Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Solstice!
Christmas eve always brings memories of childhood. My mother was not a baker. She preferred to work her magic on the big meal, since we usually hosted the northern half of my family. But, one year, my Great Aunt Anna came for Christmas and she taught me to bake pecan balls, as she called them. They have a lot of names, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Snowballs, etc. They’re still my favorite xmas cookie, but I use walnuts, they’re cheaper. If you have any cookie recipes you’d like to share, by all means…..pull up a chair and pour your favorite beverage.
Snowball Cookies
1 cup butter
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
1/3 cup powdered sugar (for frosting, as needed)
Preheat oven to 350F
Cream the butter with ½ cup confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, nuts, and salt.
Roll about 1 TBSP of dough into balls, place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350F until the bottoms are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Don’t overbake.
While still hot, roll in 1/3 cup of sugar, allow them to cool and then roll them again.
Link
I used to have a ton of old housekeeping magazines I got from my Mom (she saved them) and one of the my favorite recipes was Maple Meltaways. Fortunately, I found the recipe online:
Maple Meltaways
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
1 ½ tsp maple extract
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup pecan halves
Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Either mix with your hands (my way) or with an electric mixer on low speed, until blended and then on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Gently push pecan halves on each cookie.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350F for 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack
Link
While surfing the web looking to up my cookie game, I came across some unusual recipes. I haven’t tried any but, I’m intrigued….
Candied Bacon & Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Carrot Cake Cookies
Sweet Potato Spice Cookies
Maple-Glazed Apple Crisp Cookies
What’s for dinner at your house?