup chips with 1 tbsp shortening) Chill until firm.

Gingerbread Cookies

These are another Christmas cookie tradition at our house. The boys help decorate them every year, but this is the first year they haven't quit before they're all done and mom has to finish the rest by myself. They did a good job and were definitely more creative this year than most!

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

Mix together in large bowl.

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

3/4 cup molasses

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, then add molasses.

Slowly mix in flour mixture.

Divide dough in half, flatten into large pancakes, and cover with plastic wrap. Chill at least 2 hours. (if it is too stiff to roll, let it sit out for 10 minutes)

Roll on floured surface and cut into desired shapes with cutters.

Bake at 350 on greased cookie sheets for 9 to 10 minutes, or until light brown.

Decorate when cooled.

Mexican Wedding Cakes

I have had these cookies ever since I was a kid. My mom called them Russian Teacakes. One year the boys and I were studying Christmas in Mexico and found a recipe for Mexican Wedding Cakes. It was the same recipe! But we have stuck with the new name ever since.

1 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

powdered sugar for rolling

Mix sugar, butter and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and nuts. Shape into 1" balls. Bake at 400 for 8-9 minutes, until set but not brown. Roll in sifted powdered sugar while still hot. Cool. (they will be sticky) Roll again in more sifted powdered sugar.

after the first roll

after the second roll