Deliver Us From Christmas Cookies
It started this weekend when a package arrived from the town where hubbie was a vet for 29 years. A tin of Christmas cookies from a grateful client who has received free phone advice since he retired. Then I made 60 little Neapolitan cookies. Yesterday I made 60 Cuccidati (Sicilian fig/date/raisin/pineapple/almond filled sugar cookies). Today is Williams Sonoma knock off Peppermint Bark and Italian lemon "meatball cookies". Thursday is Gluten Free Orange Cream Cheese cookies for dear daughter. And I haven't even thought about all the appetizers and pies which await creation. But the point here folks, is that I have been eating cookies since this weekend. Just had a cuccidati for breakfast with my tea. What IS is about Christmas that brings out the piggy little beast in me?
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Replies to This Discussion
- Reply by sandra Alicante on December 20, 2011 at 7:19 am
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Mmmmm, cookies! I'm not succumbing yet.....
sandrascookbook.com
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- Reply by mumpy on December 20, 2011 at 8:39 am
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i think 'piggy littl beast' is just a bit harsh....i prefer to think of it as a quality control method...and i'm so totally invested in QC that most times, i make the dough, scoop it on to parchment and freeze it to bake fresh, a dozen or so at a time, so that i don't quality control any given batch right into oblivion.
all that lovely fruit in your cookie sounds like a very nutritious start to the day, and i understand nutrition - that's why i had holiday oatmeal cookies for breakfast.
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- Reply by mrscindy on December 20, 2011 at 9:29 am
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You are right, mumpy. It's all about QC. Nothing more. No piggy little beast in this house. I need to QC some right now. I have my coffee in my right hand and.........
~Cindy
Edit:.......the Eggnog Shortbread passed the QC test quite nicely
~C
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- Reply by easyquilts on December 20, 2011 at 10:06 am
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Don't know.... But..... I am sitting here, munching on my fav sugar cookies..... You just can't help it.... Christmas cookies are meant TO BE EATEN..... And...as all baker's know, QC is very, very, important.... We really wouldn't lokemit to send out an inferior cookie...now would we? The ONLY. Solution is to "test" each batch....right?
Sandy
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- Reply by dachshundlady on December 20, 2011 at 5:34 pm
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I have seen the light! QC IS very important. I had to check those cuccidati to make sure the filling and icing worked their usual magic. Yup, the cookie part is so soft and nice the second day. I made the lemon meatball cookies and only ate 1. They too have to soften even more overnight. Tomorrow I put together Italian cookie tins for my agility teacher, the neighbors and a dear Italian gentleman friend. I will be very skimpy with the Neapolitan/Rainbow cookies. They will be gently placed in there for color and my family will enjoy the vast majority of my tedious work. Today I emailed dear son, daughter and future daughter in law to have them vote on appetizer choices for Xmas Eve. They chose spinach artichoke dip, rye dip, layered taco dip, Paula Dean's Shrimp mold, devilled eggs, KAF recipe for fresh salsa (my selection) and, to make us feel healthy, grapes and tangerines as a centerpiece.
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- Reply by sandra Alicante on December 21, 2011 at 12:09 pm
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You do realise that grapes and tangerines are only a healthy centrepiece if you actually eat them?......:) They must be subjected to rigorous QC too!
sandrascookbook.com
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- Reply by omaria on December 22, 2011 at 12:33 am
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Christmas cookies !! They give me sleepless nights. Tomorrow I will be baking them with my 2 granddaughters .2 kinds of doughs are in the fridge now. I think they feel too soft. Hopefully they will be good after a night in fridge. Then we have to make royal icing for decorating. I have those lovely,lovely snowflake cookie cutters and the snow globe one. So the icing will be colored white and a very pale blue. Never added food coloring to anything before. Never piped icing either. We will also make stained glass cookies. I have never done that . So you see.....sleepless nights.!!!
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- Reply by dachshundlady on December 22, 2011 at 5:35 am
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Your granddaughters will always remember your cookie decorating sessions. My kids are 26 and 29 and still expect to decorate cookies every Christmas.
