COLUMN: Making Christmas cookies this season with style
Every year at this time, cookies start showing up in every form. Most commonly you’ll see sugar cookies with red and green frosting, gingerbread men and squares of chocolate fudge. Though delicious, these classics can be overdone, and definitely won’t stand out on a table full of Christmas goodies. That’s why I’m recommending these two stylish recipes that not only taste great but look pretty amazing, too. These cookies will not go unnoticed and people will appreciate the chance to try something with a little flair.
Chocolate Almond Pinwheel Cookies
If you take your time when preparing the dough, these beautiful swirly cookies won’t let you down.
2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup cocoa
– In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.
– Beat in egg and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
– In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
– Add flour mixture to butter mixture a little bit at a time, beating well after each addition, until totally incorporated.
– Divide dough in half and put each half, about one cup each, into separate bowls.
– Fold almonds and almond extract into one bowl and stir cocoa powder into the other.
– Form the almond dough into a ball and place onto a sheet of waxed paper. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough between them. Roll the dough into a rectangle that is 8 by 16 inches. To do this, use a pizza cutter to cut the dough when necessary and press the cut piece back into the center of the dough.
– Do the same thing with the chocolate dough. This part can be tedious, but the closer your two rectangles of dough are to matching each other, the easier your cookies will be to make and the prettier they will turn out.
– Refrigerate the two rectangles for 30 minutes before removing them from the waxed paper and placing the almond dough exactly on top of the chocolate dough.
– Roll the stacked dough up into a tight jelly roll from the longer side.
– Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
– When you are ready to bake the cookies, cut into the jelly roll into slices about 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees on ungreased baking sheets for 7-9 minutes, or until set.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Marshmallow Filling
These brightly colored cookies are an eye-catching twist on traditional pumpkin pie flavors.
Filling:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream
2 teaspoons maple extract
Cookies:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
– To make the filling, beat the sugar and butter in a medium bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the marshmallow cream and maple extract and beat until blended and smooth.
– To make the cookies, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cloves in a large bowl.
– In a separate bowl, beat butter and both sugars with a hand mixer until blended. Add oil, eggs and pumpkin and beat well.
– Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk, beating after each addition, until all incorporated.
– Cover dough and refrigerate 1 hour.
– Spoon batter onto lightly greased baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cookie comes out clean. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of your cookies. It’s a good idea to measure the amount of batter you use for each cookie so that they will come out the same size for making the sandwiches.
– Once the cookies have cooled, spoon
marshmallow filling onto half of them, and then top them with the remaining cookies to form sandwiches.
– jenn.nelle@gmail.com