My Italian cookies were a hit with recipients. About 9am yesterday I left a tin in my neighbor's mud room. Less than 10 minutes later she called me raving about the fig filled Cuccidati. She also loved the Neapolitans and managed to eat a lemon meatball cookie as we chatting. Today it is orange cream cheese gluten free ones for "the daughter" (I watched Heidi with Shirley Temple while I baked the other morning. I love how she calls the old man "the grandfather").
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- Reply by marjiewatson on December 23, 2011 at 12:43 pm
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As a woman who loves dogs and cookies, you are perfect!
Merry Christmas to All!
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- Reply by marjiewatson on December 23, 2011 at 12:44 pm
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As a woman who loves dogs and cookies, you are perfect!
Merry Christmas to All!
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- Reply by dachshundlady on December 24, 2011 at 6:24 am
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The orange cream cheese gluten free cookies are out of this world. The recipe is a doctored gf cake mix deal. I added an orange glaze which keeps them so moist. I am going to try to convert the recipe using a regular cake mix. They are that good. And regular cake mix is cheaper and a bigger amount.
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- Reply by dachshundlady on December 25, 2011 at 6:36 am
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From the blog: "Seriously, You're Taking My Bagels?" by caconroy "The recipe is my Mom's take on a fairly boring Cream Cheese Cookie from the Betty Crocker's Cooky Book."
Orange Cream Cheese Cookies
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter or margarine, soft
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, soft
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. gluten free yellow cake mix
1 grated orange rind (or 1/4 teas orange oil)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup Grand Marnier (I used Triple Sec)
Cream butter and cheese. Blend in egg yolk, vanilla, orange rind, orange juice and Grand Marnier. Add cake mix 1/3 at a time, mix well. Chill dough at least 1/2 hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Drop my scant teasponfuls on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until delicately browned. Cool cookies a bit before removing from baking sheet.
Makes 6 to 8 dozen cookies.
I used scant tablespoons to scoop out the dough which I chilled a couple hours. I baked them 10 minutes. It made 55 cookies. Since a regular cake mix is 18 oz rather than 15, I might use 1/2 cup OJ instead of 1/4. But that is just an "off the top of my head" guess with no real thought. Here is the glaze I made up. It is just approximate. Add the amount or fluid that you like for your desired consistency.
Orange Icing
2 1/2 cups confect sugar
4+ Table OJ
2 teas zest or a few drops of orange oil
enough lemon juice to reach your desired consistency.
I just dipped the cooled cookies upside down in the icing. let them drip off a bit and then back onto the cooling rack placed over a large piece of wax or freezer paper. They keep just great in a cookie tin or tupperware.
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- Reply by dachshundlady on December 29, 2011 at 6:30 am
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Funny you should mention the cuccidati. I gave my neighbors cookies and the husband, who is kind of a redneck curmudgeon, loved those cuccidati and the wife wants the recipe. I guess I should put it in my recipes anyway so it is easy for me to print out for others. The basic recipe is from an Italian cookbook from my husbands home town of Mount Morris in western NY where, at least when we lived there, the town was about 80% Sicilian. Many years ago there was a man by the name of Barone who lived in Buffalo and helped thousands of Sicilians move to western NY for work in orchards, wineries and such. Anyway, I have several recipes from Mount Morris and I have kind of combined them. When you first bake them, the cookie part seems a little dry but by the next day, because of the moist filling and citrus icing, they are just perfect. They easily stay good for 6 or 7 days. Maybe longer but ours have never lasted that long. I will try to post that in the next few days. My neck has been killing me from standing with my head angled down last week as I baked and cooked, day after day. Now it gets worse when I sit at computer and look down as I type.
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- Reply by dachshundlady on February 05, 2012 at 7:17 am
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I FINALLY posted my recipe for Cuccidati (Sicilian filled cookies). Even though they are traditionally made at Christmas, I am making some tomorrow for my sister's visit on Wednesday. They just get better and better as they sit in the Tupperware container. Will have to send a plate (and the recipe)to the neighbors as the husband proclaimed them the best cookies he ever had!
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